Their Final, Most Essential Command

It’s difficult to write today. It’s difficult to pull a coherent, useful message from the maelstrom in my mind, in my heart. It’s hard not to succumb to rage and despair.

I take comfort from how many fellow Americans are as horrified as I am—and our numbers are growing. Every new outrage visited upon our country is the final straw for someone. 

For those who have not yet reached the same conclusions, please read on. 

Surely we can agree that when the federal government (or state or local governments for that matter) use force of any kind against us, we should be able to trust what officials say in the aftermath. We ought to feel confident that our government, which works for us and by our consent, will not use force against us and then lie to us about it. We should be able to trust that there will be an investigation, it will be impartial, and justice will be done regardless of who was at fault.  

With that agreement, let’s examine what the administration is telling us about this shooting. 

“This looks like a situation where an individual arrived on the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” -Kristi Noem, DHS Secretary

“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” -Gregory Bovino, CBP Commander

You can watch both full statements, and see that they are the same, nearly word-for-word. So we know these statements were prepared and approved in advance.

Here we have one of at least three tweets in which the Deputy Chief of Staff for policy—and the architect of Trump’s immigration policy—calls Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist and/or assassin, and says he tried to murder federal agents. 

Presumably, these people all have at least as much access to the videos of the shooting as we do. Presumably, they know, as we do, that the sheriff believes Pretti was licensed to carry a handgun. They certainly know that carrying a gun, loaded or otherwise, is a right guaranteed to Americans by the Second Amendment. 

So, how did they reach their conclusion that he intended to murder federal agents?

Pretti was holding his phone, not his gun. 

He didn’t draw his weapon when an officer roughly shoved a woman onto the ground right in front of him. 

He didn’t draw his weapon when that same agent pepper sprayed him in the face. 

He didn’t reach for his gun when the agent continued spraying him around the head while Pretti had his back turned to the agent and was bending down, trying to help up the woman who’d been shoved to the ground. 

He didn’t pull his gun when the agents grabbed him and yanked him away from the woman he’d been trying to help. 

He didn’t draw his weapon when other agents jumped in and wrestled him to the ground. 

At no point from any angle is he seen reaching for his gun while he’s on his elbows and knees, with multiple agents on top of him. 

He didn’t reach for his gun while an agent repeatedly beat him in the face and head with his chemical spray canister. 

He didn’t reach for his weapon while an agent took the gun off him.

He didn’t reach for his already-confiscated weapon when he was first shot, nor once he was lying motionless on the ground—after which they fired at least five more shots at his prone body. 

So where was the attempted murder? Where was the intent to kill law enforcement? 

There was none. This is obvious to anyone who watches the videos.   

Even if we can agree on little else, can we agree that this careful, intentional, orchestrated lying by our government officials is unacceptable? Do they think you are stupid? Do they expect that,  because you care about enforcing our immigration laws, you will blindly accept and repeat their lies? Why couldn’t they have just released a statement that there will be a thorough and impartial investigation? Why must they spread obvious smears about the man they killed?

My friends, if they will lie to us this blatantly in the face of overwhelming video evidence, how can we trust anything they tell us?

These officials keep stressing the fact that he was armed in their justifications for killing him, despite the fact that he had every right to be armed, despite the fact that he never even reached for his weapon, and despite the fact that they disarmed him before they shot him. They are trying to convince us that exercising our Constitutionally protected freedoms in the vicinity of federal agents gives them the right to summarily execute us.

They are trying to convince us that we did not see and hear what we all saw and heard. They’re trying to convince us that we did see and hear what we clearly did not. 

“The Party told you to ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

This famous quote from Orwell’s 1984 is seeing a lot of use lately, and it’s because of brazen falsehoods like these from our government. 

If this extrajudicial execution and the blatant lies trying to spin it as justified are your final straw, welcome. If this is the moment you can no longer support an administration that up until now you had given the benefit of the doubt, join us. 

This dystopian use of force against us by armed, masked, unaccountable agents of the state cannot last. This shameless lying and victim-blaming by those tasked with protecting us will not succeed. Not forever. 

Because this is America, and there are more of us than there are of them. More of us who value truth, more of us who cherish our freedoms, more of us who love our neighbors.  

We are going to win. 

What can we do?

First, for your own soul, do something to help in your own community. Donate blood, volunteer at a shelter, read to folks at a nursing home. Remind yourself of the good in this country that is still so worth fighting for. 

The deadline to pass a new spending bill in the Senate is this Friday. (It has already passed the House.) Republicans cannot pass it without help from Democrats. Tell your Senators that under no circumstances should DHS continue to be funded until serious, binding measures are taken to reign in ICE’s terror campaign—and while they’re at it, they should impeach Kristi Noem yesterday. If they have to shut down the government again, so be it. Not another dime for this lawless DHS to continue terrorizing and murdering people.