Jarrod:
00:00:00
One of the biggest takeaways I had, and it wasn't until like
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after everything had happened, was,
I think that Alex truly deserved
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like one last bicycle ride, right?
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People that genuinely care about
one another came together in
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that moment, in, one of the most
beautiful ways I can think of.
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Marley: Hey everyone.
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Ellen and Marley here.
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We're sharing a short episode today.
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It's a conversation we had with
Jarrod Alder before our DFL
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discussion in the previous episode.
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Ellen: Jarrod was a key organizer
of Minneapolis's Alex Pretti
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memorial ride on January 31st,
held just a few days after Pretti's
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murder at the hands of ice agents.
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The ride in Minneapolis saw over
5,000 participants and there were
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more than 300 rides around the world.
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Marley: This is a story of riding
as resistance of how the cycling
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community came together to honor
one of our own and to take a stand.
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We hope you take away a feeling of
hope that you are not alone in feeling
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feelings about what is happening, and
leave with one example of how everyone
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can find a way to oppose what's happening.
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Ellen: As of airing this episode,
at least six people have been
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killed by ICE this year, and ICE
is still active across Minnesota.
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News outlets are reporting as many as
500 agents are still on the ground,
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which while being reported as a drawdown
is still a huge and disruptive presence
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for ways to support our neighbors.
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In the North.
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We've linked to a Reddit thread with
links to dozens of organizations.
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Nationwide, you can also call your
representatives and voice your opinion.
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Here is our conversation with Jarrod.
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Jarrod: I met Alex like a few weeks
prior and he just came in and he was
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like, this breath of fresh air and
we hit it off and I was like, shit.
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You know, like in being in retail for
like 26 years and the bike industry,
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you can count on a couple hands,
how many folks really stick out
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from like a first instance meeting.
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And that was, he was
definitely one of 'em.
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And we kind of, I realized all of it
when we started piecing stuff together
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and I was just like, I think we
were all completely distraught here.
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And, um, I think a lot of folks were
just like, what do we, like, what do we
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do to feel like some sort of normalcy
and also like honor someone and, was
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like, man, we should do a bike ride.
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And then someone was like,
Hey, we're talking about this.
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And I was like, let's just
all come together on this
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thing and see what happens.
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I don't really ever utilize any of
like the backend of like folks I've
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met over the last 26 years of it.
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But this was one of the few times
where I was like, alright, well every
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single person that I've made contact
with, I'm gonna reach out to for this.
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And it's, uh, it's good.
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I held onto the cards that
long in my entire existence.
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I think it
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was a worthwhile cause for it.
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I don't know, it's like the only thing
you can think to do in the moment.
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Ellen: Kind of a resistance
through joy situation.
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Jarrod: I said that.
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I was like, I mean, it, it really is.
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It's like a riding bicycles in an
occupation is for sure an absolute
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and utter form of resistance, right?
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Like we are existing, we are
occupying the street, we are taking
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everything back in that moment.
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I don't know that I thought
this way in initially.
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I was like, I just didn't think
it necessarily would happen.
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But
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So like everyone that has been locked
in their houses for like weeks, uh,
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residents were coming out of their
houses and just standing and like
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they were outside at the most sunny
time of the day for like 45 minutes.
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I mean, the rollout was
45 minutes to an hour.
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There were well over 5,000 people.
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And I, you.
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When I realized like that was what
was happening, we were all just
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blown away because you shouldn't feel
uncomfortable to go out of your house.
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Like, that's fucking ridiculous.
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I just, I, I feel very powerless, right?
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Like we are in Minneapolis now.
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Uh, you can't really stand up or
you're gonna get like your, DNA taken
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and, fingerprinted and be federally
charged if you, stand up or in the
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worst scenario what we saw happen.
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You know, like you get fucking
murdered in the streets.
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It's weird, you know, like you
feel super powerless and it's like,
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what is the one thing we can do?
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We can all come together and in this
group of people in this mass, right?
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And critical masses have
proven it for years.
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Like we are fully united
and full of power.
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And I think that, you know, it
ended up becoming like the largest
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critical mass ride globally.
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I don't maybe this ever happened,
um, some folks had said,
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Ellen: it's really high up there.
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Yeah.
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Jarrod: and I think it just
shows that everyone's on the
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same page with it, right?
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And like, we are not divided when
it comes to being morally just,
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and we are not divided when it
comes to loving our neighbors.
