Ourland

It’s easy to become numb to the images of unrest coming out of Minneapolis, which is probably exactly what the Trump Administration wants: for violence itself to feel so routine that it becomes little more than elevator music that then justifies an expansion of power and force. Even so, something about the murder of a 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti feels fundamentally different from everything that preceded it. I try, as a rule, to put myself in the shoes of law enforcement, not because I agree with their actions, but because I think it’s important to be as objective as possible, to play devil’s advocate, if only to keep our own biases and blind spots in check. There doesn’t seem to be any such ambiguity in the killing of Alex Pretti. It’s possible that some evidence will be revealed within the coming days that proves me wrong, and it’s always risky to draw quick conclusions, but based solely on the videos we have right now, I don’t see how this could be considered anything but a public execution. 

The Trump Administration has already started spinning this thing into oblivion, with many people, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller (a boiled egg of a human being who once argued that he shouldn’t have to pick up his own trash) has already labeled Pretti an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist.” That second designation – domestic terrorist – is this administration’s default label for people murdered by federal agents, because it operates as an excuse for the reckless and undisciplined behavior of the agents in question. In the wake of Pretti’s killing, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was caught in an outright lie, claiming that the victim assaulted federal agents with a weapon and was determined to “massacre law enforcement.” She claimed the agents were justified in firing “defensive shots” for their own safety. The video evidence doesn’t support these claims in the least: the only thing in Pretti’s hand when he was thrown to the ground was a cell phone, and the force used by the agents seems totally out of proportion with what was actually happening on the ground. 

It has since come to light, of course, that Pretti was (apparently) lawfully carrying a concealed handgun, but he never seems to reach for it, and it appears that the federal agents didn’t even realize he had a gun until after they pepper-sprayed him, assaulted him, and pinned him to the ground. There’s even evidence to suggest that they removed the handgun from his person before shooting him 10 times in the middle of the street, surrounded by horrified onlookers. It was a shocking, disgusting, and anti-American tragedy that somehow felt so much worse than the Renee Good shooting, which was appalling in its own right. In that incident, a good-faith argument could’ve been made that the agent felt like he was in danger of being run over. There’s no such argument to be made here: Pretti was thrown to the ground and dogpiled by several federal agents and then brutally executed on a cold winter morning in the middle of a major American city. This is a serious incident that demands a serious investigation, but lord knows we won’t get one from the DHS, so the only hope of objectivity rests with Minnesota authorities, who, unlike the federal government, have no skin in the game.

It was a shocking, disgusting, and anti-American tragedy that somehow felt so much worse than the Renee Good shooting, which was appalling in its own right. In that incident, a good-faith argument could’ve been made that the agent felt like he was in danger of being run over. There’s no such argument to be made here: Pretti was thrown to the ground and dogpiled by several federal agents and then brutally executed on a cold winter morning in the middle of a major American city.

The argument from those defending this killing seems to be along the lines of: do you really think it was a good idea to carry a concealed handgun while protesting federal agents? Certainly not; I can’t say I’d recommend it. But again, Pretti seems to have been lawfully carrying, and at no point did he attempt to use his weapon, or even have it visible. He didn’t seem to be breaking any laws, and a federal agent appeared to instigate the physical altercation by tear gassing him at short range. No matter what you think about Pretti’s decision to have a legal gun on his person, it’s a significant leap to claim that he deserved to be shot and killed in broad daylight for doing little more than recording the agents with his phone. Even the NRA has come to Pretti’s defense, calling him a “law-abiding citizen,” which makes me feel like we’ve entered into some kind of bizarro world where nothing is what it used to be. 

Vice-President J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller have blamed the shooting on Pretti himself and also on local law enforcement, but truth be told, those two men are perhaps more to blame than anyone else, considering they’ve emboldened federal agents by assuring them that they have “absolute immunity” when using force against  protestors and immigrants. When two of the most influential people in America are giving these heavily-armed, lightly-trained, and mostly-anonymous agents carte blanche, and also demanding that they round up as many undocumented immigrants as possible, civil rights be damned, then what’s happening in Minneapolis feels like it was inevitable. And given the fact that the current ICE budget is more than any other country’s military budget, save China’s and our own, and also considering that we still have three years left of this draconian administration, it’s logical to assume that things are only going to get worse and more widespread before they get better. What an absolute mess we’ve made in this country. 

One of the most ubiquitous quotes circulating online since Trump took office for a second time, and especially in the wake of the two murders in Minneapolis, is the famous one from 1984, which goes like this: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command…if all others accepted the lie, if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth.” It’s a quote that’s certainly apt for our times, but unlike the characters in Orwell’s classic novel, we don’t have to accept the lie, and we can believe the evidence of our eyes and ears. Regular people with cell phones can record an American citizen being executed by his government in broad daylight, and they can share that video with others, and we can see for ourselves what actually happened, not what the Party leaders are trying to convince us we should be seeing, if only we were True Patriots.