If Minnesota is raising “domestic terrorists,” as some government officials have proclaimed, those homegrowns seem to be quite friendly. At least from the smiling photos seen of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
The two peaceniks were killed this month after being shot by federal agents during protests in Minneapolis in opposition to immigration roundups. Both of those gunned down by camo-clad Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawmen were U.S. citizens.
The morning of Jan. 27 saw another person suffering critical injuries during an incident involving the Border Patrol in Arizona, near the Mexican border. Americans are getting the sense that federal agents are running amok as sworn vigilantes, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security so far having fired bullets 16 times since July during enforcement arrests or at people protesting operations.
These same scenarios could have happened in Lake County during the government’s “Operation Midway Blitz” last fall as federal agents based at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago tore across the county ferreting out undocumented immigrants, mainly Hispanic county residents, to rough and cuff. Reportedly, federal agents were in Waukegan the other day, taking at least one person into custody.
In Cook County during “The Blitz” surge, one man was shot to death and a woman survived after being riddled with five bullets during similar immigration grabs. If these were local law enforcement aiming their weapons willy-nilly at people, the outcry would recoil across Lake County.
If so, their bosses certainly wouldn’t rush to judgment as federal authorities did after the Jan. 24 death of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse and native Illinoisan who worked at a Veterans Affairs medical center in Minneapolis. Good, a 37-year-old mom, was branded a “domestic terrorist” by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Noem alleged Pretti was attacking ICE agents and was brandishing a concealed weapon. But then, as Mark Twain said more than a century ago, “Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness.”
In the Pretti case, several eyewitnesses. Using cellphones, they filmed the agents’ actions.
The optics don’t look so good for once-respected lawmen who are rapidly losing the public’s trust while being members of this roughshod federal posse. If the officers had their body cameras rolling, showing an errant disregard for human life, the cries for heads to roll will escalate.
Of course, looks can be deceiving, intimated Border Patrol honcho Greg Bovino, who apparently has become a non-person in the administration of President Donald Trump as rage spreads across the nation following the Pretti shooting. Bovino noted the deceased came to a peaceful demonstration armed with a concealed semi-automatic pistol, for which he had a carry permit.
Most of us wouldn’t have done that, but we don’t live in Minnesota, where gun laws are a shade different from those in the Land of Lincoln. But then former Antioch resident and Lakes High School dropout Kyle Rittenhouse went to a disturbance in Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with a military assault-style rifle, and ended up shooting three people, two fatally.
You know you’re losing the public relations battle when a gun-rights group sides with a protester. On its webpage, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus stated, “Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights. These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed, and they must be respected and protected at all times.”
The Minnesota business community has called for an end to federal agents’ presence in the Twin Cities, objecting to the “widespread disruption” in the state and the “tragic loss of life.” The 60 business leaders signing on to an open letter are a heavy lineup of C-suite executives, including those from 3M, Best Buy, Boston Scientific, Cargill, General Mills, Hormel, Medtronic, Toro and Target.
When Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was quick to send busloads of Venezuelan immigrants from his state to Illinois in 2022 and 2023, joins U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, in calling for calm, you know you’ve lost the PR war. Abbott pointed out in an interview that the Trump administration needs to “recalibrate” immigration operations.
Schneider went further in a statement the day of the Pretti shooting: “For the second time this month, the US government has the blood of an American citizen on its hands.”
DHS agents, the congressman said, “are out of control” and Trump officials, “continue to encourage the violence and lie about the facts.” Noem, he added, joining a growing chorus, “has got to go… She needs to resign or be fired. If not, Congress must act.”
Schneider voted last week against legislation funding DHS saying, “It will allow ICE to continue its reign of terror unchecked,” and urging the Senate to reject a package of bills that includes some $10 billion for agency operations. We’ll see if the growing outrage over the deaths in Minneapolis will make a difference in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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