Dozens of protestors once again demonstrated outside the Alexandria home of acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Sunday, vowing to keep up the pressure with future demonstrations.
“The narrative in this country says that we are violent rioters, and we are not,” a protest leader said. “We are peaceful protesters and the violence is coming to us at the hands of the state, at the hands of mercenaries under the employ of DHS. We call them federal agents. They are contractors. These are privately employed people who don’t have accountable training.”
Two weeks ago, a group gathered outside Wolf’s North Ridge home and demanded that he take federal troops from U.S. cities experiencing unrest in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. That protest was organized by Shut Down DC, and this Sunday’s was organized by local Alexandria residents.
“We don’t have commanders in chief that we can talk to at a lower level than the very top,” a protestor said. “That’s why we’re outside Chad Wolf’s house. If we knew a bunch of other houses we could go to, we’d be there, too.”
Protestors demonstrated against the constitutionality of Operation Legend, where federal resources have been deployed to quell unrest in cities throughout the country. Once again, Wolf’s next door neighbors provided food and refreshments for protestors.
Wolf is the second DHS secretary to have protestors outside his Alexandria home. In 2018, protestors angry about family separations and arrests at the border collected outside the Old Town home of then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
“I don’t think at this point that Chad Wolf really deserves to be comfortable,” a protest organizer told ALXnow. “We want to let him know that people are watching, that we haven’t forgotten. Over time, this behavior starts to be normalized. This is not normal, and it’s very possible that we’re going to be protesting here every other weekend.”
