Trump declares war on Minnesota

I find it fascinating how little the usual suspects here have posted about the death of Alex Pretti. Compared to Renee Good, the silence is deafening, even when the justification for Pretti's death is much more disputable.
Here's some possible reasons for this discrepancy:
1. Pretti is a straight white man, who falls too far down the intersectional hierarchy, especially when compared to a lesbian woman.
2. He didn't have a spouse or children. I guess grieving parents or friends don't count?
3. He had a concealed carry license and was armed. Generally a big no-no for the anti-gun left, even as many urge protesters to be armed.

---

Alex Pretti Reportedly Injured After Confrontation With Feds A Week Before His Death
Alex Pretti was left with a broken rib after a group of federal immigration officers tackled him while they were trying to make arrests the week before his death, according to CNN.

Pretti stopped his car at the time after seeing federal immigration agents chasing what he said was a family, a source told the outlet. He then starting shouting and blowing his whistle.

He later said that five agents tackled him, while one leaned on his back, leaving him with a broken rib, according to CNN.

He was eventually let go.
...

So his obstruction was an illegal pattern of behavior.

---

Trump admin officials have made many bad statements, about both Good and Pretti. No, neither are "domestic terrorists," nor does it seem like either intentionally targeted federal officers with violence. No, being armed while protesting is not illegal. That's just stupid and legally illiterate.

But intentional or not, taking actions that can be perceived as immediately threatening is the definition for justified self-defense, even by civilians. Responsible gun owners know that you do not antagonize or resist law enforcement (much less break laws in general) while armed. Hopefully most responsible drivers know this is also true of using a vehicle. Doing so is a sure way to needlessly escalate any interaction with any law enforcement, local, state, or federal.

EDIT: Meh. My bad. It wasn't even a protest situation. Just "lone hero to the rescue" activity, like with the car incident. No wonder the agents were alarmed that he might be dangerous, since he sprung out of nowhere to intervene in the situation. No surrounding, angry crowd, but the actual job function occurring.

(Jan 27, 2026 09:55 PM)C C Wrote: It's one extreme to legally carry around a firearm for routine or everyday excursions in a neighborhood where they probably don't need such (if it's a quiet area and not crime infested). But far more reckless beyond that to be sporting a concealed weapon during a chaotic protest against similarly armed agents. Should gun advocacy groups tell owners that carrying a firearm is universal no matter what the environmental situation is (never a careless act to do so), then this incident would highlight how blatantly irresponsible and dangerous such absoluteness is.

No, your Second Amendment rights don't end when you want to exercise your First Amendment rights. It is universally advisable that responsible gun owners always be armed, as it's always better to be armed and not need it than to be unarmed and need it.

What is universally inadvisable is to be armed while breaking the law or intentionally engaging with law enforcement, including obstruction or resisting or evading commands, detaining, or arrest. At best, being armed while committing a crime can be used as sentencing enhancement. And we've seen the worse case.

Quote:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of...i#Shooting

Pretti then holds hands up with one hand holding his phone and the other hand to protect himself from being maced...

[...] Pretti then "tried to pull away, and ... [made] no threatening movements towards the agents" but "agents pulled him backwards and forced him to the ground." The official that pepper sprayed Pretti...

Because Pretti put his hands on the officer first, which is legally assault and likely why they were trying to detain him.

Quote:... then hits him with the pepper spray multiple times, another official discovered and removed Pretti's firearm from his waistband holster, and then ten shots were fired over five seconds.

In that chaotic 5 seconds, with all the yelling and whistle blowing, it was likely officers didn't hear that he had been disarmed.

It was also a Sig P320, which has had a history lately of reported uncommanded discharges. If it went off unintentionally, the sound of that gun shot could have been the trigger for officers firing.

Quote:According to analysis by The New York Times, agents yelled that Pretti had a gun approximately eight seconds after he had been pinned to the ground. The Department of Homeland Security said that Pretti approached Border Patrol officers with a handgun, and an agent sprayed mace before firing defensive shots after attempting to disarm him.

He was never "pinned to the ground" as he continued to resist the entire time.
The DHS statement, like several from Noam, Patel, etc., were obviously out over their skis and premature of learning the facts.

Quote:Video of the incident showed Pretti's phone in his right hand and nothing in his left hand. In a sworn testimony, two witnesses to the killing said that Pretti did not brandish a gun, and a frame-by-frame analysis of video from the event by the BBC reached the same conclusion. Multiple videos showed a federal agent pulling a gun from the scuffle matching the description later given by DHS, followed by two other federal agents using their guns to shoot Pretti. According to The Wall Street Journal: "A frame-by-frame review [...] shows a federal officer pulling a handgun away from Pretti. Less than a second later, an agent fires several rounds."

Officers do not have the benefit of frame-by-frame analysis in the moment. Knowing he is armed and not being able to restrain him or control his hands escalated the situation.

From the mouth of a crazy MAGA extremist:

https://x.com/mazemoore/status/2015921101696585788

(Jan 27, 2026 09:55 PM)C C Wrote:

(Jan 27, 2026 09:39 PM)Syne Wrote: [...] Alex Pretti Reportedly Injured After Confrontation With Feds A Week Before His Death
Alex Pretti was left with a broken rib after a group of federal immigration officers tackled him while they were trying to make arrests the week before his death, according to CNN.

Pretti stopped his car at the time after seeing federal immigration agents chasing what he said was a family, a source told the outlet. He then starting shouting and blowing his whistle.

