The Worst of the Three Infamous Murders Committed in Minneapolis by “Law Enforcement” Just Happened

 

Curmie had hoped to change the subject a little: from the abominations of the Trump administration, or at least from those committed by ICE.  He’s got a short encomium to Joanna Lumley forming in his head; there’s a critique of a series of television commercials; perhaps a commentary on that church invasion by anti-ICE demonstrators (Curmie is not a fan) or of Trump giving the finger to that auto worker (Curmie kinda shrugs, but can’t help snickering at the idiotic Karoline Leavitt follow-up); perhaps Curmie could write about that case in Florida in which the cops showed up at the door of a woman who’d made a Facebook post critical of the mayor.  Even writing about the continued harassment of Mark Kelly for having the audacity to say an objectively true statement out loud would at least make the topic something other than ICE.* 

No such luck, I’m afraid, Gentle Reader.  As the title of this essay suggests, things changed Saturday.  OK.  Review of the bidding.  Curmie is not suggesting that there was anything justifiable in the killings of George Floyd or Renee Good.  In the former case, there is no evidence that Derek Chauvin is or was anything but a bullying asshole.  He used excessive and unjustifiable force that led to Floyd’s death.  But, as Curmie pointed out back in ’21, Floyd’s drug use and an underlying heart condition were also contributing factors.  In other words, under normal circumstances, what Chauvin did, abhorrent as it was, would not have been life-threatening.  And no one seems to argue that Floyd should not have been detained, only that the detention was overly physical.  Oh, one last thing: Chauvin, as a Minneapolis Police officer, actually had jurisdiction to detain Floyd.

Next in both chronology and increased “police” culpability was the shooting of Renee Good by a trigger-happy goon named Jonathan Ross.  Let me repeat: there is nothing remotely justifiable in Ross’s actions, but there is at least some evidence that Good was blocking the road, thereby interfering in an ICE action (whether that action itself was justifiable—probably, but not incontrovertibly, not—is not the issue here).  And she did attempt to leave when told to get out of the car.  (She was also told to “move,” which could be interpreted either to exit the vehicle or to get it out of the way.  Ross undeniably, intentionally, stepped in front of the car: a violation of protocol.  And Ross had just been humiliated by Good’s wife.  Was it murder?  In the sense of anything but a lawyerly quibble, yes.  But a car can be a weapon, and to a chicken-shit asshole like Ross, mere details like the fact that Good was in fact trying to avoid him just confuse the issue.

But now we come to the shooting of Alex Pretti, for which there is even less legitimacy, even more and better documentation of what actually happened, even more outrageous slander from the Usual Suspects. 

Here’s what we know, from video evidence (one example here), including the frame-by-frame analysis by the New York Times, and the testimony of witnesses (such as the woman in the pink coat) who saw the event live as it happened:

An ICE agent pepper sprayed a woman in the face.  Curmie has seen no evidence either way as to whether this was justified, but of course he has his suspicions.  Pretti, a nurse, remember, moves towards her to see if she’s all right.  He’s holding his phone in one hand; the other is empty and raised above his head (perhaps to protect himself from being sprayed in the face?  We’ll never know.)  There is no apparent attempt by the swarming ICE agents simply to stop his progress towards the woman.  Instead, they gang-tackle him.  A half dozen or so of them jump on top of him.  (EDIT: A friend on BlueSky reminds me that they then pistol-whipped him.  Totally unnecessary; completely in character.)  He does have a licensed and legally carried handgun; they seize it from him while he’s still face down on the ground.  And then, they shoot him ten times.  The chronology is important: Pretti is tackled to the ground before agents know that he has a weapon (so that wasn’t why they jumped him), he never reaches for the gun, and he’s been disarmed before they shoot him (so he posed no risk to their safety).  He did, however, have phone, and in some ways documenting their manifold misdeeds could indeed make them fearful.

In other words: at least two under- or indeed un-trained “agents” panicked.  Being cowards, not terribly bright, and testosterone-poisoned, and no doubt believing (not without cause, alas) that they could do whatever the hell they wanted, they did something brutal and, let’s face it, remarkably stupid.  That’s problematic, but what happens after the fact is even more inexcusable.  Curmie isn’t going to forgive those who shot Mr. Pretti, but does at least understand that people don’t always make the best decisions in the heat of the moment.  That’s happened to Curmie, and he’s willing to bet that it’s happened to you, too, Gentle Reader (not to this extreme, of course).

