"How do you stop someone from killing someone else? In most societies, we do so with warnings, promises, and contracts. We make laws to make ourselves feel safe. It's important to feel safe, because reality is terrifying. In Minneapolis this weekend, we saw reality: a group of men with guns, in a semicircle, firing a barrage of shots into a man's body lying on the ground."
"The laws that were supposed to protect Alex Pretti-the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, multiple state and local and national statutes on use of force-failed. Pretti's death, captured on video from multiple angles, was so shocking that even the Trump administration has been forced to rethink its brutal tactics in the Twin Cities, which for more than a month has been ravaged by an onslaught of federal agents ostensibly conducting "immigration enforcement.""
"Gregory Bovino, the cartoonishly fascist figurehead of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's operations in the Twin Cities, has been removed from his post and forced off social media. Kristi Noem, Bovino's boss at the Department of Homeland Security, received a brief, but significant, rebuke from the president. The Democrats, America's sluggish and often ineffectual opposition party, are howling for investigations, firings, and impeachments."
Laws and social contracts meant to prevent murder rely on warnings, promises, contracts, and statutes, yet they failed to protect Alex Pretti. Video shows men with guns firing into his body while federal agents operated in Minneapolis under the guise of immigration enforcement. The Trump administration has altered its messaging, removed ICE figure Gregory Bovino, and the president rebuked Kristi Noem, while Democrats demand investigations and firings. Despite these moves, the conditions that enabled Pretti's death persist across cities and towns where armed state agents operate. The presence of armed federal 'goon squads' risks becoming permanent.
Read at Slate Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]