Minnesota gun rights advocate:
ICE stumbles into an attack on the Second Amendment."The handgun was in a holster on his belt. After agents sprayed him with pepper spray, they took him to the ground, and beat him in the face with a canister. An agent then removed the gun from his holster, which he never had in his hand, and an agent shot him 10 times. That's what I see when I watch the videos."
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| Noem: "This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement." |
Rough enforcement by ICE is a body-language message to people contemplating entering or remaining in the U.S. illegally: The U.S. is a frightening and dangerous place for you. Don't come. Get out or else.
This strategy is working. Immigration has reversed direction.
SWAT-style immigration enforcement is also a message to Trump's political opponents. It is the domestic version of bombing boats from Venezuela. Trump can and will use violence against you without regard for laws or the Constitution.The Second Amendment isn't my favorite. I think widespread possession and carrying of firearms is dangerous. But a significant segment of Americans disagrees, and demands that people be free to carry firearms. Alex Pretti was exercising that right. Video of the encounter shows no evidence that he withdrew or brandished that firearm or threatened anyone with it. Video shows it was taken from him by an ICE officer. That justifies his immediate killing, according to ICE.
A body-language message has entered the public consciousness: An ICE agent can kill on sight a person exercising the right to bear arms near them. The officer is immune from punishment. The citizen will be vilified publicly by one or more Cabinet secretaries. You have the right -- but better not exercise it.
This killing will muddle the political waters. Gun rights groups do not defend gun carry by people of color -- the NRA is still silent on the Philando Castile case -- but Pretti is White, with a clean criminal record, and he had a gun permit.
This shooting is different from the one that killed Renee Good. Net-net, ICE having killed Renee Good helps Trump with his MAGA base. She was one of "theirs," a lesbian with a wife who shouted insults. The ICE agent spoke for MAGA when he called her a "fucking bitch." She deserved it, even though she was exercising her first amendment rights.But Pretti was shot because he possessed a gun, a Second Amendment right. Trump's rough immigration enforcement was never about the law. It is about who. Who are the good guys, who gets Trump's protection, and who suffers Trump's wrath? White firearms-carriers are the good guys.
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| "Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms—including while attending protests." |
Trump's media machine will try to fix this. They will need to blame Pretti, as they double down on blaming Renee Good. He deserved what happened to him. Maybe he was gay. Or trans. Or a Democrat. Or something other than a nurse at a veterans hospital exercising his Second Amendment rights. That is what got him killed, but that must be denied.
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I own four guns. I also have a concealed permit. My guns are for home protection. I don't carry a gun when I'm out in public, but I legally could. The situation doesn't call for it, and it's asking for trouble if I do. What would happen if the Medford police were having a drug or gang raid, and I went out of my way and accosted the police while carrying a gun? I would be looking for trouble, and I'd get it. You don't fuck with the police, particularly if you are carrying a weapon. Our latest shooting victim in Minneapolis went out of his way to accost the police, and he was carrying a weapon while doing so. What the hell are the police suppose to think? It was reported yesterday that another rioter bit-off the finger of an ICE agent. If you want to get thumpy with the police, then expect to get your ass kicked. With the encouragement of Tim Walz and Jacob Frey, people are rioting in Minnesota. They deserve everything bad that happens to them, and Walz and Frey should be in jail. Just think about it. These people are rioting in order to protect illegal aliens who are criminals, pedophiles, rapists, and murderers. That's who these rioters value (over Americans). Rioters are also trying to create a diversion from the $9 billion of social aid that was stolen by Somalis. If I were Trump, I'd bring-in the military, and stomp-out the paid rioters. You don't fuck with the police. Your parents should have told you that when you were a kid.
ReplyDeleteI am confident, by the content and writing style, that this comment is from Curt Ankerberg, a perennial candidate for public office in Southern Oregon. I delete most of his comments without allowing them to be published because so many of them project hostility and plagiarized MAGA-isms. But this one is pretty reasonable, so I accepted it. There is an unintended message embedded in this comment. Although Ankerberg has widely acknowledged anger issues (mocked as Curt Angerbird, in a local newspaper), and he has many years of writing virulent attacks against me, other community members, and especially against elected officials, including multiple instances of writing the pleasure he would feel at their deaths, the Jackson County Sheriff apparently chooses not to exercise his power to judge Ankerberg as a "red flag" risk for carrying a concealed gun. I have sent many of Ankerberg's letter to the Medford police, primarily ones that contain veiled threats in the form of wishing that someone or something would kill me . So the police have a file, but they tell me there is nothing they can done until he actually kills me or someone else. THEN they would consider his behavior to be a legitimate red flag that would take away his concealed carry right. This gives readers here a sense of how little protection their is in red flag laws. Ankerberg is not stupid, although he does astonishingly foolish, counter-productive things. He is careful to suggest that harm against me or city, county, state, or federal officials happen -- passive voice -- not that he would do them. People ask why I publish him now or ever. The answer is that sometime he says non-obscene, useful things. My wish is that he would write rational, reasonable things constantly, not intermittently. Possibly by publishing him when he is Trumpy and disagreeable, but reasonable I will channel his behavior in useful ways. Plus, I consider him an embarrassment to local Republicans, so I want the public to see the kind of behavior Republicans tolerate and vote for. Curt gets lots of votes. People tell me I am a sentimental, optimistic fool to think that Ankerberg will behave like a gentleman and useful social critic. They tell me he is dangerous. But I am still alive, as the police predicted, which means that he has not yet acted on his worst desires.
ReplyDeleteJanuary 25, 2026 at 8:58 AM
Peter, I've been to your house once in 2018 (I was invited), and I haven't been near your neighborhood since. If I were dangerous, and I wanted to hurt you, then it would have been done long ago. You and your progressive friends are the real danger. How many babies have Democrats killed in the past year? How many children have you disfigured with sex change operations? You lie daily in order to push your liberal agenda. I'm not an embarrassment. I'm a good person. The local Chamber good old boy mafia is the embarrassment, and they own your ass. They own Medford. You can cry to the cops, but I'm cool with the cops, and they know me and like me. Democrats have ruined Oregon and Medford. Get a clue. Your side is the real danger. And, since your liberal city council has destroyed Medford, then I may run for office again, and the dirty county clerk will get to run another dirty election.
DeleteCurt once told a judge that he had "water on the brain," but I think it's something far more odiferous than water.
ReplyDeleteI have watched all of the available videos of this shooting, and I do not see any way to tell whether Pretti went for his gun before he was shot.
ReplyDeleteI suggest holding the rush to judgment until all of the available evidence has been carefully looked at.
Pretti had been subdued and was on the ground when shot multiple times by ICE. There won't be any investigation. The FBI agent who started looking into the murder of Renee Good was ordered to back off, so she resigned. This isn't likely to be any different.
DeleteFrom what I could see in the videos, Pretti wasn’t “subdued.“ He was on the ground, but still struggling.
DeleteDid he reach for his gun? Did it look like he was about to reach for his gun? Based on the publicly available videos, I have no idea, and I doubt that anyone else does either.
It would be good if a definitive video emerged that showed exactly what happened.
It's true: in spite of 4 or 5 agents wailing away at him on the ground, he kept moving until they shot him dead. He's "subdued" now.
Delete