WHEREAS, Keith Porter Jr. was a devoted father of two daughters, a loving son who called his mother every morning, and a beloved colleague. When he fired celebratory shots into the air on New Years Eve a common occurrence, an off-duty ICE officer took it upon himself to get into tactical gear, break and enter Keith’s residence, and gun Keith down despite zero evidence of threat; and
WHEREAS, Renee Nicole Good was a mother, writer, poet, activist and legal observer. While following orders to move her vehicle, Renee was gunned down by a veteran ICE agent - three bullets that killed her on-site as ICE agents actively prevented her from receiving emergency medical attention; and
WHEREAS, Alex Pretti was an intensive care unit nurse who treated veterans with severe medical problems. Pretti was carrying a licensed firearm; he was attempting to provide medical attention to a protestor that ICE had tackled nearby, when ICE agents forcibly removed his legal firearm, illegally discharged his gun while it was in possession of an ICE officer, and then point-blank executed Alex, labeling him a domestic terrorist despite his having broken no law and despite his active work caring for military veterans; and
WHEREAS, Chaofeng Ge and Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir were both found dead in immigration detention centers in Pennsylvania, with no public conclusions to date about how they died while in custody. Parady La was found unresponsive in his cell and died shortly after, an unnecessary tragedy born of inadequate medical protocols; his conditions immediately worsened upon his detention, and his death is more evidence that surviving such detention requires optimal health and treatment that detention centers are incapable of providing. Countless families have been separated in inhumanely appalling fashion, from a five-year-old boy used as bait to a mother beaten away from her child as a ring of masked ICE agents gleefully cheer on a colleague actively abusing authority and acting outside the scope of professional conduct. The death toll imposed on people across America by ICE continues to rise without an end in sight; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby recognizes the lives and legacies and expresses condolences for the deaths of Keith Porter Jr., Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, Chaofeng Ge, Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, Parady La and the countless individuals who have been killed, disappeared or tortured in the past year.
End