Our Kristallnacht

Dear Readers, Another innocent American civilian in Minneapolis has been murdered by our federal government. Alex Jeffrey Pretti was a 37-year-old citizen and intensive care nurse at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The morning of January 24th, he was executed, shot multiple (10 or more) times, by multiple masked and unnamed Border Patrol agents.

According to Krist Noem, “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” President Trump posted, “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!) and ready to go.”

As a country, we may have lost contact with truth. Thank God everyone in America is armed with cameras with video. Please search out the video footage circulating on social media and do not rely on how politicians are trying to spin what happened.

Video shows the truth. Dozens of masked agents, armed to the teeth, were flooding a Minneapolis community. Mr. Pretti was directing traffic and filming what has happening. A woman is pushed to the ground by masked ICE/BP officials; Mr. Pretti runs over to help her and intervene.

About a half-dozen agents take umbrage, separate Mr. Pretti away from her, and start attacking him taking him to the ground, some kicking and hitting him. Suddenly, one of them starts shooting. We know Mr. Pretti was licensed and permitted to carry; there is nothing in the video footage depicting him brandishing one.

Operation Metro Surge is an ICE/Border Patrol joint project to find and detain illegal immigrants, allegedly to rid our streets of violent immigration violators.

This is already accomplished through our constitutional partnership. State and local law enforcement officials turn over to ICE anyone entered into national databases as potential immigration targets. American citizens have protested “Operation Metro Surge.” They have a 1st Amendment right to peacefully protest. The Constitution guarantees them the right jeer, chant, honk horns, blow whistles and videotape to their heart’s content. They are not destroying property. 100,000 or so residents turned out to peacefully protest on Friday, January 23rd.

They also have a 2nd Amendment right “to keep and bear Arms.” The purpose of this right is to resist an unlawful government. The United States Supreme Court has interpreted this to mean you can “open carry.” You can’t legally shoot someone just because they are armed.

Early Sunday morning, U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, appointed to his position by Donald Trump, granted an injunction requested by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. The Temporary Restraining Order bars our federal government from destroying or altering any evidence related to the shooting.

This is unprecedented. Local law enforcement and federal agencies typically work cooperatively to investigate possible crimes. We do not even know who the BP agents identities. Germany was a democratic country under the Weimar Republic. In 1933, Adolf Hitler, without as much as 40% of German public support, convinced the aging President Paul von Hindenburg, to appoint him Chancellor. Nazi Germany was birthed by political miscalculation. Democracy died. Overnight of November 8, 1938, the Sturmabteilung (Stormtroopers/SA) or Braunhemden (Brownshirts) and Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary forces led a pogrom rounding up Jewish-German citizens. This marked the beginning of the Holocaust. German citizenry remained silent to this lawlessness.

Minneapolis is our Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). The SA was Hitler’s private militia. They patrolled the country and reeked havoc in communities.

We may have deluded ourselves into believing this cannot happen to us. We have a Constitution we follow, we are guided by rules and laws. Our 10th Amendment delegates sovereignty to the states, not otherwise granted to the national government. This created a partnership with states in charge of local policing and keeping communities safe.

ICE and BP enforce civil violations; they are not tasked with policing. They are not trained to police, they are only trained and tasked with nabbing immigration offenders. BP is supposed to be patrolling the border – Minneapolis is not a border city.

Minneapolis is under an invasion from ICE/BP; we are under invasion. Not only are citizens 1st Amendment rights being violated, now possibly legally armed citizens are executed. 2nd Amendment proponents should be outraged.

This is happening to all of us; we need to demand change to our modern SA. Vice President Vance says thugs have “absolute immunity.” Congress can change this. It can also strip ICE of its funding. Our country depends on this.

Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami. Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000. E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com.