It has been bad for a long while. But over the weekend the Trump administration crossed a red line in the clearest, most undeniable way: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents killed a man on the streets of Minneapolis, and senior officials immediately blamed the victim while exonerating the shooters. This came just a couple of weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed Renée Good on January 7.
Some people accepted the dubious claim that Good tried to run over the agent with her car, though the videos do not support that account and the agent was clearly beside the car, in no danger, when he shot her in the head. No such excuses are even remotely plausible in the case of Alex Pretti.
If you are a U.S. citizen, I urge you to write to your Representatives and Senators and tell them you expect serious action. If you are a U.S. citizen and a Christian, I urge you to write to Christian leaders who have supported Donald Trump, calling on them to condemn these killings, the falsehoods told about them, and those responsible.
What federal agents did
Several widely circulated eyewitness videos show that on Saturday, January 24, on the streets of Minneapolis, federal agents attacked and killed nonviolent protester Alex Pretti. The videos show Pretti filming federal agents with his phone during a street encounter when agents abruptly shoved protesters, pepper‑sprayed him, and forced him to the ground. As several agents held him down, one reached into the pile and removed a handgun from Pretti’s belt—visible on camera as being taken from him before any shots were fired—and Pretti never drew, held, or attempted to use it. While multiple agents had Pretti pinned on the pavement, with his hands controlled and no weapon in reach, the agents then shot him repeatedly in the back at close range.
What Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem, and Donald Trump have said about it
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino called the shooting a “preventable tragedy” caused by protesters and local officials “vilifying” agents, and he blamed Pretti’s choices rather than the agents’ conduct. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asserted that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi‑automatic handgun” and “attacked” officers, despite multiple verified videos showing he never drew his weapon, and she described the incident as a situation in which an individual arrived “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement,” again without evidence in the publicly available footage. President Donald Trump publicly emphasized that Pretti had a “very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines,” calling it “a very dangerous gun, a dangerous and unpredictable gun . . . a gun that goes off when people don’t know it,” while avoiding any criticism of the agents’ actions.
In all three cases, high‑quality reporting and video analysis show that their characterizations—Pretti attacking, brandishing a gun, intending a “massacre” or “maximum damage”—are not supported by the available evidence and function to exonerate the shooters while shifting blame onto Pretti. The agents who shot Pretti have not been arrested and remain on duty, reassigned to locations outside Minneapolis, and federal officials have blocked local authorities from conducting a full investigation or pursuing charges.
The point in a nutshell
We have all seen this with our own eyes and heard these statements with our own ears—or could, if we chose to look. It is no answer to say we must wait for a “full investigation” to know what happened. We have seen the killing. And we have seen and heard Bovino, Noem, and Trump deny what the videos show and obstruct any proper inquiry. The time to respond is now.
The question for members of Congress
Will you support the impeachment and removal from office of Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, and Greg Bovino, and the abolition or reform of CBP and ICE, or will you support the continuance in power of persons who have demonstrated disregard for truth, justice, and the rule of law?
Here in my part of Michigan, I have in mind Congressman John Moolenaar and State Representative Angela Rigas, resolute and absolutely consistent supporters of everything Trump does and says. Who will you write to?
The question for Christian Leaders who have supported Trump
Do you uphold the divine commandments—you shall not murder, you shall not bear false witness—or will you continue to align yourselves with those whose actions and statements violate both?
I have in mind people like Al Mohler, Franklin Graham, and Rusty Reno. Who will you write to?
For anyone who has not seen the videos: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/witness-videos-fatal-shooting-alex-pretti-129557973
Verba Sparsa 