It doesn’t matter if Alex Peretti has a gun

Shortly after the federal agents were killed Alex Pretty On Saturday morning, the Department of Homeland Security began spreading the story that the dead man was armed and dangerous. The Department of Homeland Security said he was carrying a gun. (A Bellingcat analysis The video concludes that Pretty was not armed when he was shot. The Department of Homeland Security said he approached the agents while carrying the rifle. (He was holding a phone New York Times Reports.) Pretty died on his knees, surrounded by armed Border Patrol agents, with shot after shot fired in his direction.

America’s Second Amendment is beloved by conservatives. Minnesota allows open carry with a permit. Pretty lived in a city where people were regularly assaulted and even killed by the masked and armed men he was busy monitoring. So why spill so much ink on fine details? for him behavior? Why is it normal for law enforcement officials – those who are supposed to be the keepers of law and order – to kill Americans? And why, in the end, the only question is how much their victims deserve to die?

In July 2020, the Department of Homeland Security sent more than a hundred federal officers from various agencies to the city of Portland, Oregon. They engulfed downtown in a thick brown haze of tear gas. This did not neutralize the crowds, but only hurt and anger them. The city realized that it was being deliberately tortured by sadists and chose to march in tear gas out of spite.

Throughout the protests, politicians and media focused their attention on whether Portland and other cities were the site of “protests” or “riots.” Discrimination was made solely on the basis of the behavior of the protesters, whose actions were treated as if they had occurred in a vacuum. But on the field in Portland, it looked like he missed the mark.

The actions of the protesters have blurred the definition of nonviolence. They came wearing gas masks and carrying shields. People brought leaf blowers and deliberately fired tear gas at officers who threw the canisters. They threw plastic water bottles at the Feds because they hated them and thought it might be funny to hit them with their military helmets. No one was trying to kill the Feds, but still, it wasn’t like linking arms and marching down the streets of Selma while singing.

But if there was a riot in Portland, it was the feds who instigated it, preemptively escalating the situation with rubber bullets, pepper balls and gas bombs, weapons that don’t simply blur the definition of “non-lethal” but It literally contradicts it.

These unequal expectations were unfair to civilians. And it is applied again, with greater weight and greater brutality, to the people of Minneapolis.

Clearly, the presence of ICE in Minnesota is a source of conflict and anxiety. As the feds leave chaos and fear in their wake, Minnesotans without training or state-issued protective equipment are being asked to act with greater restraint than armed agents who are supposed to abide by the law.

Early reporting It may indicate that Preeti was violently killed while interacting peacefully with federal law enforcement. Videos show he was holding a phone and moving to help a protester when agents grabbed him by the legs and wrestled him to the ground. The agents scream that he has a gun only after they pin him to the ground.

But whatever happened, the physical coordinates of Alex Pretti’s alleged gun in the few seconds before he was killed are far less important than the ongoing siege of the Twin Cities. In the face of this aggression, what was so significant about his behavior, attitude, or how he dealt with clients immediately before his death? Why should victims of state violence be tasked with de-escalating the situation, when they do not receive a salary, health insurance or pension from taxpayers’ money?

People are assigned to keep the peace, and are asked to stand firm against federal agents who disrupt the peace. This is a sick form of double taxation – where your wages are deducted so a masked man can beat you up while you try to calm him down. “It’s okay, buddy, I’m not mad at you,” Renee Goode said Tell ICE agents Moments before she was shot through the side window of her car. Did she deserve to die because she didn’t do enough to soothe their feelings?

What is the purpose of Pin someone to the ground Before I pour pepper spray on his face? What is the point of all this, except to make the public angry, and then respond to that anger with more force? Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP, and Border Patrol have proven themselves incapable of obeying the law, let alone enforcing it on others; Unable to calm himself, let alone keep the peace. ICE and others like it are not a solution to a problem, but a problem with only one solution. It is malicious, worthless, and should not exist.