What should have happened in the immediate aftermath, of course, was issuing statement along these lines: “An incident involving ICE agents which resulted in the death of a civilian occurred in Minneapolis today.  The agents involved have been placed on leave pending an investigation by federal, state, and local authorities.”  No muss, no fuss.  No admission of guilt, but also no blaming the victim.

But the obviously false narratives spewed by Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, et al., are deliberate.  They’re not dependent on needing a response in a split second; they’re calculated.  But they’re not just lies and slander; they’re so outrageous that even members of the right-wing base are fleeing that sinking ship.  And no, it’s not just loose cannons like Rand Paul, although it’s him, too.  Curmie’s personal favorite is this clip from Ted Williams of Fox News… yes, that Fox News.  Williams is both a lawyer and a former homicide detective, by the way.

Here’s what he has to say (note: Williams refers to Pretti as “Peretti”; Curmie has corrected that, but made no other changes in what follows): 

Well, John, I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve watched that video tape for at least, let’s say, about a hundred times because I knew I was gonna be coming on with you and I wanted to speak as accurate as I can.  And I do believe that there needs to be a complete investigation.  I was taken back by the White House, who initially put out what I defined as misrepresentation of what took place there when you look at the video.  It was said that Mr. Pretti was brandishing a weapon.  Well, he was not brandishing a weapon; he did have a weapon.  It was said by the White House that Mr. Pretti attacked those agents.  No, he did not attack those agents.  And one of the White House individuals called Mr. Pretti “a domestic terrorist.”  I find… this man is dead.  He has family.  And to go out and call him a domestic terrorist without giving any more information is just unacceptable.  

And then, John, when I looked at the video, what you saw was an agent pushing a woman aside, Mr. Pretti getting sprayed, them jumping on top of Mr. Pretti.  And this is something that our audience should see with their own eyes.  You can see where one of the agents actually physically takes Mr. Pretti’s gun; and that is before he shot him.  And then, all of a sudden, he shot.  There’s a pause, and there are more bullets that are shot in his direction.  So, that investigation… what I’m asking is that there be a complete and thorough and transparent investigation, John, not only by the federal agencies, but also by the state and local investigators also, working together.

Needless to say, as in the Good/Ross case, the feds are refusing to cooperate.  Protecting one of their goons is clearly more important to them than anything remotely related to justice.

Perhaps the topper comes from none other than Dear Leader himself.  The “only criminals carry guns on our streets” tweet that you’ve probably seen, Gentle Reader, is almost certainly a fake.  (Yes, both sides are perfectly happy to lie to support their cause.)  But the follow-up—“You can’t have guns.  You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t.”—isn’t, and didn’t sit well with organizations like the NRA, which had already lambasted an Assistant US Attorney for a remarkably stupid tweet along the same lines.  If you’re a Republican and you’re losing Fox News and the NRA, you’re not in good political shape.  This doesn’t even take into account the hypocrisy involved.  After all, one of the first things 47 did in office was to issue a blanket pardon for all the January 6 pseudo-patriots, including (of course) those who… erm… walked in with guns.  And Curmie antiphrastically doesn’t mention right-wing hero Kyle Rittenhouse.

Two more links and then Curmie will shut up.  The first is the reportage of Ken Klippenstein, who interviewed experienced immigrations officers.  A few of their comments: “Yet another ‘justified’ fatal shooting … ten versus one and somehow they couldn’t find a way to subdue the guy or use a less than lethal.  They all carry belts and vests with 9,000 pieces of equipment on them and the best they can do is shoot a guy in the back?”  “We can’t always support what happens just because it’s one of us.”  “This is a no-win situation for agents on the ground or immigration enforcement overall.  I think it’s time to pull out of Minnesota, that battle is lost.”  And, concisely, about the killing of Pretti, “Fuck this.”

But we’re left with the words of Heather Cox Richardson, whose commentary on virtually everything is worthy of notice: 

This is the moment at which it becomes too late for people to say, after this, ‘Oh, I didn’t know.  I didn’t know what was going to happen.’  It’s out there now….  It is no longer possible for people to say, ‘Oh, I believe in law and order, and so I support Donald Trump.’  This is the moment when people have to say, regardless of party, ‘either I believe in democracy, I believe in our Constitution, I believe in the rights that the framers wrote into that Constitution’ or they have to say, ‘No, I am siding with the likes of Stephen Miller in believing that my existence is under siege by immigrants, and anything it takes to stop that, regardless of the Constitution, regardless of American citizenship, regardless of rights, has to happen.’

Seems like an easy call to Curmie.  Perhaps to you, too, Gentle Reader?

* If any of these seem particularly interesting (or uninteresting), Gentle Reader, please comment—here on the blog, or on the links on Facebook or Bluesky.