{"id":220704,"date":"2025-10-17T21:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220704\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T21:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:37:08","slug":"ice-arrests-protest-comedian-robby-roadsteamer-laughs-at-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220704\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Arrests Protest Comedian Robby Roadsteamer, Laughs at Jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe video<\/a> is slightly absurdist. Three ICE<\/a> agents, clad in full tactical camouflage with their faces covered by black masks, seize a man dressed in a fuzzy giraffe onesie singing an anti-ICE cover of Rod Stewart\u2019s \u201cDa Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy?\u201d The backing track abruptly cuts out as two agents restrain his arms, while a third points a pepperball gun at other protesters, some wearing inflatable shark and frog suits. The man\u2019s little giraffe tail sways as he\u2019s dragged across a wide blue line on the pavement that reads \u201cGOVERNMENT PROPERTY: DO NOT CROSS,\u201d and into Portland, Oregon\u2019s ICE field office.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe man is Rob Potylo \u2014 a.k.a. Robby Roadsteamer \u2014 a progressive comedian and musician who has gained a cult following for his raunchy anti-Trump, anti-ICE parodies, which he performs at protests across the country, including in Los Angeles after Trump sent the National Guard into the city<\/a> earlier this year..\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the minutes and hours before his arrest in Portland, Potylo had been serenading the ICE agents and police officers around the facility with lyrics like: \u201cFuck I.C.E.\u201d (to the tune of Y.M.C.A.), \u201cWhat was the name of the plane \/ The one Trump flew with Epstein\u201d (to the the tune of The Door\u2019s \u201cTouch Me\u201d), and \u201cIf you hate brown people \/ And you are a Nazi \/ Come one ICE\u201d (to the tune of \u201cDa Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy?\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI get a little Voodoo Donuts. I go over there, and I\u2019m ready,\u201d Potylo tells Rolling Stone. \u201cI have like, eight songs. I treat it like Nirvana: Unplugged man.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday, as he taunted what he referred to as \u201cICE snipers\u201d who were watching the protesters from the roof of the building, Potylo was repeatedly shot with pepper balls<\/a>. \u201cThey start trying to tee off on me with pepper shots, the snipers, and it\u2019s like Apocalypse Now,\u201d he recalls of the interactions that were captured on video by other protesters. \u201cCouple minutes later, the snipers retreat, and I just do my thing again, and now all of a sudden, three ICE agents and army fatigues and rifles come right up [\u2026] they grab me and they pull me into the detainment tank like a Maximus from Gladiator.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not even past a blue line, the line they claim you\u2019re not supposed to cross because you\u2019ll be on federal property,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m clearly not even nearer than shit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPotylo was taken to a holding area \u2014 \u201cthis little detainment thing, like a cell in Guantanamo but for these guys\u201d \u2014 where he says DHS and ICE agents started \u201cremoving everything, my amp, my microphones, they wanted the [giraffe] onesie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey start asking me questions and stuff: What\u2019s your name? You do this for a living? Some of them knew my career, which was weird,\u201d Potylo recalled. \u201cOne of them starts to play bad cop, and he says, \u2018We\u2019re going to bring you up on trespassing charges.\u2019 And while they were searching me, unfortunately, they found two joints.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRecreational weed is legal in Oregon, with the exception of possession and use on federal property. But in Potylo\u2019s view, he didn\u2019t bring the drugs into the office, they were dragged in along with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI felt like The Big Lebowski, \u2018We\u2019re going to get you on the joints.\u2019 I\u2019m like, get me on the joints? You\u2019re the guys who pulled me over the line. You brought the joints in here,\u201d he laughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a certain point, Potylo says he fell back into character, joking with the officers about what methods of torture they would use against him. \u201cI\u2019m just like, \u2018So what are you guys gonna do first? You gonna use the hose? You gonna use the line? You gonna get up to the second knuckle? I\u2019m ready.\u2019 And they start cracking up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI start getting more comfortable. [Asking] what are you guys going to detain me for? Like, really, let\u2019s be honest. I\u2019m singing \u2014 \u2018Trump was on the plane. He was chasing around young girls,\u2019 and they start cracking up more,\u201d Potylo adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Department of Homeland Security \u2014 which under Trump has made a habit<\/a> of overcharging<\/a> and overstating<\/a> the actions of protesters it attempts to make an example of \u2014 said in a statement to The Boston Globe<\/a> that video of the arrest was \u201cdeceptively clipped,\u201d desribing Potylo as an \u201cattention starved influencer who flew all the way from Massachusetts to trespass on federal property. Three times law enforcement officers told him to back up and step off federal property. He continued to disobey law enforcement and moved further on to federal property. Officers continued to warn him to back up. Following his repeated refusal to listen to law enforcement, he was placed under arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPotylo left the ICE facility with nothing more than a citation for failure to obey an officer of the law, which will require him to return to Portland at some future date. He says he plans to sue \u201cthe living, holy hell out of that whole establishment,\u201d but has also, in the course of his travels around the country, found that what\u2019s happening in Portland may be the key to successful protest against Trump\u2019s authoritarian power grabs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t need to fight MAGA by out-debating them and being out-angry with them on the facts. We win by making them absurd, because that\u2019s what they are,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to remember Donald Trump\u2019s fame, he\u2019s the original Vince McMahon from the early \u201890s. \u2026 Winning in debates really isn\u2019t as much fun as having a night of dressing up in inflatable costumes, and supporting your friends, and maybe a little bit of a rave. A lot of food, and now maybe Gen Z is excited again, and now maybe we get a bunch of folks on board, because it turns into the Grateful Dead parking lot, and we bring that carnival everywhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Portland has been a bizarre political carnival in the face of the Trump administration\u2019s incursion into the famously progressive city. Hundreds of naked \u2014 or close to naked \u2014 cyclists joined the ongoing protests<\/a> on Sunday, in a peaceful display of flesh and outrage that made national headlines. The coalition of demonstrators who have maintained an active presence outside the Portland ICE building have become recognizable for their colorful costumes and party atmosphere. \u201cI\u2019ve definitely had spicier tamales,\u201d Seth Todd \u2014 who dons a cartoonish inflatable frog at protests \u2014 told The Oregonian<\/a> of his experience being pepper balled by federal agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe irreverence with which protesters have treated the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to crack down on the city and frighten its residents is a lesson in models of resistance. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem \u2014 ICE glam squad in tow \u2014 was forced to stare down<\/a> a man in a chicken suit in what (one presumes) was intended to be an intimidating photo op of her confronting the rugged, criminal elements of Portland\u2019s grungy protest scene. This weekend, millions are expected to take to streets across the country for \u201cNo Kings\u201d demonstrations<\/a> against the president. Republicans have been falsely casting the protest movement as driven by anti-American terrorists, similar to how Trump has been falsely casting<\/a> Portland as a hellscape ravaged by crime when in reality the anti-ICE protest movement there is largely festive.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe can pull out Reagan and Bush. We can pull out of Lyndon Johnson,\u201d Potylo muses, calling back to past anti-government movements grounded in a sense of community. \u201cWe can do it again with this guy by romanticizing the scene.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The video is slightly absurdist. Three ICE agents, clad in full tactical camouflage with their faces covered by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,3589],"class_list":["post-220704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}