After a week when Trump shocked the world, events in Minneapolis brought the focus right back to the USA.
The most disturbing part of the killing of Alex Pretti in that city yesterday is not what happened. We now know that ICE officers act like those who served the Gestapo, working as the shock troops of a fascist regime, enforcing that regime's wishes through violence. That is a reality we have been coming to terms with since the death of Renee Good. What still shocks is what happened afterwards.
A 37-year-old intensive care nurse stood on a street holding a phone. He was recording federal agents as they carried out an immigration enforcement operation. Many people are doing the same thing. What they know is that evidence of the truth still matters. They are determined to collect it. As a reuslt multiple witnesses filmed what followed. The footage shows Alex Pretti retreating, continuing to record, stepping in to protect another observer, being pepper-sprayed, tackled, beaten, and then shot at close range. It does not show him threatening anyone. It does not show him brandishing a weapon.
And yet senior figures in the US administration said that he did.
This matters now because we are living through a period in which power is testing how far it can go, not just in what it does, but in what it says. When violence is followed by obvious falsehoods, and those falsehoods are repeated without shame, the issue is no longer one incident. The issue becomes that of the health of the US political system itself.
The Minneapolis killing was captured from multiple angles by ordinary people. Their films show officers escalating force. In any system committed to truth, that evidence would frame the response. Instead, the Trump regime ignored what actually happened. The evidence was ignored. It was treated as irrelevant. A fiction was created to justify the actions of ICE officers who killed an innocent man.
That tells us a great deal about how those in authority in the US now see themselves. The Department of Homeland Security released an image of a gun. Senior officials described Pretti as an armed suspect intent on a massacre. These claims were made even as the footage of what happened was circulating widely, meaning the truth was known. This was not a case of uncertainty or confusion. It was instead the assertion of a narrative designed to justify lethal force and close down questioning, whatever the truth might be. When the state lies in this way in the face of evidence, it is asserting that power, not truth, is sovereign.
And in all this, the US government has forgotten that a man, an intensive care nurse, who clearly cared about his fellow US citizens (because he was one) lost his life. Pretti's parents described their son as a good man. But he died, and the authorities are not treating this as a mistake or a matter for remorse. They are treating Alex Pretti as an object, not as a person whose life will be mourned by those who knew him and loved him. The coldness of that reaction is chilling and staggering. It is as if all humanity has departed the Trump regime. People are just objects to them now.
I will not forget that this is about a man who died, wholly unexpectedly and utterly inappropriately, but because of the circumstances of his death, the bigger issues do need discussing, because the attempted normalisation of state violence, which is the very obvious Trump regime narrative here, matters. If officials can redefine a man holding a phone as a gunman, then the boundary of acceptable force shifts. If public scrutiny becomes suspect, and those who want to partake in it retreat from doing so in fear because recording will be seen as provocation, then justice will disappear, and accountability will then become optional, at best. That is the message this regime wants to send.
And this is not about a single incident. It is about a pattern in which institutions protect themselves first and tell the truth only if it is convenient. Once that pattern is established, the rule of law weakens rapidly. Laws are only as strong as the willingness of those in power to be bound by them. What we now know is that the Trump regime thinks the law is decidedly optional. They could not have made this more obvious in the last week, but most especially yesterday.
What follows from this is decidedly uncomfortable. Democracies do not collapse only through coups or insurrections, although Trump has already tried that once. They can also erode and fade when lies are repeated without consequence, when evidence is ignored, and when violence is justified after the fact by those who control the microphone. If the state can kill an observer and then lie about it, the question is not just who is safe, but who is believed. At this moment, that most definitely matters. Truth has to win. If it does not, hope leaves with it.
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The worse thing is that it makes it almost inevitable that Trump or his successor cannot just be voted out. He already tried to overturn one election with a rabble, and failed. Next time he has his own Gestapo, who will be highly motivated by knowing that if they fail to overturn the election they will be held accountable for their actions.
Either it will be a permanent dictatorship or an uprising will be needed
Just a little note: the Gestapo were the secret police (GEheimSTaatPOlizei -the first word means ‘secret’) and so were not really very visible. I suspect that when we say that ICE are like the Gestapo, we probably ought to be saying “SS” who did wear uniform. Though perhaps at this stage of the coup Brownshirts may be more like … ?
I think you are missing the political point.
Any such parallel is not exact.
ICE is operating as if it is above the law.
It was said of the Gestapo (by one of its leaders, later sentenced to death for war crimes, but released after a few years in prison) that as long they carried out the will of the leader, they were acting legally.
