“I assumed I was going to die,” Matthew Allen, a.k.a. Nur-D, told Rolling Stone.
The Twin Cities rapper tells the outlet he woke up ready to enjoy a “regular day.” However, after witnessing a flurry of social media posts online about the ongoing anti-ICE protests, Allen realized he needed to join his fellow Minnesotans. For the past few weeks, the organization has been violently occupying the city, leading to multiple raids, as well as the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Allen, with his wife by his side, attended the protest; however, it didn’t take long for things to take a turn for the worse. Not long after arriving, Allen was chased, violently slammed to the ground, and maced by ICE agents. “My name is Matthew James Obadiah Allen,” he screamed, pinned to the ground, “I have done nothing at all….I’m a United States citizen.”
“This is real… You could die just for saying, ‘I don’t like this.’” Allen Says
Allen, who was eventually released from detention, noted that while he feared for his life, he wasn’t going to “help” agents make the situation into something it wasn’t.
He added, “This is grabbing someone in the street who has done nothing wrong and killing them, and if that’s what we’re doing — I’ve already seen you do it today — that’s why any of us are even here right now. Most of us would rather be doing what we love to do on a Saturday morning.”
Speaking with CBS News Minnesota, Allen noted the ongoing tensions between residents and ICE agents have become “life or death.” He continues: “This is real… You could die just for saying, ‘I don’t like this.’” Allen, a longtime community organizer, says he went to the protest to voice his “hurt and pain” and exercise his First Amendment right. “I just don’t think it’s cool to kill people on the street.”
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