PAWCATUCK, CT—Stonington Police Capt. Todd Olson confirmed that his officers are protecting the Pawcatuck house of Thomas Woodworth. The now-former corrections captain resigned after driving his truck through a line of non-violent protesters outside the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island Wednesday night.

Olson said Woodworth, 53, asked for police patrols. "I can confirm that we are making frequent patrol checks at the request of a resident and property owner of the Town of Stonington," Olson said when asked by Patch about reports that officers were keeping an eye out at Woodworth's request.

The group of activists from Never Again Action had formed a hand-held human chain at the parking lot entrance when Woodworth drove his truck into them. Never Again Action says it's Jewish people "taking direct action against ICE & ICE enablers to sound the alarm." At Wednesday night's protest, five people were injured; two from being hit by the truck and three from the effects of pepper spray.

"Five people were hospitalized, including one person with a broken leg. The assault was a small example of the horrifying violence that ICE uses against our immigrant neighbors every day," Never Again Action wrote on Facebook. "The violent incident occurred after more than three hours of peaceful protesting outside the facility where more than 100 asylum-seekers are currently detained. Some 500 Jews and allies had gathered to demand the prison end its contract with ICE and to call for an end to the Trump administration's attacks on immigrant communities."

In July, a group of Jewish immigration organizers from The Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance and other stopped ICE "from doing business as usual " at the privately-run federal detention center where, the group says, "ICE is separating children from their families at the U.S. border and imprisoning them and other immigrants in concentration camps."



BREAKING: Here is HD video of an ICE guard driving his truck into us as we sat peacefully blocking the Wyatt Detention Center. We're putting our bodies on the line because we see the camps and the roundups. We've learned from our ancestors: NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE. pic.twitter.com/KnOu5xoOEb

— Never Again Action (@NeverAgainActn) August 15, 2019 Wednesday Aug. 14, the plan was to meet and walk to Wyatt, the state's only ICE detention facility, to "send a clear message to the U.S. government and to the profiteering Wyatt bond holders that we refuse to be silent—and therefore complicit—in the face of human rights abuses..." and "shut down Wyatt." The protesters met at Jenks Park and made the 10-minute walk while chanting. The protest, as can be seen on myriad videos is a peaceful one.

As Woodworth plowed into protesters, other officers began pepper-spraying people.

Initially Woodworth was placed on leave, but Friday, resigned. Never Again Action says he needs to be charged criminally not protected.