We have to fight against the mindset where this extraordinary violence and impunity is normalised. That it is ok if you are “only following orders”.
Agreed
ICE agents also cover their faces or wear a mask, presumably to avoid identification and thwart accountability. That seems pretty secret to me.
As horrific these state sanctioned murders are, they historically are nothing new for autocratic authoritarian regimes who have been able cow people through fear and false narratives that in the past were unverifiable.
What is new and scary, is how all the people who have signed up to the Trump cult, have signed away any sense of rationalism and personal responsibility, to the point where they will tell you what you just saw, which you can repeatedly replay back to check, is not what you think, but what they tell you. This is a whole new level of psychological gaslighting, and requires you to put aside your own critical thinking and deliberation powers, and repeat the mantra of the cult, “what we just saw, we did not see”!
Caught the back end of Kuenssberg show unintentionally, and some republican guy when challenged that the protests were peaceful, he replied, “that’s a matter of opinion”!
Whatever political position you ascribe to, whatever your social views are, whatever your personal belief systems are, we need to defend our ability and right to self determine if something is the case or not through testable evidence, against those who are, and I do not use this word often, evil! Evil, because not only are they happy for people to die, whose crime simply was to disagree, but then to lie about it to you, you who can see the truth.
As a German who had the luck to grow up in a peaceful democratic country I’m increasingly worried about the amount of German citizens voting for the new fascist party AFD here. The risc for growing fascism and violence is possible in any society. Today social media and fake news have become a very important factor.
ICE = MAGA supporters with badges, guns and immunity. Irritate them sufficiently & as events have shown, they will kill you.
The prospect of elections in the USA is in inverse proportion to tRumps popularity.
In the UK, were Fart-rage in power, Fart-rage supporters/Deform supporters would be empowered to act in the same lethal way and large parts of the UK media would offer similar justifications to those in the USA.
Meanwhile, Starmer & his puppets, make the UK state more authoritarian, thus preparing the ground for Fart-rage. Perhaps the UK equivalent to ICE could be DOLT – Department of Local Terrorism.
In the UK so far, it has been “limited” to hotel burning, and racist abuse on the streets.
But when/if they get the green light from Starmer/Mahmood/Reed (the replacements for Patel/Bravermann – remember them?) then the thugs will be back, in public view, and people will die.
Here in Bristol, they don’t get away with it – but that can change. If the state WANTS the violence, then the thugs will be protected, and the peaceful protesters arrested. The state has already been practicing on Palestine protesters and they already have most of the powers they need.
It’s up to us, and I don’t mean pitchforks or other violence.
Our Sunday gathering yesterday was focussed on how we “hold our shit together” as Richard puts it today (although flushing it away is our main problem – see next paragraph – a 2L bottle of free springwater doesnt achieve much!. But the positive side of community spirit is out in force, and my 700L of water in rainwater butts proved popular with my neighbours, refilled from heaven each day so far.
Our S Bristol water main burst is in its 4th day now. Tell Tunbridge Wells we are catching up with them. After they fixed the 1st burst, recharging the main then burst it a second time somewhere else. I wonder what maintenance that main has had in the last 5 years?
If this post pongs a bit, sorry, I can’t help it.
🙂
Good luck
In comparing Trump and his fellow travellers round the world to 20thC fascism, a difference has been that the intrinsic extreme violence of the Blackshirts/squadristi (Italy) and Brownshirts/SA (Germany) was not really present. ICE, however, are filling that gap.
“We do not argue with those who disagree with us, we destroy them”. & “If two irreconcilable elements are struggling with each other, the solution lies in force.”- Mussolini
Hope the same thing doesn’t start in the UK.
Should we find David Lammy’s friendship with JD Vance reassuring or not? (Start listening at 13.59 mins).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002q7w4/political-thinking-with-nick-robinson-series-2-david-lammy
I find it very worrying.
I find Lammy very worrying in general.
“I find it very worrying.
I find Lammy very worrying in general.”
You worry about everything, you worry your life away, what kind of existence is that ?
A worthwhile one.
What is more worthwile then effecting change.
You can’t do that without worrying.
So, why wouldn’t you want to do worry?
You are not alone Richard. I watch and worry. You cannot bury your head
in the sand and threats will go away. What’s that saying..’evil flourishes when good men/women do nothing. ‘…Thank you for being aware of the problems that beset us on this planet.
On a lighter note..my matriarch seagull has learned to drop a stone on my conservatory glass roof to let me know I should get a move on with her dinner..that’s her worry.
