Believe your eyes.
The proliferation of smart phones changed the world. We all carry high quality video cameras in our pockets every day, all the time and everywhere we go. Officers are equipped with body cams that provide first-person point-of-view perspective on their conduct. Technology opened up previously unknown and unknowable worlds. We saw George Floyd take his last breaths. We watched Laquan McDonald gunned down in the streets of Chicago. We have seen things that before smartphones and HD video cameras were impossible to bear witness to.
When these abuses resulting in tragedy were revealed, the public was, understandably, outraged. But what did our government officials say? What did the officials responsible for overseeing the officers say to the public? To generalize, there were two common approaches. First, say nothing and cover-it-up. That was Chicago’s approach with Laquan McDonald. It wasn’t until months after his death that we saw the body cam footage. Second, issue carefully crafted statements asserting that the facts are, as yet, unknown followed by promises of full and transparent investigations. (I suppose there is a third response, though much less common, which was to accept responsibility and promise justice.). Hell, even those that deployed the first strategy would here forced to change their cast of characters and adopt the second strategy when the evidence became public.
We rarely, if ever, heard government officials blatantly lie about incontrovertible video evidence. Lying about what we could see with our own eyes was a step government officials stopped short of. Because what credibility would they retain if they spewed straight-faced lies about events that were recorded on video. In normal times, or even anytime in the glory days of life before 2016, public officials would fear electoral (or even criminal) accountability if they tried to so blatantly gaslight the American public. You try to lie about unambiguous evidence, you’ll be voted out. That is how it used to work.
The Trump Administration is lying to us about Alex Pretti. They lied to us immediately after it happened, before they even knew what happened. The footage has spread far and wide, and on the most important points, is utterly unambiguous. He did not brandish a gun. He did not pose a threat. He was shot after his gun, which had never been unholstered, was removed. They said he violently attacked agents, they said he violently resisted arrest. He helped a woman that had been shoved to the ground by a masked and fully armed agent, and was brutalized for his trouble. All of that is plain, clear and incontrovertible. And yet… they continue to lie. They lie with without fear or even hesitation. Worse yet, their mouthpieces and sycophants pick up the lies and push them further.
As I have written before, I can accept that there was some ambiguity in the circumstances surrounding Renee Good’s death. However, no one wants to see a white woman, a mother gunned down by law enforcement. If you are the Trump Administration, it is the worst kid of optics. So, they lied to us about who she was. They took to their podiums and labeled her an “unhinged leftist” and “domestic terrorist” before her blood had even cooled. They lied to us about who she was.
We have now seen numerous law enforcement shootings. Some were ambiguous, others wholly unjustified and still others were tragic but warranted. None of that is new to us. But something has changed. Government officials peddling shameless and blatant lies about what we can see with our own eyes - that is new. That is not normal. That is not democratic. That is not what a government constrained by laws looks like or acts. That is the reckless confidence of an administration that has no regard for truth or concern for electoral consequences. That is how a dangerous government-run propaganda-machine works.
I have said this other times and in other places, but it must make you wonder why they are so comfortable lying about the incontrovertible. If you are a Republican, conservative, MAGA, or America First – they are comfortable lying to you because they don’t respect you. They think you are stupid. They have spent years indoctrinating you with the idea that you can only trust what they say and everything else is a lie. They have taught you to distrust and despise the media and made journalists your enemy. They have convinced you to hate your fellow citizens if they are Democrats, liberals, progressives or immigrants. They believe that you have given over your free thought to their ideas. So… they can lie about what is in front of your very eyes, because they don’t believe you are capable of thinking for yourself anymore. They think you are stupid or if not stupid so full of resentment that you are blinded by your own hate.
If you are a journalist, Democrat, liberal, progressive, or even an independent, they do not even care about lying to you. They know that you cannot be persuaded, so they no longer try. Moreover, they know that you will identify and call-out their lies. You’ll scream their lies until your voice is gone. But do they worry that the people who need to hear the truth will listen? No. They are not concerned because the Trump Administration, its MAGA mouthpieces and their media propaganda machine have spent years and years indoctrinating their supporters with the idea that they cannot trust you, legacy media or journalists say. If you are a Democrat, liberal, progressive or real-honest-to-god journalist, the Trump Administration isn’t even talking to you. You’ve been sidelined. You are no longer relevant. They will “flood the zone” with such a tidal wave of lawless bullshit that you will lose the energy to resist. You do not matter.
This can be a moment of reckoning. If you are a Republican, conservative, MAGA or America First – watch the footage. Please, watch the god-damned footage. Compare it to what Noem, Bovino and others in the Trump Administration have said. I do not believe you are stupid. I do not believe that you don’t care. I do not believe that you have given over all of your free will to this Administration. If you can take that step, if you can recognize that they are lying to you, maybe you should then ask yourself what else are they lying about? Because if they are willing to lie about what you can see with your own eyes, imagine the lies they might tell about the things you can’t see.
It is only with a coalition of true Americans that this nightmare can end before it is too late. This is no longer about immigration. Honestly, in 2025 it never really was. You can believe that undocumented persons should be arrested and deported while also believing that they should receive due process of law, that the use of force by law enforcement should be properly constrained and when law enforcement crosses the line there should be accountability. You can believe that our immigration laws should be vigorously enforced and believe that protestors should not be killed while exercising their First Amendment rights. Hell, you can even believe that it is inappropriate to protest where ICE/BP are operating and still believe that those protestors should not be shot. Those things are not inconsistent.
We can debate and discuss immigration policy, we can disagree and try to find compromise. But we can’t compromise over our basic Constitutional rights, we can’t compromise about our lives, we can’t compromise about accountability for elected officials who will lie to your face.
Lastly, I am not blaming law enforcement. I am not and will not demonize those who are willing to accept the responsibility that comes with wearing a badge. Three of the best people I know are police officers in Michigan. Obviously, I will not name them, but I hope they know who they are. I blame an Administration that is manufacturing these volatile and hostile situations and then sending in agents to operate in places and under circumstances that they were not trained for. I blame an Administration that is celebrating and encouraging violence when they should be calling for restraint and professionalism. I blame an Administration that is ordering our agents and law enforcement to engage in lawlessness.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/25/us/alex-pretti-shooting-minneapolis-videos-witnesses-invs
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/us/politics/trump-administration-minneapolis-shooting-response.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/witness-videos-cbp-killing-minnesota-man-appear-counter-trump-administ-rcna255791
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alex-pretti-shooting-contrast-official-accounts-videos/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/minute-minute-timeline-fatal-shooting-alex-pretti-federal/story?id=129547199
