Two are dead in Minneapolis. Trump is to blame |
As public outrage grows over the killing of two protesters by Donald Trump’s deportation agents in Minneapolis, the White House is going into damage-control mode. It has its work cut out for it. Trump didn’t pull the triggers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but he bears political responsibility for having greenlighted the agents’ regularly lawless conduct.
Good and Pretti should not have been killed. As far as can be seen in the ample video evidence that has emerged, neither posed a threat to the agents at the scene or anyone else. Their sole “offense” was to take a stand against the deportation raids. Yet trigger-happy agents needlessly shot them – Good as she was turning her car away from the agents, Pretti while he was restrained by agents on the ground. There was no plausible self-defense to justify these killings.
Yet the Trump administration has been reflexively defending deportation agents whenever they use lethal force. In each of the 16 times since July that they have fired shots, either while detaining people or at protesters, Trump officials have declared their actions justified without waiting for investigations to be completed, sometimes in blatant contradiction of video evidence.
The killing of Pretti is illustrative. Stephen Miller, the deputy national security adviser who is directing the deportation sweeps from the White House, pronounced Pretti a “domestic terrorist”. Kristi Noem, the........