SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Brian Cahill had never been to a protest caroling event in his life, he admitted.

Cahill, who is 66 and lives in Fair Oaks, was among 45 people who walked around downtown Sacramento on a chilly Thursday evening. The group sang a medley of traditional songs and modified Christmas carols that protested Donald Trump’s presidential administration and deportations by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

“I didn’t even know such a thing existed,” Cahill said of protest caroling. “But it seems like a combination that’s a great idea to put the two together.”

The sentiment encapsulated an event where attendees were not afraid to try a different type of protesting with their songs, drawing a mix of responses.

‘An effort to bring people into a movement’

Susan Brown, who is involved with an Indivisible group in East Sacramento, helped organize Thursday’s event. The group was unfailingly polite, staying on sidewalks and observing traffic signals. This was by design, as Brown explained in an interview prior to the event.

“We think that by going around in the format, which is typically Christmas carols and at a joyful time of year and doing it in a positive spirit, that’s how we sort of spread peace and justice in an effort to bring people into a movement, rather than being too aggressive and offending people,” Brown said.

A group of about 35 carolers gathered around the west steps of the state Capitol building and set off downtown just prior to 5 p.m. More people joined the group as it made its way through nearby downtown streets on a preset route.

Susan Rainier of Davis walked with her dog Bakos and her seven-year-old grandson Michael Esordienti. Asked what she hoped to teach her grandson from attending a protest, Rainier said that she’d brought her granddaughter to another one and that it was “just to show that peaceful protest is a human right.”

The group’s first stop was at the rear entrance of the John Moss Federal Building along N Street, where there have been ongoing protests related to reported immigration detainments within the building. The situation around immigration helped bring out carolers like Susan Baker, a Sacramento resident.

“We just need to do everything that we can to try to support our immigrant population and just to show our outrage at what is going on politically,” Baker said. “It’s important to stand up.”

When the carolers arrived, James “Faygo” Clark, a well-known local activist and two women who didn’t want to give their name were doing their own protest. As the carolers stood nearby singing “This Land is Your Land,” Clark said that his group, Camp for Justice, had been trying to be outside the federal building every day. Clark’s group began protesting two months ago.

“We’ve had four people arrested here already and then we’ve also had Sac PD harassing us on a regular basis over having bullhorns or any kind of noise at a protest,” Clark said.

By contrast, the carolers didn’t encounter much opposition from law enforcement. The group got car honks from passing drivers that sounded positive. There was also applause from Andrew Steiger, an attorney who was waiting for a ride from a friend and saw the carolers when they reached 555 Capitol Mall.

Steiger clapped when the carolers sang, to the tune of “We wish you a Merry Christmas,” a song that included the line, “We will stand in strong resistance and we’ll never back down.”

“I guess being a gay man, it feels like my country’s being taken away from me,” Steiger said, when asked why he’d clapped.

‘No Kings’ at Golden 1 Center

After the stop at 555 Capitol Mall, the carolers headed over to the Downtown Commons, or DoCo area outside Golden 1 Center, where they treated onlookers to a curious sight.

Standing in front of a public art piece by Jeff Koons, the group unveiled a sign that read “No Kings” in front of an NBA arena where the Sacramento Kings were preparing to play the Denver Nuggets. Doug Brown, one of the carolers, acknowledged there could be confusion from onlookers thinking the group was there to protest the Kings, who entered the night 6-18.

“We started talking about that on the way over, ‘Maybe we say: No tyrants,’” Brown said.

Security guards stood around bemusedly talking with one another about songs the group was singing. This included a version of “Feliz Navidad” that included the line, “We don’t want no more deportations,” which Brown said was inspired by a recent viral video.

Eventually, a marshal told the carolers that security was getting antsy, at which point the group moved on, Brown told The Bee later. Protesting is not allowed on game nights in DoCo, which is private property, with a team spokesperson saying via text that the team offers “an alternative nearby location for any group peacefully gathering. (Which we did tonight).”

Some onlookers didn’t seem to understand why the carolers were at DoCo, with one man saying, “Go Kings!” as the carolers walked to the ice rink. Another man standing nearby said, “You guys are protesting the Sacramento Kings. They do suck right now.”

There was also a confused look or two from ice skaters, as Kit Tyler led the carolers near the rink in chants of, “Ice is for skating, not for hating.”

After that, the group made a return to the back of the John Moss Federal Building and then, finally, to the Christmas tree near the west steps of the state Capitol building. There, the remaining members of the group who were still willing to brave temperatures in the mid-40s sang an unmodified version of “Silent Night” before the event concluded.

Brown said after that the event had been great and that she appreciated people attending “in their spirit of support and love for democracy.”

“It’s important to be bold,” Brown said. “It’s important to be brave in front of people who maybe think you’re bucking their system. So I’m proud of everyone.”

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