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And I think that at least for a moment,
the world felt, uh, I don't wanna say
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normal, but it felt like a moment of
togetherness that hadn't existed prior.
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Ellen: Felt like it was less upended.
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Jarrod: Yeah.
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It was really heavy and there was
a moment that it wasn't heavy.
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And I think that that joy in that
moment was that resistance, right?
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Like you're just like, you can't
take my heart away from us.
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You can't take our neighbors away from us.
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Ellen: Yeah.
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I think what you said
about power is important.
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I think a lot of people feel like
we've lost our agency in what we can
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do to fight back and be effective,
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Jarrod: yeah.
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Ellen: the Alex Pretti rides,
especially the one in Minneapolis,
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but having so many across the country
and the world too, think gave sense
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of power back to a lot of people.
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Jarrod: Yeah, we've
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Ellen: not in a position
where you can stand up and
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possibly die, what can you do?
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Jarrod: Right.
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Ellen: show up en masse and say,
we are not standing for this.
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Jarrod: Absolutely.
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Cause if someone pulled up on
us during that, like we all
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had each other's backs, right?
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Like, no one was left behind.
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And different folks exist,
exist in different places.
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Like, I've got no children, i'm
loud, I'm very tall and massive, I
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command space wherever I am generally.
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And, you know, utilizing that, if they
take me away, then they take me away.
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But it's just like, we need
to stand up for everyone.
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And if we have the ability and power
to stand up, like someone that has
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children, can't, you know what I mean?
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So just knowing our roles in community,
knowing who our neighbors are, like,
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uh, working with mutual aid groups that
you may not even have known existed.
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And if you don't, you know,
create structure for new ones,
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I think we're gonna need to
see that happen more and more.
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You know, they're saying it's winding
down, but it's not winding down.
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Nothing's changed yesterday.
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They ran someone off the road in St.
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Paul.
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you know, I think people are, getting
to the point where like they're getting
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sad and they're getting more broken
and it's very hard to like stand day
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in and day out and try and exist in
this society and like act normal.
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Ellen: Mm-hmm.
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Jarrod: It just doesn't happen.
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It's just like really hard to, hard
to fake I'm supposed to talk about
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bicycle products on the internet, right?
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And I know there is a point to it, like
we have folks that need paychecks and
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it's like, that moment existing on a
bicycle is maybe that's your reset, right?
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So that you can keep going.
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I know that like riding a bike,
Mid South specifically, right?
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We're talking about like that event
every year for me had been that
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like critical reset in my life
and I needed it for so many years.
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Ellen: I think also everything you said,
I've seen echoed of how do you figure out
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how to resist in the way that feels safe
and authentic to you and then to find
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these moments of joy so that you can rest.
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Witnessing Minneapolis and saying it's
real and saying it's true is important to
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the people who are in Minneapolis because
then they know they're not forgotten.
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They know what they're fighting for and
honestly, seeing Minneapolis not stand
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down and putting up many middle fingers
to what's going on is what gives me hope
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that we're not repeating history in a like
true parallel, not like we're obviously
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repeating some history and also we know
what fascism looks like and we know how
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to stand up against it and, um, don't go
to war with winter people in the winter.
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Jarrod: Yeah, they fucked up.
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Like
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Ellen: Um, but it, it created such
a blueprint that I know people in
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Missouri are looking to, to say,
if this comes to us, we know how
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to organize and we're going to
organize now so that we are ready.
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Jarrod: There is no time like the present.
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I think that's the biggest
thing to take away.
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If you're not already organizing
or organized, then you're going
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to, you're not like left behind.
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But it is harder now that like they have
adapted and they are like doing things
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like, you know, not dressing in camouflage
and they're trying to like, blend in
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and act like they're your neighbor.
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And, and the wildest cases,
they are our neighbors.
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They're just the shittiest
version of our neighbors.
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And, um, and that is just like,
that is super detrimental, right?
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Like from a standpoint
of like, who do I trust?
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So I think it's important to like actually
know your neighbors and talk with them.
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Um, get together like have community
dinners, one of the things I always
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loved about Minneapolis when I would
visit over the last 10 years was
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exactly how it felt like welcoming
and loving and inviting even to
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someone who liked didn't live here.
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Ellen: If anything you take away from
this conversation, dear listeners,
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it is to go plan a walk plan, a bike
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Jarrod: yeah.
