Outside the Beltway

Source: Screenshot from Bovino’s X account.

Bovino Needs to Read the First Amendment

Gestapo is as Gestapo does.

Steven L. Taylor
16

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Source: Screenshot from Bovino’s X account.

So, in the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s execution on the streets of Minneapolis by masked ICE operatives, we get the following advice from Greg Bovino.

Bovino: "When politicians, community leaders, & some journalists engage in that heated rhetoric we keep talking about, when they make the choice to vilify law enforcement calling law enforcement 'Gestapo' or using the term 'kidnapping,' that is a choice & there are actions & consequences."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-25T20:03:55.202Z

I will say this, for anyone who needs to hear it. Citizens have a constitutional right to protest and to speak. This includes annoying ICE with whistles, horns, and words (yes, even harsh words). Political leaders (and non-leaders) have the right to criticize other political leaders.

This includes calling the actions of ICE kidnapping and disappearances. This includes comparing them to the Gestapo.

If you are a person who believes that opposition politicians and common citizens don’t have these rights, you don’t believe in our constitutional order; you don’t believe in democracy.

And if you think that annoying ICE (by filming, by helping others ICE has shoved, even exchanging heated words with them) can be seen as some kind of contribution to summary execution, you don’t believe in the constitution, you don’t believe in democracy, and you are supporting fascism.

If you find yourself having to justify, in any way, law enforcement firing as many as 10 shots at an unarmed man (they took his holstered gun BEFORE they shot him) face down on the ground, perhaps you should get off social media and engage in some quiet contemplation and/or just admit, proudly, what you are supporting so the rest of us can know what we are dealing with.

This is a moment for moral clarity, not a moment for rooting for our team.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Alex Pretti was engaging in free speech, free assembly, and was petitioning the government for redress of grievances, as are many, many US citizens, including the leaders of Minnesota. This is my preferred version of America.

If your version of America is one in which we should all sit down and shut up lest we contribute in some way to our own execution, that’s a fascist perversion of America.*

*This is a lightly edited post that I originally posted to a Facebook thread, but it so fit Bovino’s bleatings, that I adpated it slightly here.

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16 responses to “Bovino Needs to Read the First Amendment”

  1. Rob1 Avatar
    Rob1

    So there are “consequences” for calling Bovino and cohort, “Gestapo.” Consequences like getting shot in the face five times as with Renee Goode.

    Bovino, your side of the divide told us exactly who you were when you gave Kyle Rittenhouse a pass for his murderous behavior. You want America silent and inert to abuse, or dead. You are not fit to serve.

    10
  2. Rob1 Avatar
    Rob1

    Bovino Needs to Read the First Amendment

    Chances are he read it, and chooses to ignore it.

    7
  3. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    @Rob1:
    As Steven notes…

    …and/or just admit, proudly, what you are supporting so the rest of us can know what we are dealing with.

    This is a moment for moral clarity, not a moment for rooting for our team.

    … what Bovino is doing is worse than ignoring the First Amendment. He is denying its meaning. This is why calling out Trump administration lackeys on the fascism and Gestapo tactics is so important.

    I think everyone can wrap their head around the idea that desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures. But, I think these Trumpists can’t convince themselves that the situation with immigration enforcement (even with their blatant mischaracterizations of the “threat” immigration poses) is desperate enough to justify their clearly desperate jackboot tactics. I expect they’d like to admit what they are really up to and to do so proudly, but they lack the courage. It is easier to insist people deny what they see with their own eyes than to square with themselves that they are willingly doing evil things because they somehow believe they must.

    And amen to Steven on his call for Trump and his enablers to simply admit what they truly stand for and support. Proud Nazis running our government would be easier for the country to deal with than the Nazis play acting as Nuns we are faced with now.

    6
  4. Charley in Cleveland Avatar
    Charley in Cleveland

    Bovino was willing to risk a contempt charge in federal district court in Chicago with his blatantly dishonest testimony about the use of chemicals to control the crowds there, so it should come as no surprise that he would take his dissembling to CNN. Dana Bash was left stammering at the audacity of Bovino’s brazen bullshit, but he never batted an eye. Shamelessness and mendacity are the coin of the realm in Trump 2.0.

    5
  5. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    I keep reading “Bovino” as “bovine.”

    2
  6. Rob1 Avatar
    Rob1

    @CSK: I keep reading “Bovino” as “Gestapo.”

    2
  7. Rob1 Avatar
    Rob1

    Bovino and the rest of the state-terror MAGA miscreants seem to think America has forgotten about the thousands and thousands of images and videos of MAGA protesters standing on courthouse steps all over this country with open carry firearms including high capacity assault rifles. So we know they are liars.

    4
  8. Rob1 Avatar
    Rob1

    If someone walks like a Gestapo duck, quacks like a Gestapo duck, and shoots non-threatening civilians in the face and back like a Gestapo duck, then they are likely to be a Gestapo duck.

    (sincere apologies to all actual feathered ducks for this analogy)

    3
  9. Sleeping Dog Avatar
    Sleeping Dog

    I read Bovino as Heinrich Muller.

    3
  10. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @CSK:

    “Bovino” is literally the Spanish word for “bovine.”

    5
  11. Daryl Avatar
    Daryl

    Gestapo Greg isn’t the only one.
    Kash Patel;

    “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.
    It’s that simple,” he added. “You don’t have a right to break the law.”

    Patel, an attorney, was apparently absent the day they taught law at law school.

    5
  12. al Ameda Avatar
    al Ameda

    Anyone else here make the mistake of confusing
    Greg Bovino with Dan Bongino?

    I’m not one to make excuses but, it’s not hard to do as they both have a ‘I’m here to arrest people and do legal process later if necessary’ arbeit style, and both have a severe ‘dispatches from the bunker’ Stephen Miller look.

    3
  13. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    … and the Fourth Amendment.

    1
  14. Jay L. Gischer Avatar
    Jay L. Gischer

    A friend of mine contends that Bovina dresses like a Nazi to “troll” the liberals. I think they’ve lost track of what they actually think and what is “satire”.

    And yeah. Freedom of speech is a thing right wingers used to sound off about endlessly.

    Long ago, I decided that what I did was far more important than what I said. This is what drove me toward what temperance I might display in my speech. It also fueled an evaluative paradigm I have about people: The people who give the fiery speeches aren’t necessarily the people who are most effective at carrying out the goal of said fiery speeches. In fact, I think there may be a negative correlation.

    4
  15. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @Rob1: @Sleeping Dog:

    😀 😀

    @Kathy:

    😀 😀

  16. dazedandconfused Avatar
    dazedandconfused

    @Daryl:

    O really Kash?
    Someone tell this couple.

    Seriously though, he’s not wrong. Bring heat to a tense crowd situation is not a great idea. Some states have laws against that but not all.

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