Bikers at a memorial ride for Alex Pretti in Minneapolis wearing bright yellow vests reading 'Peaceful Observer, Don't Shoot' (Photo / CBS MINNESOTA)
MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO/CBS MINNESOTA) – Thousands of cyclists rode through south Minneapolis in honor of Alex Pretti on Saturday. Cyclists gathered at Washburn Fair Oaks Park, where Dan Breyak passed out hundreds of yellow safety vests. The back of the vests read “PEACEFUL OBSERVER, DON’T SHOOT.”
The memorial ride was organized by Angry Catfish, a Minneapolis bike shop where Pretti was a customer and member of the local cycling community.
Breyak said he gathered donations and worked with local businesses to produce the new vests and provide them to the cycling community.
“sending a message that we are under attack,” Breyak said. “Really letting people know that what the rhetoric they’re hearing that ‘we’re domestic terrorists.’ We’re not. We have a very peaceful message to protect our own neighbors.”
From the park, cyclists rode to the memorials of Pretti and Renee Good. The ride concluded at the VA hospital, where Pretti previously worked as an ICU nurse.
“The Minnesota bike community is one of the most amazing bike communities in the whole nation. You can see it. We’re bidding the world together through love, peace, (and) protest,” Sean, a cyclist, said. “They can see that we can stand together peacefully and do the right thing.”
The memorial ride sparked a worldwide day of remembrance for Pretti. On Saturday, more than 200 memorial rides were held by cycling communities around the world in honor of Pretti.
Pretti’s family released a statement about the bike ride saying “We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the organizers and participants of this ride. Alex loved his community, he loved to bike and he would have loved this ride.”
“No matter where you have leaned or where you have once been, you want to open your eyes. Look at what’s happening and react to it,” Breyak said. “I’m a registered Republican. I’ve been a centrist and I have no tolerance for this… I’ve leaned further and further to the left the more angry I get at this particular administration. And the people that don’t speak up. At this point, silence is complicity. If you’re a Republican and you’re serving your people, you have to look at what’s going on and stand up.”
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