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Ellen: door knocking thing to where
you actually meet everybody so that
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you do know what's going on when
someone incorrect knocks on your door.
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Jarrod: Yeah, for sure.
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Marley: It's really interesting.
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So I live in a big apartment building
and I'm thinking about, how do we
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organize within this apartment building
that probably 500 people live in?
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Like we've got power here.
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Um, and like, I've been talking
to a couple neighbors and we're
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like, we're setting up signal chats
and we're figuring things out.
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You never know what's going to happen.
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But, um, it feels like there's
a lot of power in being in like
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a concentrated building too.
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Ellen: Agreed.
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Jarrod: I'm actually, I'm moving from
a house that I'm in now, and then I'm
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gonna move to an apartment complex just
to be like closer to work and stuff.
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And one of the exciting things
about that is like how easy it
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is to know your neighbors and
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you know.
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Mm-hmm.
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Marley: Yeah.
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And so many cute dogs!
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Ellen: Beth, was there anything
you wanted to chime in?
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Beth: I was just going to ask,
it sounds like it had, was a
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really positive experience.
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I'm just curious, like were
there any negative experiences?
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00:09:58
Jarrod: Not that I've heard from
folks that were riding their
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bicycle, like we had medics and
we had like, armed security on the
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ride, which is kind of crazy to say.
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00:10:07
And none of that had to,
be utilized fortunately.
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00:10:10
Um, but I think with any critical
mass ride or style of that is
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00:10:14
you're always gonna have someone
like driving and they're like, oh,
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didn't really have any, like,
too many boos, mostly like
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00:10:20
positive cheering through every
intersection we went through.
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00:10:24
We were corking like a
block up in most cases.
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00:10:27
So like, really, truly, like, you're
not gonna come to the ride and have to
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00:10:31
turn around, like you're gonna be turned
around before you would get to the ride.
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00:10:34
Like we had over 50 marshals and we
certainly didn't have, uh, didn't
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00:10:37
have enough for 5,000 people.
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00:10:39
I would think that 150 marshals
would still be lacking the
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00:10:42
numbers that we needed.
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00:10:43
But again, like when we all set out
to do it, I was like, cool, if we
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00:10:46
have like 150 or 200 people show
up, like that'll be exceptional.
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00:10:50
Right?
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00:10:51
And then we have like 300 rides happen.
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00:10:53
It's just one of those wild
scenarios where you, like, you
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00:10:55
believe everything in your heart.
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:
00:10:56
Like where there is this amount of good
that's still left in the world, this like
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00:10:59
morally just and opposing body of people.
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00:11:03
And then you just find out that
it's like the whole fucking world
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:
00:11:06
is joining in the resistance.
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00:11:07
Knowing that, folks in Germany and
Finland and the UK and Australia, and
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00:11:13
from nearly every state in the United
States, has Minneapolis's back is amazing.
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00:11:21
Folks that weren't even riding bikes,
they were just like, Hey, I just
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00:11:25
wanna support what you're doing.
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00:11:26
It's like people that genuinely care
about one another came together in
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00:11:31
that moment, in, one of the most
beautiful ways I can think of like
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:
00:11:35
riding a bicycle saved my life.
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00:11:37
Um, and it felt pretty magical
to share that with everyone.
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:
00:11:42
One of the biggest takeaways I
had, and it wasn't until like
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:
00:11:44
after everyone rode bikes was,
I think that Alex truly deserved
239
:
00:11:48
like one last bicycle ride, right?
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:
00:11:51
Like, at the very least.
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:
00:11:53
And we were all able to come together
around the world to give him like one
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00:11:58
last trip, like truly around the world.
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00:12:00
And that that is the magic of the bicycle
and that is the magic of like community.
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:
00:12:04
And um, that felt pretty incredible.
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:
00:12:08
Ellen: Thank you for sharing all of this.
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:
00:12:09
Jarrod: Yeah,
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:
00:12:10
Ellen: And thank you for
your work organizing this.
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:
00:12:13
Jarrod: you bet.
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:
00:12:14
Ellen: We love you in Minneapolis.
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:
00:12:17
Marley: So sympathy crier,
like what you're saying is.
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:
00:12:21
Jarrod: That's joyful crying right there.
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00:12:22
Like I just know that we're stronger and
I know that if anything, it brought us
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00:12:25
all together, in a really magical way.
