A week ago, hundreds of Lane County residents convened on the Eugene Federal Building to memorialize Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis hospital nurse killed by federal agents last month while protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in his community.
Friday, hundreds more closed businesses, walked out of school or jobs and gathered across Eugene and Springfield to voice outrage with ICE’s deportation push.
But people around town — and outside of it — aren’t talking about Eugene right now because of vigils and peaceful protests. They’re talking about the clashes between demonstrators and federal agents that followed, about the tear gas smell that drifted for blocks and whether the Eugene Police Department should have declared a riot Friday night…