""Are you okay?" These were Alex Pretti's last words, said to a woman after ICE agents had tackled and pepper-sprayed her. Videos from bystanders show Pretti holding up a phone, attempting to document what was happening before he himself was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground, and killed by those officers. He lost his life not for committing violence, but for documenting it, and stepping in to protect someone facing it."
"The killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Macklin Good, among others, are not isolated tragedies. They are part of a larger pattern-one in which protest, documentation, and dissent are increasingly treated as threats to the current administration's racist agenda, rather than constitutionally protected rights. It is a stark illustration of what happens when the act of protest and bearing witness becomes not only dangerous but life-threatening."
"Videos of ICE agents wreaking havoc in our communities have spread widely on social media, eroding the agency's standing in the eyes of the public and contradicting the Trump administration's version of events. To date, video of the shooting of Renee Good has been viewed by 70 percent of Americans, underscoring how vital this form of documentation has become in the age of social media and smartphones."
Alex Pretti was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground, and killed after attempting to document ICE agents tackling a woman. Renee Nicole Macklin Good was also shot and killed during ICE activity. These incidents are presented as part of a pattern that treats protest, documentation, and dissent as threats rather than constitutionally protected rights, and are linked to a racist administrative agenda. The Trump administration's tactics are described as intended to intimidate and chill protest, while communities have mobilized: over 34,000 Minnesotans signed up to defend immigrant neighbors and a surge of new "ICE watchers" emerged. Video documentation has spread widely, with video of Good's shooting viewed by 70 percent of Americans. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that ICE agents in Minneapolis would begin wearing body cameras.
Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.
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