‘Any One of Us Can Be Alex’
NYSNA members hold candles in honor of Veteran Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
“Any one of us can be Alex.”
Veterans Affairs ICU Nurse Alex Pretti’s final moment on earth before being shot to death by a heavily-armed mob of federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis on Jan. 24 was on the minds of many in New York City last night.
Hundreds, many of them wearing the signature red gear of striking New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] members, gathered in solemn tribute to Pretti outside the Margaret Cochran Corbin VA Campus on East 23rd Street on Thursday evening.
“In his last moments, [Alex Pretti] chose to put himself in harm's way in the defense of another in our community,” U.S. Coast Guard veteran and Five Borough Veterans President Michael Matos told the gathering. “That is the one of the most honorable things one can do in their life. Alex Pretti should be here today with us. He is not because federal agents chose to unholster his legally-owned firearm, remove it from his person, and shoot him until he stopped breathing. That is not honorable—that’s cowardice.”
Mourners begin to gather around a portrait of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti in his scrubs ahead of Thursday night’s vigil on E. 23rd Street.
Widely shared video of the incident—which followed the murder of Renee Nicole Good just 17 days prior—shows masked federal agents forcing Pretti to his knees on the morning of Jan. 24 in Minneapolis and shooting him to death after he attempted to aid another civilian the authorities had just sent sprawling down to the snow-covered sidewalk.
The Trump administration, however, continues to paint Pretti as an “agitator” and just lately, an “insurrectionist.”
In addition to honoring Pretti’s legacy as a caregiver at Thursday night’s vigil, Matos also asked those assembled to remember, “This is a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
“We veterans took an oath to support and defend the Constitution—and that Constitution belongs to each and every one of you—not a masked agent, not a government agency, and not a sitting president,” he said.
Fellow nurse Odette Strobel said the kind of compassion and concern for others Pretti displayed on the streets of Minneapolis is not a “characteristic that has an on/off switch,” but rather one that is “the foundation of our profession and a characteristic that stays with us no matter how long ago we clocked out.”
Strobel also shared nursing student Jessica Hauser’s recollection of Pretti as a caring mentor and force for good in the world.
Five Borough Veterans President and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Michael Matos speaks out during Thursday night’s memorial for Veteran Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
“It does not surprise me that [Alex’s] final words were, ‘Are you okay?’” Strobel read from Hauser’s social media post. “Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing and he lived it well. Alex believed strongly in the rights rooted in our Constitution and its amendments. He spoke out for justice and peace whenever he could—not only out of obligation—but out of a belief that we are more connected than divided, and that communication would bring us together.”
Shortly upon returning to the White House last year, Trump issued an executive order stripping an estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants of their temporary protected status, or TPS, beginning on February 3.
That fact, and the reality that Alex Pretti was standing up for the basic human rights of immigrant workers in Minneapolis, was also on the minds of many at last night’s frigidly cold vigil in Manhattan.
A moment of silence for Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti
“As we stand here remembering and honoring Alex—whose life was taken by federal agents who were only in Minnesota to terrorize the immigrants—I also want to acknowledge at this time that frontline health care workers who are immigrants themselves are at risk,” 1199SEIU nurse and U.S. military veteran Audrey Seeley said. “In New York, over 50 percent of healthcare workers are immigrants—including one out of every three RNs. Despite their service to their communities they are under attack by the federal government.”
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said Alex Pretti “represented the best of what our profession stands for,” and that as a Haitian immigrant herself, she was “horrified, deeply saddened and outraged” by his murder in Minneapolis.
“We gather strength that we are not alone in the struggle to protect our immigrant communities and the dignity of all people from the Trump administration’s attacks,” Hagans added.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams noted how Black Americans have been “dealing with a lot of this for a very long time” and said “MAGA America gives people permission to hate who they want to hate.”
“I need people who say they are better than this to stop making excuses for MAGA murder. Stop making excuses for MAGA otherizing people,” Williams said.
Clearly, ICE’s assault on Minneapolis and other cities across the country has never been about safety and security, according to Murad Awawdeh, head of the New York Immigration Coalition.
“This has been about cruelty, and that is their point,” he said. “Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were executed in Minnesota. We have witnessed over 30-plus immigrants who have died or were murdered in ICE custody. Alex Pretti was standing up for his neighbor who he probably didn't even know, but knew that she was about to face injustice and stood beside her and helped her get up. Then we witnessed several ICE officers and border patrol officers execute him.”
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans addresses Thursday night’s vigil in New York City for Alex Pretti.
Awawdeh also urged passage of both the New York For All Act and the Access to Representation Act to better help defend the basic human rights of immigrant workers here in New York State. He also called on the “entire federal delegation from New York” to “stand up and fight,” the Trump administration’s latest attempts to further line the pockets of billionaires and funnel billions of dollars more to ICE.
“There is no reason to negotiate with terrorists,” he said.
Thursday night’s vigil in NYC took place on the eve of another one-day general strike and economic boycott slated for Minneapolis and other cities across the country in response to ICE’s ongoing assaults on immigrant communities and anyone coming to their aid.
“We can replace these terrorizing raids in our communities with civil processes that have already been proven to be 95% effective at a fraction of the current cost of the taxpayer,” Matos added. “We can instill effective leadership to the Department of Homeland Security and replace a would-be-influencer [Kristi Noem] with a seasoned professional specialized in multi-agency crisis management. But to survive as a constitutional nation, ICE must be shut down.”