A mob execution

“It looks like nothing so much as a mob execution.” That's former Deputy Attorney General Harry Litman's description of today's violence—the most widely reported instance of it, anyway—in occupied Minneapolis, where once again ICE agents murdered an American who posed zero threat to them because fuck you, that's why.

The lies from DHS and the White House came fast and furious, just like last time. They described the victim, military veteran and VA nurse Alex Pretti, as a "domestic terrorist." They called him "an assassin." They described a sequence of events that did not happen. They made up a scenario that fit their preferred narrative despite the video evidence that shows the true sequence of events:

ICE agents violently attacked another victim, then Pretti comes to that person's assistance, then—while Pretti's back is to the agents—the agents pepper spray him at close range, then the agents wrestle Pretti to the ground, and while a blinded Pretti is flailing an ICE agent pistol-whops him in the head, then an ICE agent discovers Pretti had a holstered (legally registered and permitted) gun on his person and confiscates it, then one agent shoots Pretti, then other agents shoot Pretti, all while Pretti is struggling to even get to all-fours on the ground. Ten shots. To a disarmed, beaten and and blinded man sprawled face down in the street who at no time posed any threat to anyone involved.

Then some of the agents attempted to leave the scene. Then DHS denied local authorities access to the scene. Then the lies came spewing out.

Felon47 even tried to place blame on Minnesota officials, the same officials that ICE and DHS prevented from even approaching the scene, alleging that Mr. Pretti was menacing ICE agents and local law enforcement is at fault for failing to protect ICE agents. If I may quote Alan Tudyk's TV version of Harry Vanderspiegle, "this is some bullshit."

It now seems inevitable that, unless Congress acts swiftly, Minnesota governor Walz will, someday soon, have to deploy the state's National Guard to protect Minnesotans from the Federal government. And then the fireworks really start.

ICE is a terrorist organization and every elected official not in the thrall of Felon47 and his cult needs to be saying that loud and clear at every opportunity. DHS Secretary Noem needs to be impeached. DHS needs to be defunded. Investigations need to proceed unhindered, real ones, ones performed by state officials and not the corrupted Federal agencies, and the ICE and DHS agents (including Noem) who committed these and every other unjustifiable violent atrocity need to be prosecuted.

And Congress has to WAKE THE FUCK UP and demand every Republican who is currently collaborating with the fascist regime either (belatedly) honor their oaths of office and impeach Felon47 and his entire cadre of enablers or resign immediately. (I see that FINALLY, today Sen. Patty Murray is declaring she won't support the funding bill for DHS. FINALLY, Murray is calling on Republicans to join Dems in efforts to end the abuses. I know she was trying to be pragmatic before, but pragmatic's just not gonna cut it. Better late than never.)

If this is allowed to continue, we're gonna be smack dab in the throes of that second American Civil War Captain Pike told us about.

Some quotes from around the Interwebs:

Whatever one’s views of the circumstances that ICE agents confront, the gravity of these reflexive official lies to the American people can’t be overstated. The highest federal official immediately jumped in to defame and disparage the victim of an ICE killing. That is exactly how totalitarian governments react. It’s the sort of official dishonesty that can and should bring down governments. ... Taken together—the shooting itself and the federal response afterward—the episode screams out profound contempt for both the Constitution and the public it exists to serve.

...

Whatever one’s views of the costs to the country of illegal immigration—and all indications are that the people caught in the dragnet of the Trump surge have overwhelmingly committed no offense other than possible immigration violations—they pale in comparison to the shredding of the Constitution and the vicious tactics of federal law enforcement, cheered on by the highest government officials.

Members of Congress, every one of them, need to assess with the highest sobriety where they want to be now and what they want the United States to represent and portray to the world.

—Harry Litman

 

The murder of Alex Jeffrey Pretti was not a mistake, or a tragedy, or a misunderstanding. It was a choice. The president of the United States and his regime saw what its masked agents had done to Renee Good and decided to do more of it, at a larger scale. Killing Alex Jeffrey Pretti was the Trump administration’s policy.

—Jonathan Last

 

Given DHS making up stories about what we can plainly see in the murder videos, we have to just presume every other death under their purview is also murder.

—Bob Schooley

 

I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.

—Bill Kristol(!)

 

Thank you Alex Pretti for honoring and caring for veterans like me. You deserved better from this country and I am truly sorry that they failed to protect and honor your life the same way you have protected and honored so many of our lives. This veteran salutes and thanks you.

—@pissedoffarmyvet.bsky.social

 

I want all the right-wing fuckers of this country to see this. They claim to care about veterans, well this guy actually cared for veterans, and their votes murdered him in the street.

—E. Perkins (@hauntedpumpkin.bsky.social)

 

Donald Trump sees blue states as something like conquered territory. In his mind, he won them fair and square in the 2024 presidential election. The country is his. He owns it. And all its might falls on his political foes and those who resist him.

—Josh Marshall

 

Tin soldiers and Trump is coming

We're finally on our own

This winter I hear the drumming

Two dead in Minnesota

Gotta get down to it,

Icemen are cutting us down

Should have been gone long ago

What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground

How can you run when you know?

—DS9 writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe paraphrasing Neil Young

 

Cynics and defeatists share the same story as authoritarians do: that nothing is worth trying, the conclusion is foregone, hope is naïve, and attempts to resist are too small or futile. Don't listen to them. Do not give up. Try. A better world is possible. We will win. We must.

—Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez