After another shooting involving federal immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, it must be said clearly and plainly: Democratic “protesters” are getting themselves killed, putting themselves and others in danger with their irresponsible (and, at times, illegal) antics.
The latest controversy comes from the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents. He has become the new martyr of the cause, held up by Democrats (and celebrities, and athletes) as a man killed simply for exercising his First Amendment right to protest and his Second Amendment right to carry a firearm. ‘He was disarmed before he was shot,’ they cry, ‘he was murdered for exercising his rights.’
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Here is what actually happened. Pretti, according to one of his fellow “protesters,” was “directing traffic” and “standing in the street.” When agents moved to detain a woman, Pretty physically intervened, putting his hands on the agent. When agents tried to detain him, he physically resisted them. He did all this while having a gun in his waistband. Agents learned that he had a gun on his person, as he was still fighting them, and at least one agent eventually opened fire.
In this case, it does not matter whether or not Pretti intended to use that gun. It also does not matter whether he had a concealed carry permit, as has been reported. He is fighting with officers with a gun on his person, a confrontation that he initiated by putting his hands on another officer. These officers are being asked to make a snap decision about their own safety. They are surrounded by people who constantly call them Nazis and are in a physical confrontation with a man they now know has a gun and is actively fighting with them.
‘They disarmed him before he was shot,’ is the inevitable reply, as video does appear to show an officer take Pretti’s gun off of him before shots are fired. Let’s take that as true. Officers are surrounded by a loud mob of people intentionally yelling and blowing shrill whistles, stifling communication. Do you expect every officer in this physical fight with an armed suspect to know that a man has been disarmed seconds before he appears to reach in his waistband or for something that appears to be a gun, with a braying mob purposefully hindering the officers’ ability to communicate with each other?
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Pretti put himself in this deadly situation. The mob supporting him is making it harder for officers to communicate (say, for example, relaying the fact he has been disarmed) and raising the threat level felt by the officers. They have created a volatile situation, not the agents, and Pretti made a series of terrible decisions that resulted in his death.
This is the same thing Renee Good did when she purposefully obstructed traffic, defied Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers’ commands, and hit an agent with her car while fleeing detainment. Good and Pretti all but dared law enforcement agents to shoot them. That is on them, and it is on the open borders protesters who continue to jack up the temperature by demonizing, stalking, and harassing law enforcement.