I write this on Sunday afternoon during an ice storm. The worst of the storm is predicting over the next hours, but I will try to get this blog post written and posted before the power goes off. The events of this weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and my government’s official response to it/explanation of it compel me to speak out.

The fact that we have a United States President that is hellbent on destroying the very foundations of our democracy is not bad enough. We have American citizens who are not only applauding the wrecking ball he has taken to the people of Minnesota; they are justifying what he is doing.

I am appalled at the number of Americans who are saying that Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good “got what they deserved.”

I am appalled at the number of Americans who can watch the same videos I’m seeing of Saturday morning’s murder in Minneapolis and not see what I see.

The video shows that the gun Mr. Pretti was legally carrying had been removed from him by a federal agent. Then four or five federal agents were all over him while he was held on the ground. Then, more than 10 shots were fired at him, and Mr. Pretti lay there dead. It appears that one of the federal agents fired five shots at Mr. Pretti, who was already lying motionless on the ground. Then, all the federal officers scattered.

The U.S. Government says Mr. Pretti was holding a gun when he approached to try to rescue a woman who had been shoved backwards to the ground by a federal agent, but what he held was a cell phone. They sprayed him with pepper spray or some other chemical because he was trying to shield the woman. He was trying to film the incident with his cell phone. He was not reaching for his gun.

He had a permit to carry a firearm. That is a right that Republicans hold as the most sacred right an American can have. They value it above our right to vote, above our right to worship, and above our right to assemble.

These are the same people who called 17-year-old high school drop-out Kyle Rittenhouse a hero for openly carrying a high-powered rifled down the street in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 during civil unrest. Rittenhouse fatally shot three people. Trump invited Rittenhouse to the White House so he could honor him as an American hero. A real patriot, according to Trump and his ilk. Rittenhouse was acquitted, claiming “self-defense.” He is now a darling of the Trump regime.

However, these same people are saying that Alex Pretti deserved to be shot to death because he was legally carrying a firearm – a firearm that was not in his hand. It was in a holster.

The “weapon” in his hand was a cell phone, but the federal agents did not want their actions recorded. They had to do something.

The U.S. Government says the federal agents were being threatened.

A federal agent should never feel threatened by a cell phone, unless that agent is doing something illegal or immoral.

Mr. Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Veterans Administration hospital. He had apparently gone into the street with his cell phone to observe and record the protest.

The U.S. Government immediately accused Mr. Pretti of being a domestic terrorist. That’s also what they immediately called Renee Nicole Good after they shot her in the face as she drove away from the ICE agents.

This is now a U.S. Government that does not want us to believe our own eyes. This is now a U.S. Government that does not want us to believe our own ears. This is a U.S. Government that wants us to forget every word of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

But the thing that frightens me more than my government is my fellow American citizens who think this situation is just fine. They are the citizens who say, “Trump is just going after the worst of the worst. He is just going after the murderers and rapists. He is just going after the people who are here illegally.”

The people who say those things are the people who scare me. Those are the people who would say that Anne Frank got what she deserved. They are the ones who would have defended Hitler’s thugs and “brown shirts” in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. They are the ones who would have said the Jews “got what they deserved.”

They are the ones who today are saying, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti “got what they deserved.”

They are the ones who today are saying, “If you just do whatever an officer tells you to do, they won’t kill you.”

They are the ones who say, “The Holocaust never happened.”

They are the ones who will say, “Nothing happened in Minneapolis on January 24, 2025.”

Never in my first 72 years of life would I have thought this would be the state of things in the United States of America in 2026, but here we are. We have a segment of the population who truly believe, “If you just do whatever an officer tells you to do, they won’t kill you.”

My questions for them are as follows:

If an officer tells you to wear a yellow star on your clothing, would you willingly do that?

If an officer tells you to climb into a train boxcar, would you do that?

If an officer tells you to watch them abuse and arrest a peaceful protester and never say a word about it, would you stand idly by and never say a word?

If an officer uses your five-year-old child as bait to try to bring you out of your home so they can haul you and the child away to a detention center more than 1,000 miles away, would you be okay with that?

If an officer uses your neighbor’s five-year-old child as bait to try to bring your neighbor out of his or her home so they can haul them away to a detention center more than 1,000 miles away because they committed a misdemeanor, would you be okay with that?

Are you aware that it is a misdemeanor to be in the United States illegally?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for committing a misdemeanor?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for filming a peaceful protest?

Are you aware that being shot to death is not a legitimate “punishment” for coming to the rescue of a fellow citizen who has been shoved to the ground by a federal officer?

And yet, we have a convicted felon “serving” as President of the United States.

We live in a country today that honors felons and murders American citizens for coming to the aid of another citizen being physically abused.

The U.S. Government says that Alex Pretti interfered with a federal operation.

It appears to me in the video that Alex Pretti saw an unarmed woman being pushed backwards to the concrete sidewalk in Minneapolis. Mr. Pretti tried to record the incident with one hand while trying to protect the woman with his body and his free hand.

If the federal agents were properly trained instead of being given $50,000 signing bonuses, they would not have murdered Alex Pretti.

Mr. Pretti, being a trained nurse and an American citizen, saw an abuse of power and tried to do what any law-abiding citizen should do.

God, help us.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.