We are almost out of time.
Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
This is not ok. We are not ok. We are approaching the Rubicon and running out of time to correct the course.
Let’s start with a basic premise that everyone, whatever your political views, should agree on – law enforcement, regardless of their particular affiliation (local police, FBI, ICE, BP etc.) should not kill people. That is and should be the starting point. From there, we can and should acknowledge that there are times when lethal force is acceptable. Law enforcement should be empowered to deploy lethal force to protect themselves and civilians from an imminent risk of severe bodily injury or death. But the use of deadly force is justified in only those circumstances. It is not ethical, moral, justifiable or legal to use deadly force against any unarmed person (regardless of whether they are a known criminal), anyone fleeing arrest or an individual resisting arrest (unless they are themselves creating an imminent risk of bodily harm or death). Of course, it is extremely difficult to make these calls in the midst of stressful, chaotic and high intensity circumstances. We cannot expect ordinary people to make the correct decisions under such duress. It is for that reason that we are supposed to carefully screen who we give a badge and a gun to. It is also why law enforcement needs to be rigorously trained, retrained and retrained again. It is a privilege to wear the badge and carry a gun. But more than anything, it is a burden and a responsibility. They are empowered to serve and protect, not intimidate, suppress and harm.
ICE, BP and the Trump Administration have lost sight of these basic principles. I stayed silent on the tragedy of Renee Good. Like everyone I watched those videos again and again and I drew my own conclusions. Ms. Good, a mother of young children, was not trying to harm agents. The smear campaign levelled against her by JD Vance and MAGA mouthpieces was patently ridiculous. She was trying to leave. She did nothing to warrant her death. That is the conclusion I drew from watching all of those videos. Frankly, I think it is the only honest conclusion.
At the same time, I can acknowledge that it is a very easy assessment for me to make as an outsider with the benefit of multiple camera angles. I can admit that this is Monday morning quarterback shit. I also know that the agent has a valid point-of-view that needs to be considered. He was thrust into a hostile environment on orders from superiors that give little heed to the rules, norms and laws that define how law enforcement is supposed to operate. Each day he wakes up, puts on the uniform and enters a situation that is increasingly volatile. On the streets he encounters anger and hate directed at him and his fellows. Each day his stress increases as his anger and resentment grow. He probably felt like he was under siege. Then, in the midst of another explosive situation a woman in an SUV begins to move her vehicle while he and other agents are standing next to it. It is not so hard to imagine that this highly stressed-out, angry and isolated agent felt he was in danger and acted on instinct to protect himself. He was wrong. But is his error so inconceivable? He did not wake up that day with a desire to kill anyone, just as Ms. Good did not put her foot on the gas with an intent to harm. All of these things can be true at once.
I do not blame Ms. Good for what happened to her. Neither do I entirely blame that agent. But, there is fault in that situation. Ms. Good’s blood is dripping from the collective hands of an Administration that is willfully manufacturing the circumstances that lead to violence. This Administration is moving from community to community, building a fire, stoking the flames then dumping gasoline on those flames. When it explodes, as it has in Minneapolis, they blame the citizens who are standing up to the lawless enforcement strategies.
I’ll explain. It is true President Obama deported more people than any other president. It is also true that President Biden dropped the ball on immigration. So, the problem is not that the Trump Administration is enforcing our immigration laws. The problem is the manner in which they are going about it. First, primarily “blue” cities are being targeted for these major enforcement operations. They are selectively deploying agents to intimidate and suppress the communities from which their political opponents draw strength.
Second, they are ignoring the basic constitutional right of all people to due process of law. Due process does not mean picking up an individual suspected to be undocumented and shipping them to a foreign country. Due process means allowing our legal system to fully adjudicate each case. That is, after all, what our constitution promises. Third, these enforcement operations are not carefully considered investigations followed by meticulously orchestrated arrests. Instead, we have brute squads patrolling communities and indiscriminately arresting immigrants and citizens alike and often disappearing them without any judicial review. Fourth, they are using brutal and violent tactics against nonviolent suspects and peaceful protestors. Worst of all, these lawless and harmful tactics are not being discouraged by this Administration. The lawless and violent behavior of agents is being justified, encouraged and even celebrated by this Administration.
