After the clergy offered praise and comfort to a group mourning Alex Pretti’s death, a Merrillville man pulled the scarf from his face and jacket hood from his head in the oppressive cold and took the microphone.
At the start of the vigil in front of the Adam Benjamin Jr. VA Hospital in Crown Point Friday evening, group organizers asked that attendees who didn’t want to be photographed or on video to raise their hands so the media could avoid them. As ICE ramps up its efforts, it’s adding protesters to its list, threatening them and taking them into custody.
Ruben Valdez, a U.S. Marine veteran who served from 1975 to 1979, didn’t care.
“I’m here. I’m not covering my face and I’m not backing down,” he said defiantly. “(ICE) is disgusting, and people are getting killed for no reason.”
Rabbi Diane Tracht, of Temple Israel in Miller, was in Minneapolis last weekend when ICE agents shot and killed Pretti, a VA nurse, as he tried to help a woman they’d forcibly pushed to the ground. She never could’ve imagined she and her group would be caught up in the terror of that day.
“Alex Pretti was murdered doing what he did every day: offering care to those in need,” she said. “He showed care and love, including on the last day of his life.”
Ferass Safadi, chairman of Community Outreach for the Islamic Center in Crown Point, said Pretti stood as a witness, and in doing so reminds us all that justice isn’t passive.
“There is a deep irony we must acknowledge tonight. So many immigrants came to this country fleeing regimes where protest is met with prison, disappearance or death,” Safadi said. “Alex acted in that same belief: that peaceful protest and bearing witness are protected, not punished. When that promise is broken, it is not just one life that is lost; it is trust in the very freedoms that define this nation.
“Let this be a call, especially to our elected officials. Justice cannot be selective; accountability cannot be delayed. We expect truth, transparency and responsibility from those entrusted with power.”
Hannah Bolton, a nursing student at Purdue Northwest who’s graduating this spring, has vowed to be a nurse “like Alex.” She said his death has only fortified her resolve.
“He inspires me because he was sticking to his beliefs,” she said. “We’re taught to do whatever we can to help, and he did just that. Murder is never the answer.”
Connie Karras, of Munster and a veteran herself, called on her fellow veterans to speak up more on the injustice.
“I can’t even wrap my head around this. There are many veterans who’re speaking out against what’s happening, but not nearly enough,” she said.
Barb Orze, a retired nurse from Cedar Lake, said her heart is “torn to pieces” over Pretti’s death. But she too isn’t cowed by ICE’s violence.
“I’m not going anywhere. (Expletive) them,” she said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.