I'm going to start writing about current events that I'm seeing unfold. I think it'll be important for everyone to keep their own records, especially with the way generative AI has been forced into every aspect of our lives. They've already used it to push false narratives; the most recent example I can think of being that the official White House twitter account posted an AI-edited photo of a protestor, Nekima Levy Armstrong, to make it look like she was crying while being arrested. They're trying to rewrite history as it happens, but I won't let myself lose track of the truth.
This morning, I woke up to find out that ICE murdered another protestor in broad daylight. His name was Alex Pretti, and he was an ICU nurse. When a group of men wearing ICE vests tried to attack a woman, Alex jumped in and stopped them. He saved her, and they threw him to the ground - at least six men grabbing and kicking and holding him down. Then they killed him. They shot him multiple times point-blank, while he was already restrained beyond comprehension.
There are multiple videos of the murder. The most harrowing one is believed to have come from a woman wearing a pink jacket, who is now allegedly in ICE custody. I can't stand to watch it again, but for posterity's sake, here is the video, courtesy of Drop Site News on twitter.
This comes just over two weeks after ICE murdered Renée Good, a mother who had been on her way home from dropping off her son at school. Of course, there are conflicting records of the actual order of events. To my understanding, Renée and her partner, Becca, had stopped to alert their neighbors of ICE presence. After an ICE agent confronted her, she tried to leave. He shot her point-blank three times. He murdered her. Her last words, according to his own video, were "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you," and he killed her.
People tried to twist the story, to put the blame on her - even the Vice President JD Vance took to twitter to claim that the ICE agent had "reason to fear for his life," and "[it was] time for the press to finally tell the truth about this story." I saw people insisting she had meant to run him over with her car. But that doesn't make sense. We're all watching the same videos. I saw a reasonable, concerned woman standing up against a violent, rageful man. I saw a woman who tried to leave when things started to escalate. I saw a woman who was murdered because a man felt like he had the authority to take her life. And I saw the Vice President of the United States of America praising him for "doing his job."
In response to Renée Good's death, Minnesotans have taken to the streets to call for ICE to leave the Twin Cities. Just yesterday, on the 23rd of January, hundreds of thousands of people marched in below-freezing weather in protest; many have called it the first general strike in the US in eighty years. This video from BreakThrough News on twitter shows a bird's eye view of the streets covered in protestors.
I believe Alex Pretti was murdered as a direct response to the outrage over Renée Good's murder. People don't join ICE out of a duty to uphold the law or do good for their country. They join ICE so they can commit their most violent fantasies while being praised by the GOP. Johnathan Ross murdered Renée Good, and he recorded the entire thing on his iPhone to get off to later. The currently unidentified ICE agent that murdered Alex Pretti shot him ten times within five seconds, and another agent immediately clapped in celebration. As if they'd squashed a bug. An entire human life, gone in seconds, at the psychotic whims of government officials in masks.
I feel as though I should be more numb to these tragedies by now. For the past 2+ years, I've seen thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children be murdered by Israel. Almost six years ago, I heard about the murder of George Floyd - which happened mere blocks away from the murders of Alex Pretti and Renée Good. I've taken classes and read countless books and stories about the atrocities the United States has committed against humanity. I know that what's happening right now is just a repetition of cruel American history. But that doesn't make it any easier for me to wrap my head around.
I hope to one day look back on this moment of time and see it be the spark that finally wakes up the general American population to the evil and corruption we've been forced to endure. I can't help but wonder if this is our retribution for what our government and military has done to the rest of the world. But that's too cynical, and cruel.
There are way more of us than there are of them. We need to get rid of the rot from the inside out.
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