It happened again, predictable and a prediction.
When a white man, an American citizen gets murdered by ICE ....
Today I woke thinking about normal Saturday stuff while I lazed in bed with my morning coffee:
Do I really need to do laundry or can it wait a day or two
Hoping my husband will take the dog for his morning walk so I can stay in bed and play Solitaire Grand Harvest and scroll social media while I have my coffee
Considering how can I stretch that one leftover uncooked steak in the fridge for two people for a yummy Saturday night dinner
New crochet project: I promised my son I would crochet him a beanie and I was still annoyed he picked the dreaded black yarn (if you crochet or knit, you know why), and trying to remember if I charged up my neck light for same
Then I turned on the TV.
To my unsurprised horror, ICE had killed another person. Less than two weeks after the murder of Renee Good, another person was shot by ICE. Details were developing, it had just happened but I could predict the pattern that was to follow, depending on the skin colour of the deceased. I knew it would go something like this:
Person of Colour:
An illegal immigrant accused/convicted of horrible offences (murder/rape/sexual abuse of a minor/domestic abuse or when all else fails, DUI or traffic offences like speeding also known in ICE speak as dangerous driving).
An illegal immigrant.
An immigrant.
(If an American person of colour) A criminal or potential criminal on the streets due to the lax policies of Biden/Obama/Clinton etc.
White person:
A “domestic terrorist”
Member of “ANTIFA”/paid protestor
Member of a socialist activist group/rabid Democrat
I waited. I scrolled. I looked for video. It didn’t take long.
The first video we all saw was inconclusive. I saw at least five ICE agents, then a sixth on top of a man on the street. One was hitting the man on the head, the others seemed to be pinning him down. It looked like they had him under control, then the shots rang out and the agents scattered. The man’s leg twitched, then the body lay still.
So, so still.
I heard the voices of the people recording reacting in shock, I felt their shock reverberate through my bones. I felt the pain and the fear and the horror.
All the way here in Surrey, BC Canada. I felt the horror.
I gasped. I shouted out NO, NOT AGAIN.
I got up and joined my husband in the family room as we bore witness to yet another horrific American shooting together. Again.
We waited, we watched. We saw the immediate, knee jerk reactions coming from the White House and DHS spokesperson come out. They were as predicted with one new wrinkle, the person who was shot apparently had a gun.
We looked at the video again, and again. We could not see one but as responsible people, we would wait for facts to develop.
The fact that the man might have had a gun was somewhat was unexpected for us. Maybe not to an American who lives in a gun culture, but I’m Canadian and while we do have guns, we are not allowed to carry them around. I checked Minnesota law while we waited for news, concealed carry is legal with a permit.
I saw the woman in the pink coat in the first video, she was on the same side of the street as the incident with the opposing view from the first video, unblocked by vehicles. I saw she had her phone out and I said to my husband, “She has the best view. I hope she is safe. Please God let her be safe”.
While we waited, details started to come out about the victim. His name is Alex Pretti, an ER nurse who worked in a VA hospital. 38 years old, no criminal record. A white man. An American citizen.
Then the rest of the videos came out. Including the one obviously shot by that brave lady in the pink coat.
The only time that Alex Pretti’s gun appeared was when the ICE agent that removed it as Alex lay on the ground pinned by five ICE agents and ran away from the scene with it on camera, before Alex was shot.
The social media account of Anonymous posted analysis of the photo released by the American federal government of the of the gun Alex had - only digital analysis showed that photo was from a Google search, not the actual gun. Where that went, who knows. The crime scene was shut down and controlled by ICE immediately. Local police and crime scene investigators were not permitted to examine the scene.
I’ve never heard of a crime scene released so quickly. Within hours, the very spot Alex was killed was populated with mourners lighting candles. There were no investigators taking photos, measurements, looking for local business video surveillance or witnesses. Minnesota officials applied and received a court order barring DHS from destroying evidence, officials were appalled at what they saw:
The scene was contaminated. on purpose. Just like Renee’s murder scene.
The videos that have come out now, the affidavits of the brave witnesses, including that remarkable woman in the pink coat, have been taken and the smart local officials have released them on social media to prevent them from getting buried in official red “national security” tape. Thank God. Democracy does die in darkness, a fact that certain media seems to have forgotten or ignores at the behest of their owner, they should probably delete it from their masthead. The collective non profit Bellingcat is doing the work that journalists of yesteryear used to do, follow them and support them if you can.
One statement from that lady in the pink coat’s affidavit haunts me. she said
“I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I
don’t feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don’t
know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they’re not telling
the truth about what happened. I’ve heard that other witnesses might have been
arrested and taken to the Whipple Building”.
American citizens are afraid of agents of the federal government. This is where we are.
So what is next?
I said at the start of this I have a prediction.
I think this time might be slightly different. I think because a white man was shot, a man who served veterans, a man who had a legal right to carry a concealed weapon, this time there might actually be a pivot. Not because they are concerned with the truth. But because the truth hurts some of their other objectives. The optics will take away some votes, affect the base. The veterans, the second amendment people, the white men.
They cannot allow any challenges to second amendment rights, including concealed carry.
They are probably and very rightly concerned that veterans are going to be mightily pissed off that a dedicated nurse who helped them was murdered.
The victim was a white man, not a radical lefty lesbian.
So, a necessary pivot and a sacrifice.
My prediction is come Monday, DHS will announce an “investigation” and a suspension of the officer involved. Ultimately they will throw that guy under the bus and let him be charged and convicted, hopefully under federal charges so Trump can pardon him in a few months or next year when the dust settles. Just enough “justice” to calm the masses for a bit until the next distraction.
This announcement will let them continue on with their armed invasion of masked secret police and within another two weeks, mark my words, there will be another shooting, or more than one. Depending on the sex and skin colour of the victim, we will see the same results.
This will continue, over and over, until people on both sides of the aisle - not just in Washington but all over the United States STAND UP AND DEMAND CHANGE.
To those of you on the right, you folks have been screaming “Don’t Tread On Me” and worried about government over reach into your rights for years. It is happening right now, RIGHT NOW, but because it is not happening to people who share your political beliefs, you are silent. This is exactly what you were afraid of and if you do not think it will happen to you, you best think again.
This is the Kent State moment, this is America’s Tiananmen Square.
What are you going to do about it?
*****
Video of Alex Pretti honouring a deceased veteran he cared for. Thank you for your service Alex, you are a hero. Rest in peace brother.
Sending love and prayers for peace and change from your neighbour to the north, a proud and happy Canadian forever,
Writerchick