On a bitter cold street corner nurses, union workers, musicians, and other folks gathered to remember the life of Veterans Administration (VA) Intensive Care Unit nurse and American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669 Union member Alex Pretti and mother of three, writer, and musician Renee Good.
Pretti and Good were murdered in separate incidents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis last month. Both were participating in peaceful protests against ICE violence in the city at the time of their murders.
In response, the Ohio AFL-CIO organized a vigil across from the Chalmers P. Wylie Ambulatory Care VA hospital in Whitehall.
Jason Perlman, Political Director of the Ohio AFL-CIO was among those who spoke: “Tonight, we honor the lives of our union brother, Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Keith Porter, Jr. and the countless names we don’t know who have died in these for-profit, so-called detention centers. Columbus, do we believe our own eyes? Do we know what we saw? Two citizens were gunned down because they chose love over fear.”