What are we going to do about it?

Alex was a medical professional who had dedicated himself to serving the veteran population as a VA ICU nurse. He was a son. He was a friend. He liked to mountain bike and hike. He was born in Illinois. He had no criminal record beyond a handful of traffic tickets. He was deeply troubled by the actions of ICE in Minneapolis and protested them.

Moments before his life ended, Alex can be seen helping to direct traffic with his phone in his hand. His last act before he was shot? He came to the defense of a woman shoved to the ground without cause by a clearly angry ICE agent. In the minutes leading up to the shooting, Alex was clearly holding only his phone in his hand, just as he was when he stepped between the ICE agent and the woman. He, and she, were then pepper sprayed — Alex had his back to the agent who pepper sprayed him as he tried to help the woman. Alex was then descended upon by multiple ICE agents. He was forced to his knees in a fetal position. An ICE agent can be seen in multiple angles of videos striking Alex with the pepper spray can angrily while other agents subdue him.

Alex was exercising both his First and Second Amendment rights shortly before he was killed. He was protesting government actions that he did not agree with and he was carrying his handgun, as he was permitted to do. He did not ever unholster his handgun. In fact, the footage captured clearly shows Alex’s handgun being removed by an ICE agent moments before he was shot to death.

These are the facts and they are undisputed.

I am a proud supporter of law enforcement professionals who take their job seriously, respect our Constitution, and work to keep us safe. They have taught me not to jump to conclusions when force is used. However, in rapid response to both the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the Trump administration rushed to conclusions in mere minutes. Thirty-seven-year-old award winning poet and mother, Ms. Good, was characterized by Kristi Noem as a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to kill” an officer.  This is not what video evidence shows. Gregory Bovino, “commander-at-large” of ICE, in reference to Mr. Pretti stated, “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” This is not what video evidence shows. While these gross distortions of truth are troubling in and of themselves, the speed with which they were was spewed speaks volumes about the lack of credibility and integrity within the Trump administration.

Equally troubling, Vice President JD Vance and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller have misled the public about the immunity federal agents possess in a thinly veiled attempt to encourage ICE agents to continue violently violating constitutional rights. Make no mistake about it: This is a culture that President Trump actively wanted and created. While he is now backpedaling as fast as he can without getting whiplash, he brought us to this place.

We can and we should have a reasoned and thoughtful ongoing national discussion about crime in this country — no matter who is committing it. We can, and we should have, a reasoned and thoughtful debate about a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are productive members of society. We can and we should have a reasoned and thoughtful debate about our border policy. But I simply don’t care enough to do that right now. We are beyond that. This is not a red vs. blue issue any longer; this is a red, white and blue issue — an American issue. The president’s masked ICE agents are engaging in racial profiling, they are violating civil rights with reckless abandon, and they are killing American citizens in broad daylight — all while he and his administration are lying to us on a regular basis. This is not a dystopian work of fiction; this is our current American reality. What are we going to do about it?

Charles Stone is a partner at Goethals & Stone, PC and the former mayor of Belmont.