Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse with the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, was described by friends and family as a “kindhearted soul” who cared deeply about the veterans he served.
That was until he was killed by Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24.
Pretti’s death came just two weeks after the killing of another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, at the hands of ICE agents.
The federal government and the Department of Homeland Security were quick to frame Pretti’s death as a crime against their masked secret police.
Greg Bovino, a senior official in the U.S. Border Patrol, said that Pretti approached agents “with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” and that in fear for their lives, agents fired “defensive shots” to prevent a “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” situation. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and an assassin.
However, there is a problem with their story.
Similarly to Good’s death, the incident was recorded by observers. Video showed Pretti assisting another protester who had been pushed to the ground by Border Patrol. Pretti, who is seen standing between the protester and the agents with a phone in his right hand, is pepper-sprayed and then shoved. Pretti is not seen holding a gun.
With several agents swarming Pretti, he is sent to the ground. Video shows the agents removing his legally possessed gun from his concealed holster at his waist. After the gun is seen clearly removed and, while he is still on the ground, he is then pistol-whipped by one of the officers and then shot multiple times within a five-second period.
The video is nothing short of enraging to watch. But in an America where citizens are being harassed and kidnapped by masked, jack-booted thugs, it’s unfortunately not surprising.
This is not some flaw in the system or a mistake. If it were, immigration officials would have re-evaluated their tactics after Good’s death. Instead, they doubled down and intensified their show of force in Minneapolis.
It is all part of the program.
Despite the clear video evidence, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem offered another defense for Pretti’s killing during a press conference on Jan. 24, saying that the protests he was involved in became “violent when you have someone showing up with weapons,” as if legally possessing a gun in the United States is a crime.
Praise for the bestial tactics of force against anti-ICE protestors goes beyond the president’s most public and loyal sycophants.
Just last Friday, a day before Pretti was killed, about 100 UA students organized a protest of ICE and the killing of Renee Good. Counterprotestors prayed for ICE agents and cheered on their favorite brownshirt ruffians. This celebration of state-sponsored violence against citizens in the face of clear evidence is not only callous — it’s disgusting.
Many to the left of center of America’s politics have been extremely wary at using the “f-word” to describe this far-right authoritarian, militaristic, forcible, violent oppression of opposition that has unfolded in America’s streets in the past year. But it’s time we call it what it is. Fascism..
However you look at this, things seem to just be getting started. An authoritarian regime relies on the citizenry to grow tired and tap out of the chaos it sows. As citizens, we owe it to our fellow Americans to see through the lies and chaos and not exhaust our fight against injustice in whatever form it presents itself. Whether it’s sharing information about ICE activity in your city, sharing stories to your friends on Instagram or Facebook or participating in a protest, if there ever was a time to do anything, the time is now.