He later said that five agents tackled him, while one leaned on his back, leaving him with a broken rib, according to CNN.

He was eventually let go.
...
So his obstruction was an illegal pattern of behavior.

He wasn't carrying a gun at that time, maybe -- or didn't regularly do such? All the more reckless a decision to do it during protests that feature violent interactions. The demonstrators surely don't deliberately want to become martyrs, but carelessness or bad decisions in that type environment facilitate it. The planners need to do a better job of schooling the participants about safety.

Presumably he wasn't armed the first time, which would make being armed while looking for a second interaction seem suspect.

I think the chaos and martyrs are by design... at least by politicians stoking the flames. It's Hamas-style PR warfare.

---

(Jan 27, 2026 10:18 PM)Yazata Wrote: From the mouth of a crazy MAGA extremist:

https://x.com/mazemoore/status/2015921101696585788

Fucking far-right extremist.

Just demonstrates how far the left has radicalized.

(Jan 27, 2026 10:19 PM)Syne Wrote: I think the chaos and martyrs are by design... at least by politicians stoking the flames. It's Hamas-style PR warfare.

Both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were professional activists, part of that huge Signal-chat online conspiracy. Both had assigned jobs to do in the demonstrations. So neither of them were innocent passers-by.

I think that it's clear to everyone with an IQ above room-temperature (in Minneapolis!) that the activists' strategy is to Push, Push, Push... in hopes that an incident occurs that can be exploited for political purposes. I'm not convinced that either of them planned to die as martyrs, but they definitely were part of an effort to provoke, stretch and challenge law enforcement. While their comrades probably do mourn their deaths, those comrades are probably quite happy as well about the additional leverage that their deaths have given the pro-illegal-immigration cause.

That's what it is. Two isolated incidents have somehow become a demand that illegal-immigration enforcement be halted nationwide. The demand doesn't follow logically from the incidents, but they can be strung together emotionally. So now we have Chuck Schumer (who somehow counts as a 'moderate' democrat these days) announcing that they will shut down the government again unless the Department of Homeland Security is defunded. (Expect a long government shutdown this time.)

My own opinion is that ICE is intended to make targeted arrests of foreigners with existing deportation orders and those with criminal histories. They aren't really trained for crowd control and for suppressing massive riots, nor do they really have the manpower. That's the job of local and state police. Except that in Minnesota, the local police are AWOL, having ceded the streets of Minneapolis to the rioters, leaving ICE agents to battle riots alone, by winging it.

So incidents are predictable, which is apparently the whole idea.

(Jan 27, 2026 11:11 PM)Yazata Wrote:

(Jan 27, 2026 10:19 PM)Syne Wrote: I think the chaos and martyrs are by design... at least by politicians stoking the flames. It's Hamas-style PR warfare.

Both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were professional activists, part of that huge Signal-chat online conspiracy. Both had assigned jobs to do in the demonstrations. So neither of them were innocent passers-by.

I think that it's clear to everyone with an IQ above room-temperature (in Minneapolis!) that the activists' strategy is to Push, Push, Push... in hopes that an incident occurs that can be exploited for political purposes. I'm not convinced that either of them planned to die as martyrs, but they definitely were part of an effort to provoke, stretch and challenge law enforcement. While their comrades probably do mourn their deaths, those comrades are probably quite happy as well about the additional leverage that their deaths have given the pro-illegal-immigration cause.

I couldn't agree more. With Good's "wife" out filming (footage we still haven't seen) and Pretti having more than one interaction with ICE/CBP, it seems obvious. The useful idiots willing to spin the roulette wheel.

Quote:That's what it is. Two isolated incidents have somehow become a demand that illegal-immigration enforcement be halted nationwide. The demand doesn't follow logically from the incidents, but they can be strung together emotionally. So now we have Chuck Schumer (who somehow counts as a 'moderate' democrat these days) announcing that they will shut down the government again unless the Department of Homeland Security is defunded. (Expect a long government shutdown this time.)

I've seen they are now also trying to rope in the NYE shooting by an ICE officer of a guy shooting into the air.

But let's face it, they were always going to come up with some reason to shut down the government. There is no way you can shut down DHS. Although that would put the responsibility for any terrorist attack squarely on the democrats... leaving us vulnerable.

Quote:My own opinion is that ICE is intended to make targeted arrests of foreigners with existing deportation orders and those with criminal histories. They aren't really trained for crowd control and for suppressing massive riots, nor do they really have the manpower. That's the job of local and state police. Except that in Minnesota, the local police are AWOL, having ceded the streets of Minneapolis to the rioters, leaving ICE agents to battle riots alone, by winging it.

So incidents are predictable, which is apparently the whole idea.

True, in every red state, even their blue cities, local/state law enforcement is willing and allowed to support ICE operations. And there are no deadly or even violent interactions with protestors... although I assume they exist there as well.


Even when Minneapolis police tried to secure the Pretti shooting scene, ostensibly to investigate, they had to withdraw due to crowds. That's what happens when you repeatedly prove to people that your police are ineffectual.

(Jan 28, 2026 01:43 AM)Magical Realist Wrote:

And they had to draw a picture because that image never actually happened... biasing your memory, so that you reject the evidence you already saw.

In the actual video, Pretti makes contact with the officer, which is assault, the officer pepper sprays him, which is proportionate, and far from protecting the woman, he stumbles over her and then drags her with him in an attempt to keep officers from apprehending him.