The Trump Administration has stoked the tension into a conflagration. Every day they send stressed out, emotionally unstable and, under trained agents into that conflagration. Mistakes (read: violent civilian deaths) are not just likely under such circumstances, they are inevitiable.
Of course, MAGA argues that it is the protestors that are creating the problems. If they just stayed home and out of agent’s way no one would come to harm. But we are Americans, and we are supposed to be protected by the Constitution. We are guaranteed the right to free speech, the right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances (First Amendment). Is it really the argument that the exercise of rights guaranteed by the Constitution gives lawless paramilitary a license to kill? (hint: that is not on the list justifications we talked about above). Do we really expect Americans to sit on their hands while our Constitution is being torn-up and paramilitary brutes are invading their communities? That isn’t really what Americans do. Moreover, we need only consider the causation chain – protestors and demonstrators only appeared when masked paramilitary were deployed to our streets utilizing lawless and violent tactics.
Which leads us to the latest civilian killing by ICE/BP in Minneapolis. Have you seen these videos? This is worse. Much worse. There are probably still some facts to learn. But we know that Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, tried to protect a woman that was being violently attacked by an ICE/BP agent. For daring to protect a woman from harm he was brutally sprayed with a chemical irritant. Apparently, that wasn’t enough punishment for showing some humanity. Seven fully armed and masked ICE/BP agents took to him the ground… and then he was shot. After he was shot, and no longer moving he was shot again multiple times. It is hard to imagine how this could possibly be justified. This is the second killing by federal agents in Minneapolis in less than three weeks.
Renee Good did not need to die. However, her death should have been a wake-up call. Her death should have prevented what happened to Alex Pretti. The Trump Administration, ICE and BP could have and should have taken her death as an opportunity to reconsider their tactics. They could have and should have used Ms. Good’s death as a chance to turn the heat down. They could have issued carefully considered messaging around Ms. Good’s death, displayed a modicum of empathy for her and her family, cooperated with local law enforcement and promised to carefully and fairly investigate the circumstances. Instead of any degree of measured restraint, they directed their efforts to demonizing a dead mother and labeling her a domestic terrorist. Rather than fairly investigate they shouted into their microphones and megaphones that the agent was justified and correct. They insisted that agents could exercise violent and deadly force with impunity and devoid of consequence. Instead of turning down the heat they deployed more agents and tried to exact political retribution against leaders who spoke out against the tragedy.
When presented with an opportunity to douse the flames, this Administration chose gasoline. They took an awful tragedy and weaponized it to justify and increase their lawlessness. The fact that it happened again on January 24 to Alex Pretti, is not only unsurprising, it was an inevitable. Before his body had even cooled, this Administration and its brutes were already issues lies about what happened and cruelly applying the label of domestic terrorist to a nurse.
Let’s not mince words, if the Trump Administration continues to invade blue cities under the pretense of enforcement operations and empowers/encourages/celebrates the exercise brutal violence against immigrants, citizens and protestors by ICE/BP this will happen again… and again. Americans will not stop protesting because Americans believe in the Constitution and due process. Americans will not accept extrajudicial killings and law enforcement engaging in lawless recklessness.
More people are going to die. They don’t have to. But when they do, remember that only the Trump Administration could stop the violence and they chose to make it worse.
Every unnecessary death at the hands of law enforcement numbs the population to the next. We have seen the videos, we’ve watched the angles. We can only absorb so much chaotic state-sponsored violence before we begin to ignore it. Doesn’t it seem likely that they want us numb? They want the outrage to sap our energy and break down our ability to speak out. They hope that with each new extrajudicial killing, exercise of police brutality or state-sponsored murder the anger is slowly replaced with… the complacency of normality. This is a process of normalization of state-sponsored murder. If you think I am ridiculous, just remember how quickly half this country came to accept/justify/celebrate firing missiles at alleged criminals in the Caribbean.
In 49 BC Julian Caeser lead his Legion across the Rubicon river in Italy. By crossing that river he brought on the fall of the Republic of Rome, the rise of empire in its place. Democracy died, and was replaced with autocracy.
Do you see the Rubicon? I see it reflected in Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s eyes. We are getting closer every day.
