Kora Melia Johnson is a professional musician with an engineering degree, born and raised in Houghton, Michigan. Those who have seen the locally beloved band Dead North will remember the woman on the fiddle. She moved to Minneapolis after graduating from Michigan Tech last April. She now lives a few blocks from where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by ICE agents on Jan. 24. Johnson responded to a request from a community network for observers and medics to attend the scene following the gunshots.
“I’m a Wilderness First Responder so I went with a backpack full of medical supplies. When we got there, [the corner of Nicollet and 26th] was flooding with ICE officials. They were putting up tape, and all of the observers were on the correct side of the tape. We were taking videos and watching. People are yelling, but people are upset. It’s not a threat. Someone threw a single snowball, it crossed the police line, that tape. And immediately, ICE officials broke through their own line and started chasing people down the street. They set off tear gas and flash bangs. People were shoved to the ground, multiple times. I watched ICE officials reach for their guns. We ran back down the street and just kind of regrouped. Just trying to wipe our faces off, and spit. Your throat closes up so fast when [tear gas] gets deployed and gets in your lungs. It was hard to see.”
“I was talking to my parents a few days ago, and they wanted to know, during anything I observe, what’s a sign for me that things are going to escalate and I need to leave? And I didn’t have an answer for them because there are no clear steps to what ICE does. ICE didn’t say ‘Get back,’ or ‘Disperse. If you don’t we’re going to use tear gas.’ There was no warning at that corner. You don’t get a chance.”
“I have friends who have been detained by ICE for using their voice and peacefully observing… What we’re looking at now is not about immigration status or taking crime off our streets… It’s clear when ICE is deporting and detaining children, detaining Indigenous people, and arresting members of the press.”
“What ICE is doing goes against everything we’re supposed to stand for as a country. All we are doing is trying to protect our neighbors and stand up for what is right. Renee Good and Alex Pretti weren’t at a protest. They were just out in their community.” said Johnson. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were U.S. citizens killed by ICE in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, and Jan. 24, respectively. The federal administration portrayed them as terrorists with intent to harm ICE agents. This has been discounted after videos of their shootings and testimonies of their character have been made public.
“Social media makes it look like there are these hot spots that everybody goes to, and that to stand down, you just don’t go to those things. But in reality, this is happening on your front doorstep, on your walk to work.” Johnson works at a venue two doors down from where Alex Pretti was killed.
“When you pass people in the street now, they’re bundled up, they’re wearing a whistle, they’ve got bright colors on, they smile and say hi… It’s organized, but leaderless.” Johnson is a part of the robust observation networks the community has built in response to ICE violence. “I stand outside a school during pick-up and drop-off to make sure ICE doesn’t take elementary school kids.”
When asked what the average Michigan Tech student can do, Johnson invoked a class that is required of all undergraduate students. “In Composition we learned how to look for sources and prove our media. So look for content that is peer reviewed and reputable, and then trust what you see. It’s hard to trust what you see, especially with A.I., but you need to learn how to identify that, because this is not all A.I. This is happening. Understand how these things are being called legal by some parts of our government, and illegal by other parts of our government. Educate yourself, and then talk to your families, your hometowns. I don’t think that you can agree with what ICE is doing, unless you just don’t understand what ICE is doing here.”
