Editorial | We cannot look away
Just 17 days after a 37-year-old mom was shot to death in an encounter with federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis, a registered nurse who treated veterans in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System met a similar fate.
Renee Good was shot three times by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7 minutes after she dropped her child off at school. She was struck through the temple, her left arm and right chest.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem classified her as a “domestic terrorist,” claiming Ms. Good — who was parked improperly in the roadway and appeared to try to drive away from agents telling her to get out of the car — “weaponized her vehicle.”
Multiple video frame-by-frame images contradict the quickly issued official statement.
Alex Pretti, also 37, was shot to death last Saturday while using his phone to record an enforcement action by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Newly released video, first posted by The News Movement, shows he had had an earlier physical encounter with agents. On Jan. 13, he was taken to the ground after kicking out a tail light on an agent’s vehicle.
Still holding his phone in the fatal Jan. 24 encounter, Mr. Pretti was pepper sprayed as he attempted to assist a fellow protester who had been shoved to the ground by agents after she failed to move far enough from the street. He was sprayed again, taken to the ground by multiple agents, struck repeatedly with a pepper spray canister and then fired at multiple times by two agents after — after — a third agent had removed a firearm from the back of Mr. Pretti’s back waistband and left the pileup with the weapon in hand to secure it.
The agents fired at least 10 shots in five seconds, continuing to shoot as Mr. Pretti lay prone on the roadway where he died.
How many times was he struck?
That information has not been released. A Homeland Security report sent to Congress and shared in media accounts, though, states he was treated on scene for multiple entry wounds to his back and, possibly, his neck.
Federal officials called Mr. Pretti a domestic terrorist.
According to various national media reports, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Mr. Pretti attacked officers while “brandishing” a gun.
FBI Director Kash Patel supported those statements.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Mr. Pretti an assassin and said he tried to murder federal agents.
Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Mr. Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Multiple videos, and sworn witness statements, contradict these official statements.
Meanwhile, local, state and federal law enforcement in Minnesota have been shut out of the investigations related to the federal agent related deaths of U.S citizens within their jurisdiction.
The FBI’s Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department also will not be part of the investigation as has been routine in the past.
Homeland Security, whose top officials have already weighed in, and FBI criminal investigators will conduct whatever analysis goes forward.
Let us be clear:
You can support the police.
You can support ICE.
You can support President Trump and his immigration policy.
That does not require support for these actions.
Let us say it:
We cannot, and will not, support this.
Federal officials — from the elected and the appointed to the boots on the street and career professionals — cannot lie to the American people.
Federal officials — from the elected and the appointed to the boots on the street and career professionals — cannot break the law to enforce the law.
Federal officials — from the elected and the appointed to the boots on the street and career professionals — cannot ignore court orders, as one Minnesota judge has found, specifically that ICE has violated — i.e. ignored — nearly 100 such orders thus far.
Republican lawmakers have begun to add their voices to those demanding change from the top down — resignations or the removal of top leadership, including Secretary Noem and Commander Bovino.
If they can’t do it right, we agree, it’s time for them to get out of the way.
Because we, as a country and as Americans, cannot look away.
Neighbor editorial