“Alex Pretti was murdered, in public and on camera, by thugs. Period. If you’re lying to others about that, shame on you. If you’re lying to yourself about it, seek help.”
That’s my hot take on the Border Patrol’s public execution of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis over the weekend, and the varying reactions to it.
That’s exactly the reaction one might expect, given my prior disposition toward the war on immigrants and the ever-increasing militarization of the American police state, but the facts that have subsequently emerged don’t seem to merit substantive changes.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, came to the assistance of a woman who’d been knocked down and pepper-sprayed by badge-flashing goons, and was then knocked down and pepper-sprayed himself before being shot multiple times while pinned to the ground and unarmed (his pistol, which he hadn’t drawn, brandished, or fired, had already been stolen by one of his attackers at the time he was shot).
It’s a sad thing, and I don’t want to understate the sadness . His family and his friend and co-worker circles are now permanently one member lonelier. His previous and prospective patients are now one care-giver short. The world is a smaller and darker place due to his absence from it.
It feels almost blasphemous to look for an up side to this vicious crime, but I’ve got a Panglossian streak, so I’m going to give it the old college try (I dropped out of college, so think of it as a freshman attempt).
You may have heard of something called the Overton Window. Briefly defined, the “window” covers the range of positions on issues that enjoy mainstream acceptance. A position outside the “window” is, by definition, “extreme.” When a position stops being “fringe” and becomes “mainstream,” the “window” has moved.
Even a few weeks ago, my position on something like the murder of Alex Pretti — sadly not an uncommon occurrence, as cops kill hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Americans per year, many of them unjustifiably — was well outside the Overton Window.
Even a few weeks ago, most Americans “backed the blue” for the most part, even when “mistakes were made” or some unlucky innocent ran into a “bad apple.”
The ICE gang’s murder of Renee Good on January 7 (also in Minneapolis) felt like someone grabbing the handle of the “window” and trying to take it loose. SOME people still bought the lies and the excuses, but others took second, longer looks and accepted that what they saw was in fact what they saw.
The shots that killed Alex Pretti shattered the window entirely.
Not just because it was obviously cold-blooded murder, but because the few government and “law enforcement” officials who tried to justify it were so clownishly dishonest and cartoonishly evil in their deliveries that no one with a shred of self-esteem could pretend to, and no one with an IQ over 40 could actually, believe them.
Even US president Donald Trump, notorious for his ability to brazenly lie his way through nearly any scandal, has begun throwing his sycophant subordinates under the bus and driving over them to get to the center of the “window.”
Border Patrol gang shot-caller Gregory Bovino was the first to go. He’s fled Minneapolis, minus his “commander-at-large” title and accompanied by panicked underlings.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “Ice Barbie” Noem’s neck has an ax hanging over it. If that ax falls, her plastic surgeon probably won’t be able to re-prettify it.
Democrats, and even a few Republicans, in Congress seem inclined to withhold funding for DHS, ICE, and Border Patrol unless the stormtrooper stuff stops. Some, perhaps, on principle, but mostly because every member of Congress prefers re-election to its alternative and the voters are, well, pissed off about this. As they should be.
The Overton Window is open … and we just may find a way to throw ICE out that window and slam it closed on Border Patrol’s trigger fingers.
There’s your up side, folks, your silver lining. I wish we could have Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and the other victims of the immigration police state back, but since that’s not possible, the next best thing is to disarm, fire, and maybe even imprison their murderers.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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