{"id":11912,"date":"2026-01-13T12:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11912"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:08:14","slug":"hyperlocal-and-highly-visible-the-power-of-freeway-overpass-protests-amid-trump-2-0-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11912","title":{"rendered":"Hyperlocal and highly visible: the power of freeway overpass protests amid Trump 2.0 | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

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B<\/span>onnie Connery was horrified when she read the news about the death of ICE observer Renee Nicole Good<\/a> in Minneapolis on 7 January. Within minutes, she and her local Missoula Visibility Brigade were messaging each other. By 3.30pm, the group of 20 was standing on the South Reserve Street Pedestrian Bridge, arranging letters cut out of craft paper and glued onto black foam and hanging them across the bridge using bungee cords. Thousands of cars driving by during rush hour passed under their messages: \u201cICE THUGS KILL CITIZEN\u201d and \u201cDHS LIES.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Bonnie Connery and the Missoula, Montana, Visibility Brigade held signs on Wednesday, on an overpass after Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Bonnie Connery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea was to grab drivers\u2019 attention quickly, which often means using a short, shocking message. When asked why the group chose this location, Connery said: \u201cThese cars are driving out of Missoula, which is blue, into the very red areas outside of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Good\u2019s killing, other Visibility Brigades across the country were assembling, too. In Paramus, New Jersey, protesters hung signs that read \u201cICE MURDERS WOMAN IN MN\u201d over state highway Route 4. In Palo Alto, California, in St Paul, Minnesota, and in Louisville, Kentucky, protesters gathered in a matter of hours with their quickly assembled signs on their local overpasses.<\/p>\n

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Though these protests may seem spontaneous, they are the result of months of grassroots organizing. Unlike large national mobilizations such as the No Kings protests, these local brigades are focused on immediate, hyperlocal and high-visibility actions. Dana H Glazer, a national leader at the Visibility Brigade, said their goal is to disrupt passerbys\u2019 veneer of normalcy. \u201cPeople only act accordingly when they\u2019re constantly faced with the fact that there\u2019s a huge problem,\u201d Glazer said.<\/p>\n

Groups like the Visibility Brigade and 50501, one of the lead organizations of the No Kings protests, are encouraging action beyond the national level to include smaller, repeated actions denouncing Donald Trump\u2019s policies. Since March 2025, more than 250 Visibility Brigades have formed all over the country, across urban, rural, blue and red cities.<\/p>\n

Glazer said just because the civil actions are small, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not effective. \u201cThese local protests are easy to sustain on a weekly basis.\u201d Glazer said. \u201cThere are thousands of cars driving by that see our messages on overpasses in hundreds of cities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

More protests, more visibility<\/h2>\n

When Robert Quinlan heard about the United States\u2019s military strike in Caracas, Venezuela, on the night of 3 January, he announced an overpass protest in Clinton, New Jersey, on his social media channels. By the following morning, the former police chief had gathered 35 people on an ice-covered bridge with signs that said \u201cNO WAR FOR OIL.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Robert Quinlan and his Hunterdon Bridge Visibility Brigade hold signs saying \u2018NO WAR FOR OIL\u2019 in Clinton, New Jersey, 4 January.<\/span> Photograph: Photo courtesy Robert Quinlan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Quinlan said that when the Hunterdon County Brigade formed, many people in the county were drawn to it because there weren\u2019t many resistance groups in the area. The majority of the county\u2019s 26 municipalities<\/a> voted for the US president in the 2024 presidential election. \u201cWe don\u2019t make public announcements ahead of time. We\u2019re very discreet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though they\u2019re working with their neighbors, these Visibility Brigade volunteers hope their messaging reaches a regional, not just a local, audience. \u201cI\u2019ve attended many larger protests in New Jersey, but it seemed like sometimes we were preaching to the choir,\u201d Quinlan said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t seem like we were reaching a broad range of people, like we do during rush hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinlan estimated that up to 20,000 people view their signs during their two-hour protests on Interstate Route 78. \u201cWe get some hostility. But mostly, we get a lot of honks from friendly drivers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Many organizers interviewed for this story cited the term \u201csocial proof\u201d, a rule of persuasion that says people look to others when deciding what to do, or the 3.5% theory by Harvard political scientist<\/a> Erica Chenoweth that meaningful political change requires protest and visibility from at least 3.5% of a population. Chenoweth and other researchers have emphasized the need<\/a> for a strong and varied civil campaign to counter authoritarian policies.<\/p>\n

With Visibility Brigade, Glazer said: \u201cOur purpose is to deliver information and remind people that they\u2019re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca Winter, the executive director of Mass 50501 in Massachusetts, said that local civil campaigns can serve multiple practical functions. \u201cThey create community safety nets. They share important resources and create action networks. And the solidarity combats paralysis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Winter and 50501 have been creating action toolkits so that any group, no matter how small, can gather and make their voices heard. When a college student-led group in Boston reached out to 50501 Massachusetts for help on organizing a protest, they gave them an action toolkit, an adult liaison and a social media playbook to spread the word. \u201cA lot of people in this country haven\u2019t flexed their mass mobilization and activism muscles in a long time,\u201d Winter said. \u201cSo we\u2019re just trying to teach them that they can be leaders, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of these local protests are organized and publicized on Mobilize.us<\/a>, a platform for people to create protests, events and volunteer opportunities. Chelsea Thompson, the general manager for the platform\u2019s parent company, said that there has been an upwelling of event signups since Trump started his second term. \u201cSixty-four percent of these users are using the platform for the first time, and a much greater share of these events are hosted by volunteers themselves, which is a real indication of distributed, local organizing,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

Spreading joy through creative messaging<\/h2>\n

While their messaging may be urgent, the overpass protests themselves tend to be energetic and joyful. A few days after the new year began, Candy Powell and her Orlando Visibility Brigade put on their black-and-white jailbird costumes and climbed the stairs to an overpass above the Florida Interstate 4. They blared a dance playlist from their speakers and jumped around in their outfits. The group unfurled their banner, revealing the words \u201cREMEMBER JANUARY 6TH.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Powell said that the brigade started in April 2025 by adopting a more somber tone, but then quickly realized that the most effective political commentators they saw were comedians and comics. They pivoted to a sillier, less self-serious approach. \u201cOur group is funky,\u201d Powell said. \u201cWe have themes and fun costumes. If we make videos of us dancing on the overpass and it looks fun, people might want to join in on the joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie Peppito, an artist based in Brooklyn, New York, has the same philosophy of including creativity in local protests. For months, she and co-organizer Kate Fermoile have gathered a few dozen neighbors to hold up signs at a busy intersection every Friday for a half-hour. \u201cWe wanted to keep it sustainable and joyful with a lot of music,\u201d she said. \u201cWe decided to call them Freedom Fridays.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve experimented with signs that can reach drivers with just one glance, sometimes without words and only symbols. \u201cWe have melting ice cubes, a No Kings symbol, and a hands-off symbol,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Peppito says that though national protests are important, these neighborhood block protests create a tighter web of community-based resistance. \u201cIf there was a protest like this in every corner of America, that would be the largest protest in the country,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople would see our messaging everywhere, and it would be undeniable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Hyperlocal #highly #visible #power #freeway #overpass #protests #Trump #news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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