Salsa shutdown brings attention to ICE terrorism in Grand Rapids and the boycott campaign against one of Mayor LaGrand’s businesses since he refuses to adopt sanctuary policies

On Friday night Movimiento Cosecha organized a salsa shutdown at the Leonard Street Long Road distillers location, which was a tactical action as part of the larger boycott campaign that began last October.

The boycott campaign against Long Road Distillers was initiated as a way to pressure Mayor LaGrand to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE began demanding in January of 2025, since Mayor LaGrand is co-owner of Long Road Distillers.

About 25 people entered the Long Road Distillers on Friday and began dancing to salsa music as a tactic to disrupt business as usual at the restaurant/bar. In addition, one of the Cosecha organizers was talking about why there was a boycott, about the sanctuary policies and the realities for immigrants living in constant fear of ICE.

The salsa shutdown lasted for about 20 minutes, but earlier one of the staff members called the co-owner, Jon O’Connor, who drove to the restaurant, turning into a driveway and coming to a screeching halt. When he exited his truck he yell at the person who was acting as the police liaison stating, “Don’t fucking go in there. Stay the fuck out of my bar!”

When O’Connor enter his business he started yelling at people to leave, even stood on one of the tables, but not before he took the microphone out of the hand of a Cosecha organizer.

By this time three GRPD cruisers showed up with at least 6 cops. O’Connor had left the bar and was talking with the cops. It is worth noting that O’Connor was a former Grand Rapids City Commissioner who received a good chunk of campaign money from the GRPD union and opposed any efforts to reduce funding for the GRPD after the 2020 uprising in Grand Rapids. In fact, when people kept coming to City Commission meetings after the GRPD killed Patrick Lyoya, then Commissioner O’Connor got up during a commission meeting and said he was “sick of this shit” and stormed out of the meeting. Several days later he made a fake apology.

All of the people who were part of the salsa shutdown then left the building, but continued to dance and chant outside on the sidewalk. Jon O’Connor, who was flanked by the GRPD cops stated that if be ever came back they would be arrested for trespassing. Those protesting ignored O’Connor and continued to dance and chant for another 5 – 7 minutes.

Afterwards people talked about impactful the action was and how irate the owner of Long Road Distillers became simply because they dared to disrupt and boycott his business.

For those who want to watch the entire action you can go to this link.