Minneapolis: Ground Zero for Our Democracy

In less than a month, Federal agents have wantonly killed two innocent civilians in Minneapolis—Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. Rather than take steps to prevent more deaths, the Trump Administration has ruled out any meaningful investigations of the two killings. Instead, Cabinet-level officers have demonized both victims, calling them “domestic terrorists”, in a carefully coordinated campaign of lies and propaganda.

Vice President J.D. Vance claimed, falsely, that federal agents have “absolute immunity” from prosecution. Vance even praised Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good in the face, firing through her car window three times.

In effect, the Federal government has given a green light to ICE agents and Border and Customs Patrol (BCP) officers to use deadly force against peaceful protestors.

This is not about immigration or law enforcement. President Donald Trump is moving rapidly to replace our democracy with a military dictatorship, by crushing any opposition to his rule. That’s why he has turned Minneapolis into a war zone.

His Administration is flooding cities with Federal forces to accomplish several goals:

· Normalize the military occupation of cities (which is illegal)

· Terrify citizens so they won’t stage protests

· Intimidate voters, especially people of color, in blue or purple states

· Humiliate and subordinate local and state officials

· Try to provoke violent clashes so Trump can invoke the Insurrection Act

Interfering with Midterms

Trump wants to deploy the military to interfere with the midterm elections in November, so he can prevent Democrats from winning control of the House. Minneapolis is a dress rehearsal for the main event in the fall.

In the 2020 election, Trump sought to use troops to seize voting machines because of his fantasies about “massive fraud”. However, Mark Milley, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mark Esper, then-Secretary of Defense, refused to do that.

This time, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would certainly obey any such order. If Trump succeeds in interfering with the midterms, the US will cease to be a free country. It’s up to ordinary Americans to prevent this, and we must move quickly.

Not About Immigration or Fraud

The Administration has sent 2,000 to 3,000 federal forces into Minneapolis, drawing from ICE, BCP and other units.

The government has put forth several reasons for the surge, none of which stands up to scrutiny: sweeping up undocumented immigrants who are violent criminals; investigating fraud, particularly among Somali residents; and combating a supposed wave of crimes caused by immigrants.

Here are some inconvenient facts:

· Immigrants throughout the US have lower crime rates than native-born Americans

· In Minneapolis, as in most major US cities, crime rates have been falling

· Minnesota has a below-average rate of undocumented immigrants-2.3%

· BCP usually operates within 150 miles of the border

· Minneapolis is about 400 miles from…Canada

· About 95% of members of the Somali community in Minneapolis are US citizens; 60% were born in America

Some Somalis and Somali Americans in Minnesota were engaged in a major fraud scheme involving billions of dollars. They deserve punishment. But governments fight fraud by dispatching lawyers, not by sending badly trained, heavily armed thugs to patrol the streets.

In fact, the DOJ did launch an investigation of the fraud, under the Biden Administration, and it made great progress. That process has now ground to a halt, because the lead prosecutor, and five other lawyers on his team, resigned from the US Attorney’s office in Minneapolis. They quit because the Administration asked them to investigate Nicole Good’s wife, rather than the officer’s conduct in the shooting.

Shooting Pepper Spray at Close Range/photo: Getty Images

Violence Was Predictable

Trump officials knew that “surging” federal forces into Minneapolis would probably lead to violence. We saw this happen in Trump’s first term, when he dispatched a small, ragtag force of ICE and BCP agents to Portland, Oregon. Local and state officials predicted that the presence of the Federal forces would escalate tensions …and the protests did become more violent. Protestors shot firecrackers at the Federal courthouse, and Federal agents beat up civilians.

In September 2020, Michael Reinoehl, a left-wing activist, shot and killed a right-wing protestor in Portland. Subsequently, Federal officers tracked Reinoehl down and, after a high-speed chase, riddled his car with bullets, even though Reinoehl did not fire at them, according to a New York Times investigation. Despite the officers’ debatable use of force, President Trump praised their conduct, calling it “retribution”.

Reinoehl certainly deserved severe punishment, such as imprisonment for life. But the Federal officers executed him, rather than arresting him. Trump should not have commended them.

Pouring Gas onto the Fire

In Minnesota, after Good was shot dead, Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Jacob Frey pleaded with Washington to remove the Federal units. Instead, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent in more Federal forces.

In a functioning democracy, the central government would defer to the recommendations of local authorities, who are far more competent in law enforcement, and it would take steps to de-escalate the situation.

But Noem has poured gas onto the fire. At this point, federal forces outnumber the Minneapolis police force (about 600 officers) by 3 to 5 times.

Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi have had the gall to accuse Walz and Frey of inciting the violence, because they have criticized the deployments and the Feds’ harsh tactics. In another move to intimidate them, Bondi has launched an investigation of Walz and Frey and served subpoenas on them.

Demanding Voter Rolls

In a stunning letter over the weekend, Bondi offered to remove the ICE units if Minnesota turned over its voting rolls and the names of food stamp recipients and abandoned its sanctuary policies. In effect, Bondi delivered an extortion demand…and the key item was access to information on voters.

However, states zealously protect the confidentiality of voter rolls, which contain key information such as a voter’s address and, in many states, party affiliation. States do not share that information with Federal authorities, precisely because of the danger for abuse.

This could be a preview of tactics the Administration will use in November, if local and state officials try to block Federal attempts to interfere with counting ballots.

Heavily Armed Federal Agents in Minneapolis/photo: Getty Images

Why Did Federal Agents Assault Pretti?

I will not rehash the facts concerning Good’s shooting, which have been widely discussed. However, I will give you my views on Alex Pretti’s death, after watching two videos of the incident. My first reaction was, why did the BCP officers assault him?

The timing is important for both shootings. They each took place in broad daylight, at about 9 AM, so the Feds had good visibility.

I will focus on the clearer video of Pretti’s shooting, which was taken from about 30 feet away. A BCP officer hurls a woman onto the snow. Another officer shoots pepper spray into a second woman’s face, even though she does not appear to be threatening him.

Trying to Protect a Protestor

Pretti, who has been directing traffic, walks over with his phone in his right hand and uses his left hand to try to block the stream of pepper spray from hitting the woman. The woman staggers and then sits on the street. Pretti crouches as he attempts to protect her from the spray. Pretti does not approach the agent shooting the pepper spray.

Things then move very quickly. The agent squirts pepper spray at Pretti’s face, as he shields the woman from the agent. Then several agents attack Pretti. Why?

Pretti resists—understandably---and they wrestle him to the ground, one of them hitting Pretti repeatedly with a tear gas canister. One agent steps away from the mêlée, holding a gun that looks like the model Pretti was carrying, according to a New York Times analysis.

It is not clear if other agents notice that their colleague has removed Pretti’s gun. But Pretti obviously cannot grab his gun, even if he wanted to, because it is gone.

Shot in the Back

Another agent, standing behind Pretti, steps back. He pulls out his gun and shoots Pretti in the back, at close range. Pretti falls to the ground. That agent, and one to two other agents (it’s hard to tell who’s shooting), fire a total of 10 rounds into Pretti within five seconds, according to the Times.

In my opinion, the agents had no basis for assaulting Pretti. They created a dangerous situation by tackling him. And even if they mistakenly believed he had a gun, why shoot him ten times?

A well-trained police officer wants to arrest a criminal. He will try to avoid using his weapon, although he may need to shoot in self-defense. But the Federal forces in Minneapolis seem to have a military mindset, which is: kill the enemy.

An Orwellian Response

In any event, this shooting must be investigated thoroughly. But high-ranking Trump officials immediately branded Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist”, just as they had smeared Nicole Good.

“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” Greg Bovino, the head of BCP, said at a press conference on Saturday.

Shortly after the shooting took place, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, claimed on social media that Pretti intended to murder federal agents. Miller also attacked Democrats for allegedly supporting terrorism: “A would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement and the official Democrat account sides with the terrorists”.

In other tyrannical regimes such as Russia, Turkey and Iran, the government blames protests on “outside agitators”, rather than acknowledging the public’s grievances. Similarly, this Administration rushes to attack protestors as “domestic terrorists”, even though it’s Federal forces, not citizens, who are resorting to violence.

Trump and his minions are spewing these lies partly because they are running scared. About 60% of Americans, and 71% of independents, think ICE has gone “too far” with its tactics, according to a recent New York Times/Siena poll. About half of voters approve of how Trump has handled the border, but most Americans are appalled by ICE’s and BCP’s brutal, lawless actions.

What Can You Do?

Democrats in Congress should refuse to provide funding for the government without securing major reforms in ICE’s and BCP’s practices: no masks, show ID, avoid using pepper spray or firing weapons.

If you live in a Democratic state, call your Representative and Senators and tell them to demand such reforms in exchange for funding the government.

If you have a Republican Representative or Senator, call them and tell them you are infuriated by ICE and BCP’s violence against protestors. Remind them about Trump’s lousy poll numbers on immigration and the economy, which were his two key issues during his campaign, and how they could hurt Republicans in the midterm elections. Tell them that you want them to pressure the Administration to reform these lawless agencies.

The only way we can beat these tyrants is by harnessing the power of public opinion. That, at least, we have on our side.

The Wall Street Democrat