In Minneapolis, a mournful pilgrimage of three death sites

MINNEAPOLIS — The locations of the three consecutive deaths cover just over two miles south of Minneapolis. George Floyd in 2020, Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month.

Floyd’s death after a police officer dug his knee into his neck for more than nine minutes was a catalyst for nationwide Black Lives Matter protests seeking law enforcement reforms and accountability.

The shootings of Good and Pretti by federal immigration officers similarly sparked demands that federal agents stop using violence as part of President Trump’s mass deportation effort.

The sites are close enough to walk within an hour. So I did it on Sunday.

george floyd

Floyd was killed just outside Cup Foods, which has since been renamed Unity Foods. Esther Osayande’s painting “Sankofa” is on the wall outside the market, depicting a bird with its head turned back and surrounded by flames.

The statement states that this is a metaphorical symbol used by the Akan people in Ghana to express “the importance of accessing knowledge gained in the past and bringing it to the present.”

“Sankofa tells us that as a people we can overcome ego conflicts and treat all beings we encounter as brothers and sisters,” he says.

On the same wall, someone wrote “My screams are 4 humanity” with spray paint.

Known locally as George Floyd Square, the memorial encompasses a nearby closed bus stop; “Race is an idea made up to keep people down,” one visitor wrote here. Someone had taped a typewritten emergency notice to the shelter window. It lists “martyrs” killed by authorities: Good, Floyd, Philando Castile and others before them.

“This ICE operation is somehow simpler AND more malicious than the number of kills racked up by our PD,” the notice reads. “This is slave capture. This is the Gestapo.”

A memorial for Renee Good at the site of her shooting in Minneapolis.

Nearly six years after Floyd’s death, some of the memorial artwork has begun to fade in the sun. A metal arch gives way to a plastic A-frame billboard depicting Floyd and the global movement his murder inspired.

“George’s name has become a slogan for those who believe in a better future where all people will be treated with dignity and respect,” the statement reads.

Few people gathered at the memorial Sunday morning, but snow-covered real and fake flowers covered the area. A family with children got out of the SUV and started walking around. A young photographer took some photos. And one couple spent time weaving in the temporary garden.

Floyd’s cousin Paris Stevens is co-chairman Rise and Rememberwho maintains the monument and organizes tours in the area. He said the organization wants to provide a safe space for the community to grieve because “everyone has lost someone.”

Stevens said the thread that ties the deaths of his cousin Good and Pretti is that they were all preventable. The fact that people started visiting all three sites is an indication of how much humanity unjust killings bring out in people, he said.

“How do we care for each other in times of need?” he asked. The answer lies partly in the artwork, inscriptions and flowers on the three monuments.

“For this to happen, it’s like we’re picking up the ball and running again,” he said. “We’ve been here before and we know what to do.”

A memorial for Renee Good marks the spot where the 37-year-old woman was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Portland Boulevard near East 34th Street in Minneapolis.

Renee Good

Portland Avenue, where Good died less than a mile from Floyd, is lined with Craftsman-style homes. Many displayed “ICE OUT” or “Black Lives Matter” signs, or both, on their windshields.

One window raised the question: “How many were not filmed?”

Stapled to a telephone pole was a letter addressed to federal agents: “It may be difficult to understand why nearly all of our city’s residents are angry about your Mission (which changed radically last year). This flyer aims to clear up the confusion. I hope it finds you well.”

Another telephone pole made a different sound:

“ICE
TERRORISTS
KIDNAPPINGS
MURDERERS.”

Good’s portrait on a wooden fence depicts Floyd and others killed by police in Minnesota in recent years, including Daunte Wright and Winston Boogie Smith Jr. and accompanied portraits of other Black men, including Chief Locke.

A handwritten sign bore Good’s last words: “I’m not mad at you, man.”

Keeping the snow off Good’s memorial, not far from where George Floyd was killed, has been a losing battle.

In the middle of Good’s memorial, a man carefully cleared snow from cardboard signs, shook bouquets of flowers and wiped down teddy bears. It was a losing battle. It was snowing, leaving fresh white spots on everything it cleared.

A woman approached with a handful of yellow tulips in her hand. “Hello, is there a specific place I should put these?”

“Anywhere is good,” the man said.

American, Mexican and LGBTQ+ flags hung on the site. A handwritten note signed by “a DHS employee” read: “We will never forget you.”

A sign hangs between two trees next to the Monument of Kindness and reads: “Resistance is rooted in love – ICE COMES!”

Some mourners shared small glimpses of positivity. “Please take a pocket heart,” one of the laminated signs read. “Keep it with you as a constant reminder that you are loved!”

Others who knew Good was a poet wrote their own poems:

Towards new eras imagined but still out of control

Where you stand we will build a safe place for all of us

Where the words of love echo, we will compose our best

That’s why I offer these words, would they be as good?

Goods.

Among the several dozen people at the site were 29-year-old Kayla Gardner and three of her friends. Gardner said he brought flowers to each of the three monuments.

“I wanted to go to Renee and Alex’s house,” she said, “but we didn’t want to leave George out either. He’s right here.”

A memorial service for critical care nurse Alex Pretti.

Alex is beautiful

On a traffic pole down the street, a note in Spanish above a “Lost Cat” sign warns residents of the increased immigration police presence since Dec. 22. On that note, residents are advised to stay home unless necessary, have food delivered, and create an emergency plan for their children.

“These are difficult and uncertain moments for our community,” he says.

Lake Street, the center of the Latino business community, is about half way from where Good and Pretti were killed. Murals in the alleys depict women baking tortillas on comals and musicians playing guitars and accordions. Businesses here responded to immigration raids in a variety of ways.

“Closed for the safety of our customers,” reads a notice in Spanish posted on the door of a western clothing store.

Meanwhile, a nearby Ecuadorian restaurant offers delivery but no sit-down service.

A person wipes away tears while visiting Pretti’s memorial on February 1.

Pretti died near Glam Doll Donuts, in another vibrant area of ​​several immigrant-owned restaurants known as Eat Street. As the days passed after his killing, fewer news cameras turned on, but mourners continued to arrive.

Standing atop the monument, which had grown to span the length of a building, a man in a The North Face jacket wept quietly. Another lit incense sticks and stuck them into the snow.

The votive candles depicted Jesus, the Virgin of Gudalupe, and Mr. Rogers.

Candles burn near the Pretti monument. Some depicted Jesus, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Mr. Rogers.

One letter offers a source of consolation: “If I have two rooms, one dark and one light, and I open the door between them, the dark room becomes lighter before the light one becomes darker. I know this isn’t a heading, but it’s a great footnote.”

The exhibition also included lyrics from Bruce Springsteen’s new protest song “Streets of Minneapolis” addressed to White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem:

This is our blood + our bones

And these whistles + phones

vs Miller +

Noem’s Dirty Lies.

New works of art appear every day. An oil painting depicting a smiling Pretti wearing glasses, a beret and a scarf was among the newest.

Leah Dunbar, 50, burst into tears when she saw this. Dunbar, who lives nearby, brought Somali chicken sambusas for mourning friends out in the cold.

The George Floyd monument marks the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where he was killed in 2020 at the age of 46.

Thinking about his death, he asked himself this question: “What good comes out of this? Do we have room to see the good in our lives?”

“Of course we want it,” he said. “Look, people produce, people create, people share.”