Alex Pretti may not have died in vain.
While the videos of Renee Good’s death were open to interpretation, Pretti’s killing looks like a flat out murder. It was so clear that even MAGA and Republican-leaning news outlets, like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, are decrying it and calling for a real investigation as opposed to the thinly veiled cover-up taking place in Good’s death.
And Republican politicians are following suit. According to an AP story, a GOP candidate for governor in Minnesota, Chris Madel, announced he was dropping out of the race there because he could not support or belong to a political party that supports “stated retribution” on Minnesota residents. Madel also said the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts in the Twin Cities had gone too far and accused agents of violating the Constitution by raiding homes with a civil warrant rather than a judicial one.
And Madel is no member of the resistance. He offered pro bono legal representation to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Good earlier this month.
In the days since Pretti was killed, a growing number of Republicans have called for an investigation into the shooting. On Sunday, Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore, the chair and vice chair of the National Governors Association, called for “a reset of strategy toward a unified vision for immigration enforcement.”
“Scenes of violence and chaos on our streets are unacceptable and do not reflect who we are,” the governors said.
In fact, the political winds are blowing so hard now that even Trump can feel them beneath his trench coat. In the last couple of days he’s softened his tone and even taken calls from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye. Both reported that they had had productive discussions with him. And Trump moved to replace border patrol commander Gregory Bovino with border czar Tom Homan on the ground in Minneapolis. Casting a guy like Homan as the voice of reason tells you something about Bovino.
In polling, about half of Americans now support going so far as to abolish ICE compared to only 27% who said they supported that back in June. On this Democrats need to be cautious. Two of the most liberal candidates running for Wisconsin governor, Madison’s Kelda Roys and Francesca Hong, rushed to embrace that position, but I have a sense that public support for it won’t last. Better to call for broader reforms as Stitt and Moore have.
Much like the days after the killing of George Floyd, we have an opening here to drive positive change. But the Floyd opening was quickly shut down when the hard-left went much too far. Calls to defund the police and violent protests squandered the opportunity. While calls to abolish ICE may not be quite like that, Democrats have to carefully calibrate their response to stay just a little behind the public, not too far out ahead of it. Let mainstream public opinion lead the way.
It’s sickening that two people had to lose their lives to shift the political winds. But now that that seems to be happening, let’s not waste their lives a second time by going too far too fast.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
“Flat out murder”.
You must have more information than me. Have they even determined if Pretti’s gun discharged yet?
I think there is generally a pretty wide “neutral zone” between the public and law enforcement that prevents incidents like this. In this case I think the following made this neutral zone very thin:
Pretti bringing a gun was irresponsible. I thought the same thing about Kyle Rittenhouse.
Pretti apparently resisting arrest.
Law enforcement deciding to take him down in the first place. I haven’t seen that he did anything egregious.
Law enforcement being unable to quickly subdue him. It reminded me of MPD subduing that “Yeshua” character in the Floyd era – 5 or 6 officers finally get him handcuffed and in a squad car and then he escapes! The physical capabilities of our police is at an all time low.
Seems like we are turning a corner with Obama’s man Tom Homan being brought in.
If Pretti was killed after an accidental discharge of his gun then a manslaughter charge is warranted.
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What makes you think Pretti’s gun went off? I assume that’s just pure speculation? Literally the only people I’ve seen spreading that rumor are right-wing commenters on social media.
And it seems highly likely if that were the case the Feds would have been pushing that out immediately to try and alter the narrative. (After all, we certainly know this administration isn’t cautious with their words given the outrageous lies they were spreading about Pretti just after he was killed, including that he “committed an act of domestic terrorism”, was “brandishing a gun”, was a “would-be assassin”, and “wanted to massacre law enforcement.”)
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I have no idea if it went off or not and that’s the point we the public don’t even have that most basic information at this point.
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Short lived martyrdom for Pretti as new video shows prior interaction with ICE where he was looking for a fight. He was known to law enforcement as a jackass, not an “observer”. Neutral zone narrows even more.
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The new video changes nothing about the lies Noem and the rest were spreading about him, nor does it validate your rumor about the gun discharging.
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My rumor????
I’m not saying it discharged. I’m not saying it didn’t discharge. I’m saying it’s a crucial fact we don’t know. There’s many other facts we don’t know. Therefore anyone jumping to the conclusion “flat out murder” is being irresponsible.
For the record I have disregarded Noem’s comments as I have also disregarded media comments that characterize Pretti as an “observer”.
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“While the videos of Renee Good’s death were open to interpretation…”
Good’s death is not open to very much interpretation. Even if I’m generous to the apologists and consider the argument that the ICE agent thought the car was going to run him over, shooting the driver is still not a reasonable option. No law enforcement training I know of tells members to do that. It’s basic common sense – killing the driver does not stop the car from continuing on its path! In fact, the training I know of instructs officers not to place themselves in front of a vehicle in the first place, in order to avoid the temptation to think they’re the Hulk and will stop the suspect’s vehicle flight with their own body.
Then there’s the ease at which the ICE officer stepped to the side. He was obviously easily able to avoid the path of the car. Even if the first shot were taken in a poorly conceived notion of self defense, which I don’t think it was, the following shots were taken during no danger at all to the ICE officer to stop a fleeing subject, which is also not a reasonable situation for a firearm discharge.
“as opposed to the thinly veiled cover-up taking place in Good’s death.”
This cover up should be getting more attention. While the shooting could be a reflection of a single person’s poor judgement, the cover up is a reflection of the ongoing systematic affront to the rule of law.
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“Abolish ICE” no doubt plays well in Madison. I can imagine Satya and Francesca Hong in coveralls painting the slogan in large letters across Martin Luther King Blvd.
But to be elected governor, a Democratic candidate needs to be stronger than Barnes (who lost to Ron Johnson for gosh sake) and have appeal across the state including rural areas.
I’m disappointed that my state senator, Kelda Roys, thinks “Abolish ICE” will help her candidacy.
Compared to what I’ve seen of the candidates so far, our old departing “aw shucks” former school superintendent looks pretty good.
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as it turns out, Pretti, was a potty mouthed agitator. did not need to die, but still do not bring a firearm to a protest.
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Is this no-guns-at-protests guidance for everyone?
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It doesn’t justify Pretti’s killing, but of course he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun to a protest — or anywhere else. Concealed (or open) carry laws are insane. I own a couple of firearms and I would never carry one if I wasn’t hunting. Talk about paranoid. That’s a requirement for believing you need to carry a loaded weapon in your daily activities as a civilian.
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