Multiple Minneapolis Murders

 

Outrage makes coherent writing a challenge. I’ll try.

Hell-bent on defending ICE when Renee Good was murdered, Trump and MAGA could claim her killer feared for his life because, for an instant, he was stupidly in front of her car. They could pretend that when he shot her to death, standing to the side, he was still endangered, because... I don’t know. Something.

But the latest Minneapolis murder, by Border Patrol agents (why are they there?) led by Nazi cosplayer Greg Bovino, affords no such rationale. The first shot into Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for critically ill veterans, came from behind, after another attacker had removed his licensed and holstered gun, which, unlike the lies told by Trump, Miller, Vance, Noem, Bovino, and more, he had pointed at no one, nor even touched. As he was executed, Alex Pretti was held down by several so-called officers, subdued, blinded by pepper spray.

We know the videos. Alex Pretti was holding a camera, not a weapon. When a non-violent woman was pushed to the ground by Trump’s thugs, he went to help her, and was taken down by several what-to-call-thems. He threatened no one. The gunmen who pumped eleven bullets into him, the kind Trump hires, might be professional killers, but they’re the opposite of professional law enforcement. Many are actual criminals. Others are just horrible humans. 

It’s so egregious, one might wonder if the assassination was intentional, because Trump and his Svengali, Stephen Miller, wanted to incite violence, enough to rationalize Trump’s dream of mowing down people who dare oppose him. I’m no conspiracist, but this was so out of bounds that who knows? Admirably, Minnesotans have refused the bait.

Everything Trump and his mouthpieces have said, even as multiple videos showed the truth, have been outrageous lies, told by people who know they’re lying but do it anyway. The lies and smears came so fast it was as if a script was pre-prepared. He was there “to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” He was “a domestic terrorist and an assassin.” No one should believe a single word coming from any of them. Ever again.

Republicans defend the right of all Americans to be armed with all weapons at all times in all places under all circumstances. Wasn’t there a time when self-described patriots were buying up military-style weapons and so much ammo that there were nationwide shortages? Wasn’t it to protect themselves from a repressive government bent on rounding up and killing Americans? In fairness, that was when our president was a black man. But, unless memory fails, unlike Trump, President Barack Obama never called for the death of his political opponents or hired death squads. Now that America is living their fever dream, where are those brave men?

If Alex Pretti having a gun meant, ipso facto, as stated by Trump’s hench, that he intended mayhem, would I be a hero, encountering one of those compensatory microphallics in Walmart, slung with an AR-15 and bandoleers containing enough rounds to erase everyone in the store, if I killed him?

Like fiscal responsibility, law and order, and free speech, the right to bear arms turns out to be just another cynical Republican talking point. Bovino tried to legitimize the murder because Alex Pretti “possessed” a weapon. Possessed! He even showed a picture of it. Will independent investigators be allowed to check the registration?

The implication: anyone legally carrying is a deserving target. It’s a bit of a departure from Republican doctrine, but there’s nothing about Trumpism that conforms to long-gone conservatism. Trumpism has devolved into fascism. 

So committed was Trump to moral leadership that he spent the next days touting his monstrosity of a ballroom and hosting billionaire suck-ups for a private screening of a fawning movie about his third wife.

After the execution of Alex Pretti, not even the most Trumpofoxified can deny that Trump and his chosen atrocities lied about what we all saw. They consider their supporters submissive idiots and figure they can dilute votes from those who aren’t. In Trump’s America, citizens are murdered without cause or consequence. Constitutionally protected protest is domestic terrorism. Like the First, the Second Amendment is situational, applying only to his followers. Like Kyle Rittenhouse.

Until Trump is gone, voting for any Republican signifies approval of the brutality behind the murders in Minneapolis and of the mendacious people he hired to oversee it. No matter one’s political leanings, this cruel lawlessness must be stopped. No exaggeration: The times demand choosing between standing with or against America. Assuming it’ll still be allowed, only massive voting can end Trumpic tyranny. Despite a few words of “concern,” Congressional Republicans won’t.

The murders in Minneapolis should fill the hearts of every American with outrage, dialed to 11/3/2026. If so, Republicans would lose both Houses in a tsunami of repudiation.

Meanwhile, don’t leave home without a camera phone.

Yeah, I guess the outrage got to me.