The Week: Alex Pretti Aftermath

• Whatever our taxes are paying for, it’s evidently not clearing the roads.

• United States Customs and Border Protection agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident. According to statements by Trump administration officials in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Pretti set out to commit an act of “domestic terrorism” in which he hoped to “massacre law enforcement.” The many amateur videos of the incident tell a different story. Immigration enforcement officers push a woman who had been harassing them. Pretti intervenes to assist the woman. He is promptly sprayed with a chemical irritant, then tackled to the ground by at least five officers. They soon discover that Pretti is armed (he had a concealed-carry permit). One officer draws a gun. As another agent attempts to disarm Pretti, confusion ensues. At that point, about ten shots are fired by two agents within roughly five seconds, killing Pretti. At least, that’s what the footage appears to show. An independent investigation is necessary to definitively establish what happened. What can be said for sure is that the Trump administration’s characterization of the deceased was inaccurate and shamefully self-serving. As a fundamental matter, however, the federal government has the obligation to enforce federal law, and opponents of immigration enforcement agencies should protest peacefully—rather than impede or threaten officers, which Minnesota officials have been all too eager to encourage.

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• Whatever our taxes are paying for, it’s evidently not clearing the roads.

• United States Customs and Border Protection agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident. According to statements by Trump administration officials in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Pretti set out to commit an act of “domestic terrorism” in which he hoped to “massacre law enforcement.” The many amateur videos of the incident tell a different story. Immigration enforcement officers push a woman who had been harassing them. Pretti intervenes to assist the woman. He is promptly sprayed with a chemical irritant, then tackled to the ground by at least five officers. They soon discover that Pretti is armed (he had a concealed-carry permit). One officer draws a gun. As another agent attempts to disarm Pretti, confusion ensues. At that point, about ten shots are fired by two agents within roughly five seconds, killing Pretti. At least, that’s what the footage appears to show. An independent investigation is necessary to definitively establish what happened. What can be said for sure is that the Trump administration’s characterization of the deceased was inaccurate and shamefully self-serving. As a fundamental matter, however, the federal government has the obligation to enforce federal law, and opponents of immigration enforcement agencies should protest peacefully—rather than impede or threaten officers, which Minnesota officials have been all too eager to encourage.