Police Abuse

Alex Pretti's Earlier Scuffle With ICE Doesn't Justify His Death 11 Days Later

Video of that scuffle does show that federal agents can manage to not shoot even violent protestors.

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Alex Pretti kicking a federal agent's car | NBC News
(NBC News)

Yesterday, news outlet The News Moment posted now-verified footage of Alex Pretti, the man killed by immigration enforcement agents this past Saturday in Minneapolis, scuffling with federal agents 11 days before he was fatally shot.

In the video, Pretti is seen behaving aggressively, screaming at the Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents, spitting on their vehicle, and then kicking out their vehicle's taillight as they attempt to drive away.

Agents then exit their vehicle and tackle Pretti to the ground, before letting him go and driving off. As Pretti gets off the ground, one sees what appears to be a handgun stuffed in the back of his waistband.

Conservatives have immediately seized on the footage as proof that Pretti was a violent and dangerous anti-ICE radical and not some peaceful protester.

Some have said this is relevant "context" for his later shooting death.

Others, while saying the video doesn't directly impact his murder investigation, do say it is evidence that Pretti was looking for a fight and eventually got one.

Anyone who's followed news coverage of police shootings in the past will be familiar with this "no angel" line of commentary. Past instances of someone behaving badly are dredged up to color one's interpretation of a later, unconnected incident.

Past bad conduct transmutes blame from perpetrator to victim, even if it's completely irrelevant to their later victimization.

Alert observers should resist falling for this trick. The fact that Pretti kicked out a taillight of a police vehicle does nothing to justify his slaying by federal agents 11 days later in a completely separate incident, when he was not behaving violently.

Whether Pretti's death is prosecutable murder hinges almost entirely on whether officers had a reasonable fear for their lives when they shot a restrained, disarmed man.

Pretti's earlier violence has nothing to do with that moment-by-moment analysis.

To the degree it is relevant, Pretti's past violent behavior is actually evidence of how unjustified his killing was.

In the earlier incident, Pretti is armed and behaves aggressively toward federal officers who, after a brief fight, leave the scene without gunning him down.

If they managed to avoid the use of force in that earlier, more serious incident without consequence, one wonders how agents' deadly force could possibly be thought necessary in the later incident where Pretti was killed.