I have to take a moment from my articles promoting my music journey and my career progression to talk about what I saw yesterday. Three obvious things stick out that make it difficult to enjoy my weekend and work on my hobbies.
Before I get into those three, I want to preface this by mentioning my own political roots. I was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and raised nearby in Columbia. My dad was methodist (although he mostly was a workaholic and never really attended church often) and my mom, although raised Southern Baptist, started questioning her religion before I was born and started practicing Judaism shortly after I was born.
As I got older I noticed the sharp contrast in political beliefs of my conservative, Republican father and my increasingly liberal, Democrat mother. Also opposite were their religious beliefs and the traditions they wanted to hold for their children.
I personally feel this gave me a very healthy conflict to work on as I grew into a teenager. My parents had different beliefs and neither could tell me ‘this is the right way to live.’ The truth, as it always does, lies in in-betweens. I have been juggling the ‘both sides’ argument most of my life and also playing devil’s advocate on what my dad would say to liberals or what my mom would say to conservatives. I know I have my own internal biases, and I try to surround myself with people who challenge my own views. I make a point to go to liberal vs. conservative subreddits to view how each side is understanding changes to the world.
What I saw yesterday, however, was deeply disturbing and the combination of events was something new that I hadn’t yet experienced.
The first disturbing thing was simply watching how the death occurred. Watching the initial video that circulated among social media was almost damning enough by itself; although you couldn’t make out every detail you could clearly see a man outnumbered by ICE agents and then shot an excessive amount of times after he was already incapacitated.
At this point we didn’t have any details about who was killed or his background. The administration kept saying people being arrested and detained were violent criminals, and if this was a violent criminal they discovered and they knew he was dangerous, maybe you could make an argument that excessive force was necessary. But I don’t think that would pass the smell test; if you’ve got somebody down and disarmed then they should face justice through our courts if they have done something illegal. ICE shouldn’t get to decide they can play judge and executioner.
The first thing the administration said was that this man was violent and had a criminal background. Then later it came out that he had a traffic violation but no serious criminal background.
Then they shared photos of a gun he owned and full clips they’d seized, as if having a gun alone is something bad and scary (my dad would roll in his grave over this piece, as he was a big 2nd Amendment advocate). And it turns out he has a license to carry.
We start to see other videos of the incident get posted to social media and see the full picture of what took place. Alex has his phone out and is filming officers, which directly contradicts the message that he ‘violently approached ICE.’
The administration calls him an assassin and a domestic terrorist, and it turns out he’s an ICU nurse who works at the VA. This man has been helping our veterans.
We see the actual picture of what happened through the other videos; the altercation was escalated by ICE as Alex films them. Alex tries to help a woman who was violently shoved, and he gets pepper sprayed right in the face. More ICE agents swarm him and we see a struggle on the ground.
Next the administration says the officers shot him because he ‘violently resisted’ and keep sharing pictures of the gun. At this point, due to how much misinformation they’ve shared, we can raise an eyebrow and keep watching the video for ourselves.
We see an ICE agent in a gray shirt find Alex’s legally carried gun and seize it from him in the video, along with what appears to be the holster and a clip on the ground that’s fallen after the weapon is seized.
Then, the most horrific part – the first time we watched the initial video that circulated we saw a struggle with an unknown man with an unknown history of violence get shot. After we watch the video from at least 3 different angles provided by other citizens we see the truth – a VA nurse attempting to shield a woman from officers after she’s attacked gets pepper sprayed, thrown to the grown, disarmed, and then shot point-blank, execution style, while he’s face down and of no threat.
To me, this is very obvious and damning. The second more disturbing thing of this whole event, however, is the conservative (or at least MAGA) response to these new findings. Most of my conservative family would agree that Alex had the right to protest via the 1st amendment and right to bear arms from the 2nd amendment, and the video doesn’t show him brandishing his weapon or attempting to reach for it to cause harm.
But instead the same group of people flying ‘Don’t tread on me’ flags are now saying that the government should be allowed to tread on him because he approached officers while carrying a gun. The two principles I knew many of my conservative friends and family stood by was small government and protected 2nd amendment rights.
Seeing them fully stand behind government immunity of officers and saying ‘fuck around, find out’ for somebody legally carrying is a wild 180, and seems purely hypocritical. I know if Obama had his own private liberal army terrorizing and killing American conservatives and saying they deserved it for interfering with the government they would have been furious.
But it seems like over time American conservatives have grown to hate their liberal neighbors more than they love America’s promise of freedom for all.
The third most disturbing thing is the lack of the federal government to correct their inaccuracies and or even attempt to investigate what has occurred before labeling a citizen an enemy of the state. Their narrative is still that this concerned man exercising his rights was violent and deserved to die. That is sickening.
During Obama’s era my dad was pretty paranoid about his guns being taken away, his rights being taken away, and the idea of the ‘nanny state’ and big government. He was a fan of state’s rights and small government, and he loved his guns. I heard so many stories about what the Left was going to do if they got too much power.
He died in 2013, years before the rise of MAGA. But I think there is irony in all of his terror stories being perfected and executed by his own conservative party.
Rest in peace, Alex Pretti. I hope the powers that be don’t rewrite who you were and what you stood for, and that history reflects kindly on who you helped in your life and what you spent your last minutes defending.