Sabitlenmiş Tweet
A Cascade of Errors
When analyzing skydiving fatalities, they almost always end up being described as a cascade of errors. One problem presents itself, goes unsolved, which leads to another – and another. Then time’s up. The Alex Pretti shooting (just like Renee Good) can be summarized in similar fashion: It was not just one event, but a chain of events, each causing or exacerbating the next. If you could pause everything for just 5 seconds to effectively deal with any single problem in the chain, perilous situations could often be resolved with no one getting killed.
It is important to acknowledge that these ICE/CBD Agents were not part of a riot line confronting assembled protesters. They were out working in the field, seeking a specific target to serve a legal warrant. These organized militants routinely follow them around and actively harass them. This is a violation of federal law. These are not "protestors." They have radios, a Dispatch, financing, vehicle database, and training manuals.
On January 24th, a group of these agitators decided to clash with them. Pretti was actively trying to block vehicular traffic in the middle of the street. Two women were closing in on federal agents and the agents decided to respond. Pretti intervened, stepping between the pursuing agent and one of the women. Pretti grabbed at her as if to pull her away. The second woman then jumps into the mix and an agent shoves her to the ground.
Pretti apparently became incensed by this action so he decided to escalate. You can’t deny what a dangerous situation he chose to enter into: He decided to engage a federal officer who was in the lawful performance of his duty, and he had a gun on him. Pretti was sprayed with OC and things rapidly spiraled out of control. Like with Renee Good, we have the privilege of analyzing it frame by frame, millisecond by millisecond. Too bad that real life doesn’t unfold like that; it would be easier to make sound decisions under pressure.
I don’t know why that agent failed to announce that he secured Pretti’s gun the instant he had it. If only he could communicate that to his fellow officers in time. Maybe he tried but he was drowned out by shrieking onlookers and their ear-piercing whistles. Maybe he assumed that everyone saw him grab it. One agent appeared to be watching Pretti be disarmed before he himself drew his gun and fired on him. But people don’t see what cameras see. No person can perceive exactly what another perceives. It appears that Pretti may have reached for his holster (now empty) before the shots. It also appears that the officer with Pretti’s gun negligently discharged it into the ground as he was leaving the fray.
The videos of the shooting are obviously an important part of the puzzle. But if you choose to ignore the multitude of factors that led up to this, you cannot in good faith assign fault by the footage alone. Many factors contributed to the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. The chain of causation extends backward in time for decades with many guilty parties running around today still unindicted.
Since 2015, celebrities and politicians at all levels were howling that democracy is under attack. Government officials are openly directing their constituents to clash with law enforcement and resist the tyranny. This blathering has an effect on purposeless, impressionable people. A small percentage of partisans become indoctrinated and will answer the call. When will Biden, Harris, Walz, Frey, Omar, Klobuchar, Kimmel, Stewart, et al. take any responsibility for what happened? Imagine if they agreed to cool their rhetoric and admit to their deranged insurgents that rumors of Trump being Hitler were greatly exaggerated.
Why is ICE/CBD in Minnesota to begin with? Because President Biden opened the border in 2021 allowing 20 million illegal immigrants to pour into the country, a catastrophe that the current administration was elected to deal with. I’m old enough to remember the 1990’s when the federal government facilitated massive immigration of Somali refugees—many who went on to plunder the nation’s interior, triggering a federal response 35 years later.
Again, a long chain of causation led up to this incident. The mayor of Minneapolis disallowed his police from responding to these chaotic scenes to help keep order. Furthermore, illegals are aided and abetted by local and state governments who defy federal authority and declare themselves “Sanctuary cities.” They refuse to cooperate with the feds, refuse to enforce the law, and refuse to turn over criminals. ICE Agents are outnumbered and on their own when they are sent to Minnesota to enforce the laws passed by Congress. What’s worse, it now appears that the Leftist insurgency is using Signal chats to communicate with high government officials, including the Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota.
That’s why these same actors endlessly obsess over where the gun was a second before the shooting started, or whose foot was where. “His arm wasn’t going to his holster, it was going behind him.” You can watch the same footage a thousand times from 3 different angles and come away with only a rudimentary understanding of why Alex Pretti is dead. If you’re declaring judgment only by examining pixilated screen grab, you’ve already lost the plot. The story started long before January 24; the gunfire and the sixty seconds that preceded it is just the last, sad chapter.
English
