Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“Alex Pretti was murdered, in public and on camera, by thugs. Period. If you’re lying to others about that, shame on you. If you’re lying to yourself about it, seek help.”

That’s my hot take on the Border Patrol’s public execution of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis over the weekend, and the varying reactions to it.

That’s exactly the reaction one might expect, given my prior disposition toward the war on immigrants and the ever-increasing militarization of the American police state, but the facts that have subsequently emerged don’t seem to merit substantive changes.

Pretti, an ICU nurse, came to the assistance of a woman who’d been knocked down and pepper-sprayed by badge-flashing goons, and was then knocked down and pepper-sprayed himself before being shot multiple times while pinned to the ground and unarmed (his pistol, which he hadn’t drawn, brandished, or fired, had already been stolen by one of his attackers at the time he was shot).

It’s a sad thing, and I don’t want to understate the sadness . His family and his friend........

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