Video Tells The Tale
And, like with Renee Good, it tells us that the administration is brazenly lying to us.
In the screenshot above, please note that Alex Pretti was holding a phone in his hand moments before he was tackled by ICE operatives. The video shows that he tried to help a woman who had been violently shoved by those operatives before being gang-tackled. The videos clearly show that he was not brandishing a weapon, and claims that he was “an individual [who] wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” as Greg Bovino asserted, are patently absurd (source: The Star-Tribune: Fact check: Video, witnesses contradict some of federal officials’ shooting claims).
Like with the Renee Good shooting, the NYT has provided excellent analysis of the best available video of the summary execution of Alex Pretti: Videos Show Moments in Which Agents Killed a Man in Minneapolis. There is zero in the videos that show anything like “domestic terrorism.”
Bovino and company have done a good job of telling truths that obscure the bigger lies. For example, he stated: “During this operation, an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.”
This is technically correct. He had a handgun on his person.* It was concealed, which, as I understand it, comports with the law of the state in question. But he was not brandishing. He did not draw the weapon. He was holding his phone. Pretti “approached…with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun” the same way he “approached” with shirt, pants, and shoes: they were on his person.
Video shows ICE agents taking the gun from him when he was on the ground. Indeed, it seems that they only discovered it while in the act of tackling him. It appears that upon hearing the word “gun” one of the ICE operatives pulled his weapon and started firing. This was not self-defense. Indeed, it looks to me that they shot him in the back.
It appears he was shot ten times.
A man, on the ground, face down.
Shot.
Ten.
Times.
Watch the videos for yourself if you don’t believe me.
What they show is some altercation in which ICE shoves a woman to the ground (we don’t know why), and Pretti helps her up. This quickly degenerates into a scrum and quickly escalates to a sidewalk execution. My guess is that words were exchanged that ICE didn’t like, so they escalated.
And, like with the murder of Renee Good, we have the administration asserting that the killing was self-defense in the face of domestic terrorism.
Even if you are a reader who thinks that protesters should keep their distance from ICE, or maybe you think that they shouldn’t be protesting at all, please stop and consider that none of this is justified, and that we should expect any law enforcement entity to behave professionally and to de-escalate, not as both of these incidents indicate, lash out in anger at US citizens exercizing their constitutional rights.
Ask yourself, upon watching any of these videos: Is there any defensible reason that ICE couldn’t have just walked away?
To go back to the Good killing, it is worth remembering that the man who shot her had driven past Good’s car (despite the claim that she was blocking the road–video clearly shows this) and walked back to Good and placed himself near the front of the vehicle.
Annoying law enforcement is actually a First Amendment right. The notion that instead of being protected speech, it carries the death penalty without trial is the stuff of authoritarian nightmares.
Again, if you haven’t, please watch the video. If there is a plausible counter-explanation that I am missing, feel free to leave a comment.
(BTW, I know that regular readers will have watched the videos and are sympathetic to my position. My general plea is directed either at non-commenters who might have differing views or to folks on social media brought to this post.)
*For what it is worth, I am not a fan of carrying a firearm, but setting aside my personal preferences, I would note that it was almost certainly being legally carried. Moreover, many in the Republican coalition have told us for decades that carrying a weapon is a good thing and makes us all safer. And yet members of that coalition also use it as a justification for law enforcement to shoot and kill you. The contradiction here is just off the charts.
No. Which raises the question of why they don’t.
They dont walk away for multiple reasons. They have minimal training. They are anonymous and unaccountable. They have clearly been encouraged by their leaders to maximize confrontations and told that they will be protected from consequences.
Steve
Thanks for watching this and reporting. I didn’t really feel I had the stomach for it.
All predictable and predicted.
Yet some still want to treat this regime as a normal administration.
I would put good money on that bet.
I’ll also bet that evidence will be buried.
That has a chantable rhythm.
I propose shouting this at every Republican we encounter.
As James notes in his post today, we need to amplify the backlash.
1. By the same token that prison guards are viewed to be people who couldn’t pass the qualifications to be police officers, I strongly suspect that current ICE agents are not qualified to be prison guards.
2. No dissonance here. The fact that Republicans believe that Republicans should be armed, while the rest of us shouldn’t, has been obvious for most if not all of the 70 plus years I have been on the planet. Additionally, it seems the only Republicans who should be armed are those who are melanin deficient.
Proveme wrong. Please.
Fixer Barbie let everyone know what it’s all about. From Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack:
There’s more at Democracy Dockett
Curious Fixer Barbie implies bringing back law an order means removing the Brownshirts (aka ICE).
@steve222:
And thus far, by and large, there have been no attacks on them. They certainly don’t face an organized, armed opposition.
@Scott F.:
Wow. It really does.
@Scott F.:
Wow. It really does.
Violence isn’t the answer here – they’re ready for violence. The economy is the right tool. National strike. Stop the economy for 48 hours. Buy nothing, make nothing. Watch the stock market. Threaten to do it again. If you pick up a gun they can shoot you – see Iran. If you don’t go to work they can’t make you.
@Michael Reynolds:
Well, they can probably make you do whatever they want at gunpoint.
Wingnuts made Kyle Rittenhouse a hero and Ashli Babbit a martyr.
