A large crowd rallied together in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Headquarters on Jan. 24 to protest an ICE agent shooting and killing Alex Pretti that morning in Minneapolis. Pretti was an ICU nurse for the United States Department of Veteran Affairs and a part of a community network responding to escalating ICE activity in the city.
Many political organizations based in Washington, D.C., worked quickly to organize the protest, which began at 6 p.m. that day at Hancock Park. Ten minutes after the protest began, attendees left the park and began marching towards the ICE headquarters shouting “F**k Donald Trump,” “51st state, no police state” and “ICE out of D.C. now.”
As they were halfway there, some attendees with instruments began playing “Bella Ciao.” Others started to sing along as soon as they recognized the anti-fascism anthem, which symbolized Italian resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II.
Cierra Mercer, a Maryland resident, showed up to the protest carrying a sign that read “Obedience is not Patriotism,” symbolizing the notion that America was founded on people standing up for themselves and resisting tyranny.
“I believe obeying some guy just because he’s the president doesn’t make a patriot,” Mercer said. “Standing up for American values does.”
Other signs said “Stop kidnapping our neighbors you facist pieces of sh**,” “Abolish ICE” and “Justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”
Brothers Andrew and Jon Gillis stood toward the back of the crowd carrying two-sided signs with quotes from the Federalist Papers and George Orwell’s “1984.” The sign carried by Andrew Gillis referenced a quote from the novel, reading, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your own eyes & ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
The Gillis’ said they believe it is a factual conclusion that the deaths of Pretti and Good are unjustified.
“There’s clear video footage from multiple angles of what happened,” Jon Gillis, who wrote the signs, said. “But the government comes out and makes clear statements to counter them. And in Renee Good’s case, I think there was maybe enough ambiguity that people could sort of debate it but in [Alex Pretti’s] case, I think it’s even more abundantly clear.”
Many at the demonstration felt shocked by the murder of Pretti, expressing that they could not stay home and do nothing. Lisa Chensvold, a D.C. resident in attendance, was one of them.
“History’s gonna judge what we did in this moment, and I want to show that I did something,” Chensvold said. “I called Congresswoman [Eleanor] Norton, I left a voicemail for her, and here I am. These are the things I feel like I can do today.”
Several organizations also took part in organizing the protest, including the Families Not Feds Coalition, the D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, the Free D.C. Project and D.C. Against Trump.
Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of Free D.C., said she was training about 100 people when she got the call asking her to turn people out for this event. She noted that they put this together on short notice because there should be immediate accountability.
“We turned everybody out today because really what’s happening is they’re just trying to take away our rights little by little and hope that we don’t notice,” Chatterjee said. “And it’s very important to come together in community and make it clear that we do notice, and we are going to act, and we are going to make sure that these murders backfire on them.”
Some attendees, like D.C. resident Bridget Hunicutt, showed up with very little prior notice. Hunicutt said she first heard of Pretti’s killing as she was making dinner for her family and was told by a friend to come to the event that same evening.
“I did not want to come out in the freezing cold, but a good friend said, ‘I’m going,’ and I was like, I have to be there,” Hunicutt said. “And I feel a million times better, being with other people that are standing up and making a difference together.”
Many demonstrators said they strongly believed that Pretti’s death could have been averted.
Randy Kindle is a veteran and member of FLARE, an organization with a 24/7 protest located near the Capitol. He said that the shooting of Pretti embodies fascism, noting the amount of people who have been shot and killed by ICE. He added that Pretti was a nurse trying to keep his community safe.
“He was out there trying to protect his community,” Kindle said. “He was a VA nurse, was a union member — he was a legal observer out there trying to protect his community, and ICE executed him,” Kindle said.
Now, Kindle said people must realize that the United States is no longer a democracy.
“This has not been a democracy since Trump was installed,” Kindle said. “This will not end peacefully, as they’ve already pointed out.”
This article was edited by Gabrielle McNamee, Payton Anderson and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Paige Caron and Nicole Kariuki. Fact-checking done by Andrew Kummeth.
localnews@theeagleonline.com
