I was mourning & enraged as I was riding on BART today when an older white man sat down next to me. He indicated he was new to BART because he was visiting from Montana.
Of course, as I have traveled through Montana, and because this is part of my work, I had to ask him what folks there were doing about the ICE murders.
This man looked so innocuous, kinda old hippy looking with a Santa-like beard and flannel shirt, with a soft, friendly voice.
I wasn’t prepared for the maga shite that spewed from his hairy lips and sparkling blue eyes when he mumbled the “illegal alien” rhetoric. In fact, rage lept up as swift as a raptor dives for prey.
I stared at that man in disbelief and horror. Ignoring his racist illegal remark, I named Alex Pretti, stating he is a citizen.
John tried to insist another fox/tRump/maga line of “self-defense” after all the man was carrying.
My disbelief ratched up, if at all possible, when I said the man was lying face down on the ground when shot.
I had spent an inordinate amount of hours, forcing myself to not only listen to first-hand testimonies and analysis of investigative journalists as well as lawyers but to also watch the horrific videos of this crime.
If I hadn’t already been on the verge of losing it, when John accused me of not watching those videos, I lost it.
“You are wrong” I told him as I leaned closer so I could look directly into those ignorant eyes.
Then I recited everything I knew: how Alex was helping a womon thrown to the ground by these overseers of white supremacy. How these agents sprayed him in the eyes – I indicated how close they were. I’m sure my voice was raising.
“He had a phone recording their violence in one raosed hand, and an open palm in his other raised hand.”
I added at least 6 hooded, masked armed men knocked him to the icy pavement & were beating on him prior to shooting him.
John insisted he had a gun.
I told him, IF Alex had a gun, it was in his back waist band. I said if he had watched any video, he could have seen an agent walking away with that alleged gun prior to the fuckin 10 TEN gun shots that were fired into him, executing him right there.
A younger white womon stood up and walked over to us to announce to me that our conversation was over.
I stood up and informed her I wasn’t talking with her but with John, who also stood up to go as the train had stopped.
I assume she might have been the relative John had come to the Bay to visit.
“We don’t want to talk about these things” she insisted.
By now several other travelers joined us to leave the train.
I felt it was very important to not only allow this womon to silence ne but to exclaim to all those in earshot, we HAVE to talk about “these things”.
So I did raise my voice to their retreating backs to say “Yes we DO have to talk about it. We all live in this country & we need to talk about what is going on.”
They scurried out but most of the other passengers nodded silently with grim faces.
A young Black womon boldly supported my conversation, affirming yes indeed we need to talk at the very least.
I know John will return to Montana with another story of the Bay Area idiot who believes no one is illegal and Alex Pretti didn’t try to shoot the violent ICE agents.
