Riding Against a Tide of ICE

 “The sharks are circling.”

On Saturday, a fellow cyclist made that comment in reference to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a.k.a. ICE, during the Alex Pretti memorial ride. She has family in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area, where residents, many of whom had not previously participated in a demonstration, are resisting vigorously and visibly. But the now-most-hated government agents in the USA are also accosting and arresting “suspicious” people all over the nation. My friendly acquaintance believes “it’s just a matter of time” before a “surge” comes to my hometown,  New York City.

Quite understandably, she and other riders didn’t want to be photographed.  While we want to show our solidarity, some fear—rightly—negative consequences given the current political climate and the industries in which some work. 

And some might become targets for looking “suspicious.” Given this Administration’s hostility to cyclists, spinning two pedals to propel two wheels instead of pressing one pedal to propel four wheels could be seen as a subversive act.

Perhaps it is. But if I am resisting anything, I am riding against the tyranny of automobiles and fossil fuels—which contributes to climate change and economic disparities that fuel (pun not intended) the desperate traffic that ICE is tasked with stopping.

Riding For Them

 Here in NYC, it’s the coldest it’s been in years (2F, -16.7C this morning) but those of you in places like Minnesota probably think this is April weather.

Speaking of Minnesota:  Alex Pretti, a fellow cyclist was executed (let’s call it what it is) by ICE agents.  One of the many memorial rides in his honor is, as best as I can tell, still scheduled to roll in Manhattan.  I plan to be there.

As I am pedaling, I will also be thinking of another cyclist I’ve never met who was also senselessly killed.  Last Thursday, a truck struck Patrick Franklin Sr, a longtime member of Florida’s Village Idiots cycling club and beloved member of the cycling, and Bradenton, community.  He was 67 years old and riding alone on a non-club ride.

Sadly, Franklin’s fate is less shocking, but not for the difference (28 years) in age between them.  Rather, as one club member said, “Florida is a death trap.”  The so-callled Sunshine State has been, by far, the deadliest for cyclists for years.

He was 67.  Alex was 39.  But they both were cut down in the middle of their lives; so much of their journeys could have been ahead of them.  I will ride for both of them.

I Will Ride For Him

Nearly two weeks ago, a sports columnist lamented,  “I dunno how to write about the Knicks when the government is killing people.” I substituted “cycling or midlife” for “the Knicks.”

Now, barely two weeks after Renee Good’s murder, ICE thugs killed another person who was protesting peacefully: Alex Pretti.

Ms. Good was a mother of three.  Mr. Pretti cared for other vulnerable people: He was an ICU nurse in a Veterans’ Administration hospital. No doubt many of his patients were suffering from PTSD and related conditions. Moreover, he was protecting a woman from harm when he was murdered.  

Of course, the Fake Tan Fūhrer’s paid liars have found isolated facts—Renee’s sexual orientation and pronouns, Alex’s gun—and used them to portray the victims as existential threats to the nation who “had it coming to them.” (Ironic, isn’t it, that MAGA folk and Trump himself—supposed guardians of the Second Amendment—point to Pretti’s legally-acquired firearm, which he didn’t touch, as evidence that he meant harm?) 

The smear campaigns against Good and Pretti disturb and anger me almost as much as their actual deaths.  It’s as if the Administration is determined to destroy them completely by assassinating their characters.  But even the National Rifle Association and prominent conservatives have denounced Pretti’s murder.  Perhaps people won’t become inured to their government—funded by their taxes—committing wanton violence the way too many seemed to go numb to school shootings a few years ago.

Oh, I should mention an aspect of Alex Pretti’s life that Trump and his minions would hate—and makes him a kindred spirit:  He was an avid cyclist.  Angry Catfish, the shop he regularly patronized, is organizing a memorial ride for him.  I understand other memorial rides will be held this Saturday.  I intend to ride, snow and ice be damned.  If there isn’t an organized ride near me, I intend to memorialize him in some way on a ride of my own—perhaps to a VA hospital.

He was 37 years old:  cut down in midlife, like too many heroes.