🙂
What I found even more disturbing was whilst all the domestic concerns were going on about the shooting in Minnesota, the ‘machine’ within the White House was still churning out messaging re the penguin over X, and responding with an even darker cryptic message to the Internet backlash as if they are invincible.
However, this time around it seems that maybe the ‘gaslighting’ of the administration has really been called into question with former US presidents releasing public statements, and there seeming to be much unease among Republican political base too.
However, who knows what can happen in the flip-flop mind of the current POTUS and those that oil and turn the cogs of machinery driving their crusade.
I found this, by Simon Tisdall, very disturbing:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/25/global-rule-of-law-donald-trump-approval-ratings
He identifies the problem as Trump. Get rid of him, and the rule of law returns?I disagree profoundly.
What of Project2025?
That unlawful usurpation of the USA constitution will continue under J D Vance.
What of Israel/Palestine?
What of our own government’s repeated unlawful actions at home and abroad – arms sales to Israel, deportations, DWP crimes, authoritarian suppression of protest, suppression of free speech, detention of child immigrants, removal of jury trial, excessively long remand before trial, unlawful unpunished behaviour of water companies – these things won’t disappear with Trump – the far right is deeply entrenched in the USA, in the Republican Party, in European states, and pandering to its demands is a major preoccupation of our own government.
If we think just getting rid of Trump will restore “the rule of law” we have deluded ourselves. Likewise, with Starmer – there are plenty of replacements available ready to repress us, with a bit more political acumen than him, but serving the same masters, and with the same contempt for the rule of law (except the laws that protect their power, their property and their wealth).
When Trump and Starmer fall, and they will, then we need to re-energise, not relax to prevent the re-emergence of an unacceptable status quo.
I wholeheartedly agree.
I thought the article naive, in the extreme.
Unfortunately the UK does have somewhat of a parallel. Currently an on remand Palestine Action protester is on hunger strike and is confronting his demise. The government and the Labour party are doing absolutely nothing to intervene. I recently wrote to my Labour MP, appealing to his humanitarian side, requesting him to intercede; his reply shows that he clearly does not have a an empathetic side despite claiming to be a Christian (of the US variety) and instead has deliberately chosen not to care. Not much of a difference really – only the level of violence involved possibly. We should be very worried. The Labour party as a vehicle of social change has had sand deliberately emptied into its petrol tank, its an non runner and will remain so.
I’m following the events in Minnesota closely. Watching the murder of citizens is tough emotionally. It’s meant to be. But when I take my emotional response out, I see chaos, massive overreach, terrible planning, desperate lying in the face of clear video and witness evidence, and no strategy by which Trump and Miller’s thugs can simultaneously take over the cities of the US. They are wildly outnumbered, for one thing, in a country where citizens- plenty of them Democrats!- legally carry guns, as Alex Pretti was when he was murdered. Steve Bannon wanted to “flood the zone with shit”. But that’s not a strategy, either. Trump has had to climb down lately over a number of his ludicrous postures. Miller, Noem et al seem to be very high on their own supply, feeling immune, but still no strategy. People are comparing today in the US to Germany and the rise of Hitler. At that time, no one had any notion of fascism or death camps. But we now all know about that history and where it leads. We learned it at school. Mr Miller needs to catch up. Unlike Germany in the 30s, we now also have millions of citizen journalists. Everything is being documented by civilians on the streets. I’ve lived and worked in the US and for me, this reckoning is way overdue. I’m hearing a lot of panic- well, yes!- but that’s not a strategy, either. I’m inspired by the cunning, bravery and guts of the people of Minnesota. I said in a previous post that I’m an old Greenham Common woman, left with permanent injuries from the beatings we took. We won, by the way. The only thing that worries me is pointless defeatism and complying in advance. To those engaged in it, send a donation to Minnesota instead. Hold fast! As you were. Clare H.
Looking at the gun culture in the U.S. and looking for clues in the many videos and various accounts, I see a real tragedy in the making to be honest.
Have you seen the gun the deceased was supposed to be carrying? I’m not sure he should have been carrying a weapon in a contentious scene like that – its presence has been used against him, though he appears to have not yielded it, it has been used as a mens rea element.
The worst part of the whole scene though is when ICE pulls back and just shoot him on the floor. That was an unreasonable use of excessive lethal force (toward someone with pepper spray in his face and thus already incapacitated). Something we are more used to seeing happen to people of colour in the States well before Trumps dictatorship.
I am minded to say that, despite Trump, there is something seriously wrong anyway with U.S. law enforcement and its tendency to overreact to threat. And this has its basis in appallingly bad U.S. gun regulation. To me it is a typically modern American tragedy.