@Kathy: People are misreading Bondi’s letter. It says nothing about removing ICE, and when Bondi writes “bring back law and order to Minnesota” she means nothing more than that Minnesota (government and people) should submit.
The letter is available here, in a little doc-viewer halfway down the page.
https://www.fox9.com/news/minneapolis-shooting-ag-pam-bondi-urges-gov-walz-support-ice
I’m genuinely baffled people are reading it as if it is Bondi is doing anything other than issuing more demands for submission.
@becca:
And the mob rampaging through the Capitol on January 6, 2021 consisted of “peaceful patriots simply sight-seeing.”
@Michael Reynolds: Sure, things would be better if there was a national strike… but how do you get a critical mass of America to act when they are otherwise vaguely comfortable? You might as well be calling for revolution, or a mass birdwatching campaign.
What is your lever to move Americans into the spot where a national strike is the most comfortable alternative, when a lot of Americans are living paycheck by paycheck and cannot afford to piss off their boss?
I expect things will remain at a stalemate until ICE or some other band of Administration Thugs is provoked to open fire on a crowd. Once there is disorder (Americans love order, and when presented with Law or Order will always pick Order) and that disorder is coming from the administration and too large to ignore, then Americans as a whole might start moving.
I should also point out that I am annoyed that the Democratic leadership is not on TV at every opportunity talking about how this administration is tearing this country apart, and hammering home the idea that all disorder is caused by this administration.
@Gustopher:
Do people really think this will move polls? Change minds? Lol
Anybody who still needs Dem leadership to tell them that Trump sucks is hopelessly stupid and/or will not listen anyway. Dem leadership was on TV daily telling people to vote for Kamala Harris. They refused to listen then but will listen now? LMFAO
Makes no sense for people who say they don’t like don’t trust don’t want this Dem leadership to pretend Dem leadership saying stuff on TV is going to do jack squat. Y’all go from Schumer is not the right messenger to Schumer needs to be on TV more telling Americans who don’t like and have never listened to Schumer how terrible Trump is. Lol wut
It’s 2026. American minds are not opening based on what politicians say on TV. Anybody still talking TV news messaging for politicians in 2026 is waking up with lower lumbar pain and squeaky knees, soon to be fitted for dentures.
@steve222: I wrestle with another thought: While yes, they can be ill-trained and encouraged to make as many apprehensions as possible; I wonder if when being hired, they are “vetted” for personality/emotional problems that may impact their actions. In the worst possible case, if DHS hires psychopaths, or anti-social personality disorders, that may lead to the “over-the-top” excessive aggressive law enforcement.
(some of the ICE/DHS actions suggest that they are seeking confrontations where they can use their badge to degrade people of color and those that might support equal treatment under law)
@DK:
Given that my brother has replaced his personality with tv, Facebook, and Twitter, yes. Many, many people are receiving constant reassurance that the administration is right and good and they should never believe anything else.
Why would you assume that this is only effective from the right?
And what would you have our Democratic leaders do, talk about kitchen table issues like the price of eggs? Because that’s what they have been doing.
These are the people we have who have that level of access. I would like other, better people, but this is what we have right now. I would also like a pony.
CNN is reporting that there is a video that appears to show that an agent took a gun away from Alex Pretti before Pretti was shot dead.
@Gustopher:
When you are incapable of getting your brother to change, why on earth do you think he’s going to have an epiphany because of what a Jew from New York or a black from Brooklyn says on TV? Talk about wanting a pony.
I am also close to Trumpers. They know me. They more or less trust me. They like or love me. And those still in the cult are still not listening to me to anyone else not of their choosing. They gonna listen to politicians they don’t know, have never heard of, don’t like, and/or don’t trust? What theory of politics or psychology is that delulu wishful thinking based on? We’re ten years into this. My clinical psychology training and long work with addicts tells me that at this late stage, change is not coming from any external force. It will come from individually-chosen stimulus or impetus or not at all.
If ten years into Trump you’ve failed miserably to convince your family and friends to do the right thing, neither can Schumer, Jeffries, a black lady or slick-haired matinee idol from San Francisco, a gay dude from Indiana, a socialist from Vermont, or anyone else outside of their choosing. Sorry (not sorry) to throw cold water on the comforting lie that Democratic politicians are omniscient omnipotents with more influence on your loved ones than you.
And over here in the real world, there is no shortage of major Democratic, Republican, and independent political leaders who have shouted the dangers of Trump’s fascist white supremacy at a constant clip for a decade. But Americans are good at telling ourselves comforting lies as we are at anything.
ABC just reported Dr’s signed an affidavit saying Pretti had 3 gunshots in the back, one in his upper left chest and one in his neck.
Cowards.
Muderers.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Lots of MAGA commenters are pretty much asserting that the 2nd amendment only applies to “law-abiding” Americans, which excludes anyone participating in a “violent protest”.
The even-further-to-the-right-than-the-NRA Gun Owners of America can see the trap:
@DK:
I have been having the same experience those types. They believe fox news and facebook posts over facts because it’s what they want to believe. You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.
The new argument, since the video makes it clear Pretti hadn’t touched his gun, is that he was supposed to announce he had a gun as soon as he engaged with “law enforcement”.
Which is (a) ridiculous and not even possible under the circumstances; (b) not an excuse for firing at an unarmed man (they had already grabbed his gun); and (c) something an NRA apologist would argue was unconstitutional.