Death and Youth
#46
Death
Border Patrol killed Alex Pretti. He was shot in the back as he lay pinned on the ground. ICE killed Renee Good, shot in the face at close range. They were shot because they were observing and documenting ICE’s brutality. Federal immigration officials have shot twelve people since September.
Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year, according to the GUARDIAN; SIX people died in ICE custody in the first month of this year alone, according to REUTERS. Trump’s fascist thugs are escalating their attacks on all of us. As we must, we are escalating our resistance.
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Minneapolis, closing parts of the city on Friday. Hundreds of businesses closed. Schools and offices also closed to protest ICE’s brutality. 1,000 clergy from across the country went to Minneapolis to stand in solidarity with the people of Minnesota. One hundred clergy were arrested at the Minneapolis airport while holding a protest calling on U.S. airlines to refuse to transport detainees arrested by ICE.
Demonstrations and vigils across the country mushroomed within hours of the killing of Alex Pretti. These protests are continuing and growing. Pictures of the demonstration on Saturday at Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco and the candlelight vigil in front of the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland are below. These demonstrations, along with countless other demonstrations across the country, occurred within hours of Border Patrol’s killing of Alex Pretti.
The politicians of Minnesota pleaded with Trump to withdraw his troops. “Donald Trump, I call on you once again. Remove this force from Minnesota,” said Governor Walz, echoed by Minnesota Senators Klobuchar and Smith. That is the normal reaction of politicians. These pleas are hollow. Begging a fascist dictator to follow the law does no good.
These are not normal times. Our second leg is sliding into the quicksand of fascism. If politicians and we do not escalate resistance, we will not be able to get out of the quicksand.
There are things that will stop ICE that elected officials and we can do:
Governor Walz and other Democratic governors can refuse to send state taxes to Washington since Trump uses those funds to kill citizens of Minnesota. Read CHRISTOPHER ARMITAGE who has written about withholding taxes and soft secession. He is organizing a campaign you can join.
The Attorney for Hennepin County, Mary Moriarity, can arrest ICE’s killers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. She said on MSNOW that she is open to doing that. She is now doing the research necessary to take that step. You can call her office to urge her to arrest the killers of Good and Pretti. Her number is: 612-348-5550
Minnesota Senators Klobuchar and Smith should pressure Senate Republicans and Democrats to vote against more funding for ICE when the vote comes up later this week. They could join constituents to demonstrate at the offices of the seven House Democrats who voted to fund ICE. The are:
Tom Suozzi, New York
Henry Cuellar, Texas
Don Davis, North Carolina
Laura Gillen, New York
Jared Golden, Maine
Vicente Gonzales, Texas
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Washington.
You can join a sit-in or create one in your state against these supporters of ICE.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Hippocrates
Grand Lake Candle Light Vigil: ICE Out for Good
Grand Lake Candle Light Vigil: ICE Out for Good
Youth
Youth often provide the sparks that ignite social change and revolutions. They are not preoccupied with mortgages and careers. They have greater risk tolerance and may not fully appreciate what they are up against. They realize the future is theirs, and they want a world where they feel safe. They are in schools and online spaces where ideas spread quickly.
In the last 75 years alone, students led civil rights and anti-war movements in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Students organized and led the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia (1973), the student uprising in Thailand (1973), the Democratic Struggle in South Korea (1987), the Yellow Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong (2014), protests of youth climate justice activists (2020) and the Arab Spring protests in Tunisia and Egypt (2011). Young people were the driving force in the Sri Lankan “Aragalaya” crisis (2022) and the Gen-Z-led protests in Kenya, Nigeria, and Bangladesh.
Young people and students can spark social change and revolution. Whether the changes take root depends on all of us.
Students and young people in the movement against Trump
Many colleges and universities have bent the knee to Trump. PEN, the association of writers defending freedom of expression, since 2021, wrote that over 50% of the country’s college students attend institutions in the 23 states that have passed laws censoring higher education. You can read the full report at PEN.
Free speech has been trampled, and student protests have been muted on many campuses. The quiet among students and youth is beginning to be shattered with shouts of protest.
THE NEW YORK TIMES recently reported that support for Trump among young people ages 18-29 has fallen about 25% since he was elected, more than any other demographic.
Students and young people in the United States are increasingly protesting Trump’s cruelty, destruction of the environment, and his trampling of democracy. David Hogg, a former student at Parkland High School, where gun violence killed 17 people, has created a movement to support progressive young candidates across the country, LEADERS WE DESERVE. Young people are organizing against climate change and the fossil fuel industry. Young people across the country walked out of school on Tuesday, January 20th, the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, under the banner FREE AMERICA WALKOUT. The banner said:
“A free America begins the moment we refuse to cooperate. This is not a request. This is a rupture. In the face of fascism, we will be ungovernable.”
Tens of thousands of students in every state in the country, in hundreds of locations, walked out of school on January 20th. In conservative Orange County, California, over 1,000 students and others walked out, including in Brea, Laguna Beach, Orange, Ladera Ranch, UC Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Laguna Woods.
In Hayward, half a dozen high school girls joined a half dozen elders who organize the weekly anti-Trump demonstrations (at Mission and B, Thursdays at 4 pm). The previous Tuesday, they and their entire school walked out of Mt. Eden High School in Hayward, encouraged by their teachers, who also walked out.
Schools across the country, including elementary schools, emptied on January 20th. In Richmond, California, the entire Crestmont Elementary and Middle School emptied into the streets to support the people of Minnesota.
Hayward, CA this week
Hayward CA, last week
San Francisco
A demonstration was called by Indivisible and others to take place at Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco within hours of Border Patrol killing Alex Pretti. The events surrounding the demonstration, and the demonstration itself, are cause for hope. Here’s why.
A well-funded, annual anti-abortion propaganda show called Walk for Life had been planned long in advance to culminate in the same plaza where the emergency anti-ICE demonstration was to take place. There were Catholic priests, nuns, families with young children, devoted Latino, Asian, and white congregants, and other believers milling around the plaza where the anti-ICE demonstration was about to take place.
A few of the anti-abortion participants harassed the anti-ICE demonstrators with a loud bullhorn and chants, but their “End abortion now” was soon drowned out by shouts of “End ICE now.” [Picture below] This was the first time in the Bay Area that I witnessed significant counter demonstrators at an anti-Trump rally.
There are two other hopeful twists to this story. A member of the resistance had on a T-shirt with a picture of Jesus being arrested and carried away by ICE. He is a Vet and spoke to me about his conversations with people at the anti-abortion rally. He said, “This shirt reaches them. They see Jesus, and they are drawn in. Then they see ICE arresting and deporting him. They agree that’s what would have happened to Jesus. They are with us.”
And the second twist: Pop-up Drag Queen staged her one-person demonstration in the same plaza where the anti-abortionists had gathered. She exulted in who she is as she stuck her finger in the eye of the anti-abortionists with the sign at her feet, “Mary got to choose.”
Music
Country music has often been conservative. Anger at ICE has caused country singer Zach Bryan to sing Bad News with the lines: “Some out of town boys been giving us hell/ Got some bad news/ The fading of the Red White and Blue.” You can read about and listen to the song at BAD NEWS.
The demonstration in San Francisco where a thousand people gathered within hours of Border Patrol killing Alex Pretti.
Thanks to Risa Jaroslow for editing and to Brian Murphy, Mal Singer, and Risa Jaroslow for information.
Thanks David for this important work! Laura