Image by Jessica Christian.

Last week, I wrote an article at CounterPunch about the killing of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. When I wrote that piece, my goal was to stay measured and make the case that the shooting was unjustified in a way that might actually get certain people to listen. I reviewed the video evidence and told a story from my Army days about a moment when we were able to avoid killing civilians in a split-second situation far more dangerous than the one the officer was in who shot Renee Good. The point was to stay calm, professional, unemotional, and deliberate, to keep the anger out of my voice and focus on facts.

But after seeing the videos of federal agents killing Alex Pretti, I’m not interested in putting on that pretense anymore. Because I am fucking angry. And every American, regardless of political belief or background, should be angry too.

Watching Kristi Noem and other Republicans once again deny reality and twist the shooting into something it plainly is not would almost be impressive if it weren’t so preposterous. The level of mental gymnastics they are demanding of the public is staggering. When regime propagandists like Noem and Gregory Bovino go on television and tell the American people to accept the “official” version of events, even when it directly contradicts what anyone with eyes and a functioning brain can clearly see across multiple videos from multiple angles, we’ve crossed into classic Orwellian territory, textbook doublespeak straight out of 1984.

“War is peace.”
“Freedom is slavery.”
“Ignorance is strength.”
“He intended to inflict maximum damage and kill law enforcement.”

That last claim from the administration is such complete and obvious bullshit that you should be insulted they think you’re dumb enough to believe it, despite the overwhelming, high-definition evidence you can watch for yourself.

The videos, which if you’re reading this you’ve almost certainly seen multiple times by now, leave very little room for doubt about what actually happened. And the official statement from Pretti’s grieving parents says out loud what we can all already see: “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

But much like in the case of Renee Good, as soon as the last shot was fired into his prone, beaten, defenseless body, Kristi Noem and other officials were already scrambling for the nearest microphone to label Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist before they even knew his name or background, let alone before any serious investigation had taken place. They moved immediately to control the narrative and plant seeds in people’s minds, knowing full well that video would surface that would contradict the official story.

This time, they went too far.

Alex Pretti was anything but a domestic terrorist. He was an ICU nurse who worked at the VA hospital caring for veterans at the end of their lives. He had no criminal record. He was a responsible gun owner with a legal concealed carry license. He was a model citizen by any reasonable standard.

The kind of person I recognize from my time in the Army, someone who spent his life serving and helping people who needed it. The kind of neighbor, friend, or relative most Americans would be grateful to have. And he was the kind of guy who, when he saw an amped-up thug in tactical gear violently assault a woman, rushed to her aid without thinking about his own safety.

And for that, he was violently beaten and executed in the street by masked state enforcers operating with impunity, after their leaders made it clear that ICE and other federal immigration agents are now functionally above the law. Because the Trump administration knows it cannot let the truth come out without Americans turning on them, they immediately ramped up a smear campaign, attempting to paint Pretti as a violent criminal and inventing a story that never existed.

One thing we have always known about Donald Trump is that he never accepts responsibility and never admits mistakes. There appear to be no lengths Noem, Trump, and other regime officials won’t go to in order to blame the victim, the people of Minneapolis, Tim........

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