Under cloudy skies, more than 100 North Fork residents gathered Friday evening at Mitchell Park in Greenport for a candlelight vigil honoring Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis earlier this week, and to mourn others they said have died in ICE custody or encounters. Photographer Jeremy Garretson was on hand to chronicle the gathering for the North Fork Sun — one of numerous evening vigils for Good across the East End and around the nation.
OLA of Eastern Long Island executive director Minerva Perez encouraged attendees to volunteer with Operation Stand and Protect, a rapid-response network that monitors and documents ICE activity. The group is seeking to double its volunteer base from 200 to 400 people this year. “You, the community, are all eyes and ears,” she said, urging people to sign up immediately so they could be trained to respond “safely and lawfully” to ICE actions.
Towards the end of the vigil, Pastor Natalie Wimberly of the Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church in Greenport led the group in prayer and song.
“Bless every home here, every family, every soul that are gathered here tonight,” she said. “Let kindness, gentleness, compassion ripple through our streets, may compassion fill our conversations and may love be the language we speak most fluently. May flames from our candles, from our lights, from our phones, May the flames and lights continue to flicker within us, even after they are extinguished.
“May these lights and may we become symbols of our shared commitment to care for one another, to stand together in joy, to stand together in sorrow and grief, to stand together for hope, to stand together for equality, to stand together for diversity, to stand together for justice and to stand together for peace, and together, may we continue to keep the light of hope and justice and equity burning in our hearts.”
After the prayer, Wimberly led the community in singing ‘We Shall Overcome.’
