The Pretti killing follows the exact playbook they used with Renée Nicole Good. Kill someone in broad daylight, assassinate their character, lie about what happened, then flood the zone with propaganda until people do not know what to believe. It’s not incompetence, it’s strategy. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino doubled down on the assertion and claimed Pretti had “approached” Border Patrol officers with a handgun during their operation and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him.

Eliot Higgins, founder of the renowned investigative outlet Bellingcat, put it bluntly on Bluesky: “Treat the US government and ICE claims like you’d treat a Russian government claim after they’ve shot down an airliner or bombed a hospital.” This is what happens when an administration governs by narrative rather than by principle. By spectacle rather than by competence. We’ve crossed a dangerous threshold.

Minneapolis Mayor Frey’s words should concern every American: This is what occupation looks like. This is what happens when federal law enforcement operates without accountability, without oversight, and with impunity.

This White House built its entire coalition on Second Amendment absolutism and law and order rhetoric. Now those principles are in direct conflict. Either you defend gun rights for all lawful carriers, or you defend federal agents killing someone who never drew their weapon. You cannot do both.

Every dollar that funds these lawless and cruel roundups, funds the invasion of American cities. Federal agents in unmarked vehicles, wearing masks, patrolling American streets, traumatizing the populace and leaving bodies in their wake. Cruelty is the point! Cruelty is the purpose! We need to be honest about what these agencies have become under Trump’s administration.

Richard Keckler

North Ogden