{"id":634,"date":"2025-10-16T18:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T18:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/?p=634"},"modified":"2026-09-27T00:22:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T00:22:35","slug":"boston-performance-artist-robby-roadsteamer-temporarily-detained-by-ice-in-portland-ore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/?p=634","title":{"rendered":"Boston performance artist Robby Roadsteamer temporarily detained by ICE in Portland, Ore."},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018They were a lot more aggressive at the ICE agency in Portland than I have seen yet,\u2019 he said. \u2018They\u2019re shooting pepper balls right at me.\u2019<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent,Updated October 16, 2025, 6:39 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a scene that has now gone viral thanks to videos posted to his social media accounts, Boston performance artist Robby Roadsteamer was detained Wednesday at a protest outside of an ICE facility in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dressed as a giraffe and singing a parody of Rod Stewart\u2019s \u201cDo Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy?,\u201d Roadsteamer, whose real name is Rob Potylo, taunted ICE agents with the lyrics, \u201cIf you hate brown people and you are a Nazi, come on ICE, leave Portland.\u201d One of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/10\/11\/nation\/portland-ice-protests-costumes-trump\/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now-famous Portland frogs<\/a> can be seen dancing to the music, along with people dressed as sharks, hippos, and dinosaurs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DP1O8CWDULh\/\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The videos show<\/a> three agents in camouflage uniforms, masks, and helmets approaching Potylo from inside the facility. Two of them can be seen taking hold of him and pushing him into the facility, while the third turns to the crowd and walks backward while holding a rifle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Potylo was back home in Boston Thursday, though he notes he has to return to Portland at some point to fight a citation. He is a veteran of these types of absurdist political protests, but says this one felt different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey were a lot more aggressive at the ICE agency in Portland than I have seen yet,\u201d he said. \u201cAt a certain point, they brought out three guys in camo fatigues who went on top of a rooftop. And you can watch the video. It\u2019s very clear, and they\u2019re shooting at me. They\u2019re shooting pepper balls right at me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after that, Potylo said, \u201cthey pretty much just grabbed me in front of the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/10\/16\/arts\/robby-roadsteamer-detained-by-ice\/?p1=BGSearch_Advanced_Results\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/10\/16\/arts\/robby-roadsteamer-detained-by-ice\/?p1=BGSearch_Advanced_Results\">Click here to read the full story on www.bostonglobe.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018They were a lot more aggressive at the ICE agency in Portland than I have seen yet,\u2019 he said. \u2018They\u2019re shooting pepper balls right&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzainofreelance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}