Bruce Springsteen has shared a moving new single ‘Streets Of Minneapolis’ mourning the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both killed at the hands of ICE agents on separate occasions this month.
The song recounts the events that led to the loss of lives in Minneapolis and features the lines “We’ll remember the names of those who died/ On the streets of Minneapolis.” It also directly condemns President Donald Trump – “King Trump’s private army from the DHS/ Guns belted to their coats,” and names the victims – “Two dead left to die on snow-filled streets/ Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”
“I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis,” The Boss said in a statement. “It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
“Stay free.”
Good, 37, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7, triggering mass protests across the country. Pretti, also 37, was killed on January 24 by an officer who shot him 10 times in five seconds less than a mile away from where Good was killed. Both were US citizens and Pretti had been part of the protests unfolding in the wake of Good’s death.
Many, including Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz, have called for ICE to end their presence in the city. Trump and many of his followers, meanwhile, have defended the shooting, saying the agent acted in self-defence.
Springsteen previously called for ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis” during a surprise appearance on stage in New Jersey.
Introducing ‘The Promised Land’, he said: “I wrote this song as an ode to American possibility. It was about a both beautiful but flawed country that we are, and the country that we could be”.
“Right now, we are living through incredibly critical times,” he continued. “The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years, is being tested as it’s never been in modern times.”
Turning his attention to recent news, he added: “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, send a message to this president as the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
He had also spoken about the ICE raids in Los Angeles last summer, saying: “There are communities all across America now that have taken in immigrants and migrant workers. So what’s going on at the moment to me is disgusting, and a terrible tragedy.”
He has also called for Trump to be impeached, saying he should be “consigned to the trash heap of history”, and has also described him as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous”. In October, he endorsed the No Kings movement amid widespread national protests.
Trump has also hit back at the Boss, describing him as “highly overrated”, and a “pushy, obnoxious jerk”.
Elsewhere, the Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere was released last year, with The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White playing the musician. It received a four star review from NME which said: “What Deliver Me From Nowhere shows well is just how commercial success was a distant second to Springsteen – a man who had no choice but to rip those ‘Nebraska’ songs from his wounded heart.”