Commentary: How do you stand up to lies and brutality? Maybe you blow a whistle, for starters

"I was out of the country at the time, but shortly after I returned, I thought about Clem when Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead by ICE agents at a protest in Minnesota. It wasn't long before the Trump administration's top officials took turns blaming the victim, lying about the circumstances and calling Pretti an assassin. Pretti's distraught parents responded with this: "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.""

"How do you stand up to a president who hypocritically pardons drug kingpins and other rabble, including the barbarians who beat up cops and ransacked the Capitol, even as he invades cities to terrorize and abduct working people? Maybe you blow a whistle, for starters. I know, it's a small gesture. But Clem and others are choosing sides, standing up for their communities, and refusing to remain silent as it becomes clear that the ICE agenda is less about law and order and more about the politics of scapegoating."

Volunteers collect and distribute whistles to alert communities and protesters to ICE presence across Los Angeles neighborhoods. An ICE killing of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti prompted officials to blame the victim while Pretti's parents condemned what they called ‘‘sickening lies.’’ Critics link increasing arrests of immigrants with no criminal records to political scapegoating and to a broader pattern of disinformation and corrupted legal norms under the current administration. Musicians and activists give free whistles to businesses to help neighbors protect one another and to signal when ICE agents are on the prowl.

Read at Los Angeles Times