Alex Pretti shooting: UNjustified, excessive force

I'm going to chime in now on the Pretti shooting in Minneapolis. I've watched the available videos, listened to the stupid speeches and now, I think, have enough for me to form and espouse my opinion.

First, the rhetoric from Waltz and Frey is a big part of the problem we see in Minnesota. They are, in my opinion, deliberately fomenting open rebellion in the state. The things they say about ICE and about the Federal Law Enforcement is almost always inflammatory and dangerous. With the climate of hate that has been encouraged by the highest members of the Minnesota government; what did they THINK was going to happen?!

But, the words of the Trump Administration people, in this case, have been no better. Noem, Miller, Bovino and Patel have all said incredibly stupid things that make the whole mess even messier.

Both sides of the Government have shown their incredible bias and prejudice.

Pretti was stupid to have even gone to the "protest" in the first place but he was encouraged to do so by his Governor and Mayor and was allowed to by the non-responsive Minneapolis Police Department. But, basic common sense. If you don't participate in a riot, your chances of being injured go down exponentially.

As to carrying a firearm at the time, Pretti was legally within his rights to do so. That the Trump Admin keeps talking about the two spare magazines of ammo is just...well...stupid. Who doesn't carry a reload if they carry a firearm? Pretti even had a carry permit, so he wasn't just carrying according to his 2nd Amendment right, he had even bowed to the government's efforts to give him a permit for his right.

We don't, of course, have a clue what Pretti might have been saying to the Border Patrol Agents during the altercation. But, what I see in the video is excessive force on the part of the Border Patrolman. He violently shoves a woman to the ground and then when Pretti goes to help and comfort her, the BP Agent accosts Pretti. Then, several BP and ICE agents attack Pretti and throw him to the ground. One of those Agents is clearly pummeling Pretti with his fist.

I never see Pretti with his weapon out, in his hand or even displayed. He never once threatens anyone with deadly force. The only thing I see in his hand is a camera. The Agent(?), that I'll call Grey Jacket, stands around the fight, watching for a moment, then suddenly leans in and takes Pretti's gun away, holding it low at his side as he skulks away from the scene. It's as Grey Jacket is scurrying away that the shots ring out. When Pretti was shot, he had been DISarmed, apparently by one of the Agents.

In one of the stills I've seen, there are at least two Agents holding Pretti by his arms while he is shot. Pretti was, at the time, slumped as if he had had the fight beaten out of him.

From what I've seen, I think that the physical force used to arrest Pretti, from the beginning, was excessive. Of course, we have no way of knowing what was said by anyone but it doesn't look as if the Agents tried to talk Pretti into surrender. It looks like, at best it went: "You're under arrest!" and then "POW!", they throw him to the ground and start to beat him. They didn't even know he had a firearm until well into the fight, when everyone agrees that one or more Agents yelled that Pretti had a gun.

I don't have a problem with multiple agents wrestling with Pretti on the ground. It was always standard training that several LE's involved will result in greater control of the suspect, faster apprehension and less violence necessary. The times I'd had to violently arrest someone while I was alone were the only times that I had to hit or pepper spray anyone. If there were a couple more Deputies with me, we usually could get it done simply with restraint techniques as opposed to the pounding that one of the Agents was doing here.

During the apprehension, when one of the Agents saw the weapon, they were correct to shout for all to hear that Pretti had a gun. Although that increases the tension, it is only good safe procedure.

The Agents made what I would call grievous errors, from the beginning.

The initial BP Agent should have been less physical towards both the woman and Pretti. Most of the arrests I've made were talked into handcuffs. I had to fight my share but there was almost always a period of attempted persuasion beforehand. Why he was shoving them, including shoving the woman down into the snow, I don't get. That isn't good procedure anywhere I've ever worked. It's clumsy and looks unnecessary.

Grey Jacket takes the weapon and scurries away. When I first watched the video that shows this, I questioned whether it was even an Agent. I thought, maybe, it was a bystander who had taken Pretti's gun to conceal it from the arresting Agents. Grey Jacket doesn't act like any professional officer I've ever seen and I place a large part of the blame for Pretti's death at Grey Jacket's door.

Once Grey Jacket had Pretti's gun, he should have shouted to everyone that he had done so. He should have made it clear that Pretti was no longer armed. Then, instead of stealthily (Sorry, that's how it looks) scrambling off camera, he should have been shouting to the other Agents that he had Pretti's gun. He doesn't appear to do that. If he had, it is logical to presume that Pretti would not have been shot.

Now, I would like to address the rhetoric from both sides of command. The Governor and Mayor, before ANY facts had been presented, began using terms like "murder" and "Gestapo" and blaming ICE for everything that has ever been wrong on the Earth since creation. All that does is inflame the already incensed crowds and doesn't have any positive effect at all.

The Federal command and their anti-gun statements are equally reprehensible. They deliberately paint Pretti as a dangerous terrorist assassin because he actually owned and carried a firearm. According to Noem, Bovino and Patel, Pretti even had the wrong KIND of firearm and it's definitely against all normalcy for him to have carried extra magazines with him. Utterly ridiculous statements on their part and they look even more (sorry, can't think of a better description) Stupid, now that we KNOW that Pretti was unarmed when he was killed. And, again, there is no video, anywhere, that shows Pretti with his gun in his hand.

Now, the Feds shutting Minnesota State investigators out of the investigation looks really bad.  Having the agency involved in the shooting investigating itself is just...here it is again...stupid.  No.  I don't trust the Minnesota state leadership to want an unbiased investigation.  I also don't trust Homeland Security to provide an entirely unbiased investigation.  But, a JOINT investigation, by the FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), has a much better chance of being trusted by the American people.

In conclusion, it is my opinion that the Agents used excessive force in arresting Pretti. They went from pushing and shoving him to throwing him on the ground and beating him in seconds. He'd even already been pepper sprayed, a little, so was likely not even able to fight back very well. All Agents should be disciplined for excessive force and the one who was beating on him should be considered for termination.

Grey Jacket should face major repercussions for his handling of the firearm. He should not have fled the scene and he should definitely have made certain that everyone knew Pretti had been disarmed.

The Agents who shot Pretti, shot an unarmed, defenseless man, who had already been mostly subdued. This was a situation that called for using handcuffs, not firearms.