You Cannot Possibly Support This

It’s impossible to process, my friend and I text each other, taking in the news.

Yesterday, another person was killed in Minnesota. 

From the New York Times: “Border Patrol agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis yesterday. The victim, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital. He was a U.S. citizen.” “Federal officials sought to portray Pretti as a domestic terrorist, saying he had approached agents with a ‘semi-automatic handgun’ and the intent to ‘massacre’ them. But videos analyzed by The Times appear to contradict their account. They show Pretti holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, when agents take him to the ground and strike him.”

Several years ago, I read It Can’t Happen Here, a 1935 dystopian novel by Sinclair Lewis that serves as a cautionary tale about the rise of fascism in the United States where a populist demagogue is elected president, establishes a dictatorship, dismantles democracy, discredits the press, and persecutes and jails minorities and political opponents. Again, it was written in 1935 in response to Hitler’s and Mussolini’s rise. The book dives into how easily democratic institutions can be subverted through fear.

It appears it can happen here. It appears it’s been happening here for a long time. 

In elementary through high school, I learned about the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks. The Nashville sit-ins. It was presented as before and after. Before, the United States was racist. But then Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat and Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. And now everyone is all good and everything is fair and equal. We don’t see color, right?

Every day the news becomes more jarring. Families being ripped from their homes, kidnapped from school and work and the court where they go to attend citizenship hearings. People being thrown into dirty, dangerous detention centers. Being deported not just to their home countries, not even always to a country where they speak the language, but also to places like Eswatini and South Sudan. No due process. No protections. Just state sanctioned terror, violence, evil.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom or speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

“The right of the people peaceably to assemble.” Yesterday, January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti joined his neighbors and his community in a protest against the aggressive actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, actions like the fatal shooting of Renee Good on January 7, in their city,

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” 

The New York Times continues the account of the murder: “One agent appears to remove a gun from near Pretti’s right hip. At the same time, another agent unholsters his firearm and points it at Pretti’s back. Federal officials released images of a handgun they said Pretti was carrying. The Minneapolis police chief said he had a valid firearms permit. Open carry is legal with a permit in Minnesota.” 

According to an article from the BBC, Alex Pretti was born in Chicago and grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He played football and baseball and ran track for Preble High School there. He was a Boy Scout. He sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir. 

Alex Pretti studied at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a degree in biology, society, and the environment. He worked as a research scientist and then returned to school to become a registered nurse. He had a dog named Joule who passed away a year ago. He took the dog everywhere. He worked as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital. He had no interaction with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets. He had no criminal record.  

He had no criminal record and he was committing no crime. 

And if he had been? Well, we have a rule for that too. The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” 

But our rules? Our order? These rights that are supposed to be inalienable? What happened?

As my mind attempts to turn over the descent from bad to worse, I find myself thinking of Alex Pretti’s family. I find myself thinking of my own loved ones—my middle brother is newly 36, my eldest holding onto 38. 

Indulge me, for a moment then, in a thought exercise. Think of someone you love deeply. It could be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a child. Think about what you love about that person. Could be their sense of humor or how hard working they are. Could be the way they care about people or the way you leave every conversation with them feeling loved. 

Do you have your person? Are you running through a cycle of memories and inside jokes? Do you feel at peace with this person in your life? Are you thrilled to introduce this person to others in your life? Because why wouldn’t you be? They’re one of your dearest friends.

Now imagine that person is gone. Be it a car accident, an illness, it doesn’t matter, but they are gone. Sit for a moment with that pain, that heartache, that grief. 

And then imagine, in the midst of your entire life flipping upside down, imagine a large part of the country thinking that your person is a “domestic terrorist.” Imagine this being echoed by the most powerful people in the country.

Imagine Alex Pretti’s parents. Imagine their child, the one smiling in a baseball uniform on the fridge, the one racing Pinewood Derby cars with the Scouts, the one who loved hiking with his dog, the one who dedicated his career to others, the one who simply wanted the world to be a little kinder, a little juster, a little more loving, gone. Gone and, by a loud population, villainized.

You cannot possibly think this is okay. 

I am begging you to step out of your echo chamber for a second. 

You cannot possibly support this. You cannot possibly support any of this. At the end of the day, you can’t possibly feel good about seeing children and parents ripped apart. About destroying families and scarring neighbors. You can’t feel good about knowing peaceful protestors are being beaten and pepper sprayed and shot and killed. 

I don’t have answers. I don’t have a nice bow to put on this blog post, to tie this up into some clear moral. Disgust. Anger. Outrage. Doesn’t begin to cover it. 

I have always believed in a friendly universe. I have always fought to hold onto the idea that people want to be kind… that people want to be good. Alex Pretti was good. Renee Good was good. The people of Minneapolis who are showing up for their neighbors, even knowing the risks, are good. Keep being good. Keep showing up. Keep being loud in support of justice. 

That I can support.

Resources:

• National Immigration Law Center @nilc

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center @the_ilrc

• Native American Rights Fund @nativeamericanrightsfund 

• America Civil Liberties Union @aclu_nationwide