"Shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday, my wife, Julia, woke up from a nightmare that federal agents were trying to break into our home, one of many nightmares she's had since I was arrested by ICE, detained for 8 hours, then released without charges. I had been peacefully observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when it happened, like so many Minnesotans have over the past weeks and days."
"We haphazardly dressed in our cleanest warm clothes. As we opened our car doors, we saw neighbors of ours, whom we've never spoken to, doing the same. The entire neighborhood was converging. As we approached the intersection where Pretti was shot 10 times, we heard chants of "ICE out" ringing out on Nicollet Avenue, known locally as "Eat Street" because of its dozens of globally minded restaurants."
"What normally would have been an intersection full of chilly Saturday-morning brunchgoers had become something akin to a war zone, as federal agents tried to break up the protesters gathered around the site of the shooting, at the intersection of Nicollet and 26 th Street. Our presence and our bodies were the only sign of solidarity and resistance we could offer, so that's what we did. Agents assembled with weapons of war, and all we had were our outrage and our cameras."
Shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday, the wife woke from a nightmare about federal agents breaking into the couple's home, one of many since the husband was detained by ICE for eight hours and released without charges. A man named Alex Pretti was shot a mile away, prompting neighbors to converge at Nicollet Avenue and 26 th Street. An intersection that normally hosts brunchgoers became akin to a war zone as federal agents attempted to disperse protesters. Protesters offered their bodies, outrage, and cameras as solidarity. Someone threw a snowball, agents pursued the person, and flash-bangs and chemical agents were deployed into the crowd.
Read at Slate Magazine
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