Last updated on January 26, 2026
The level of disagreement over immigration enforcement continues to escalate.
Readers of a certain age will recall photographic coverage of the war in Vietnam, and a few images the focused people’s minds. We perhaps now, for better or worse, have a modern equivalent.
In case the above was unclear, the below may get the message across:
We read complaints that the anti-ICE protesters are being violent. Fortunately, they are not. Americans know how to do violence when they want to. Do we see cinder blocks being dropped from rooftops?? How about Molotov Cocktails? Are explosives/IEDs in use? Are ICE people taking sniper fire? Fortunately, the answer to all those questions almost entirely in the negative, except for a few unoccupied vehicles catching on fire, but I would certainly not bet that that answer will never change. On the positive side, that change might take a while, hopefully long enough for matters to be improved and the rule of law — that’s trials, not summary executions — to be restored. After all, from the Boston Massacre to the Battle of Worcester took half a decade, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord took even longer.
On the other hand, the firearms organizations that have traditionally been supporters of the Republicans are having significant doubts about the Administration policies here.
We have a sad state of affairs here.
The debate as to whether or not the shooting was defensible does not matter with respect to my point, namely that the image is likely to reset public opinion.
Did the gun fire by itself? Or did it fire because someone had their finger on the trigger? If it was the latter it is most likely poor training which has been an ongoing problem from the beginning due to poor management.
I wonder if a Somali version of Anne Frank is recording this in her diary?
That image is AI generated, amigo.
Notice the missing head on the ICE officer?
This seems to indicate the publisher didn’t carefully watch the video — which to be fair, is not fun to watch. Still, we have to be careful not to be blinded by our biases.
Apparently when the officers pulled the gun off him, one shouted “gun”; almost immediately after, the retrieved gun negligently fired, and the other officers reacted with fire.
It’s tragic, but everyone in that encounter still gets an F.
The head of the other officer is visible, though hard to see. The AI generated image is available on the internet. That image is the one where the shooter gains a third arm.
“the retrieved gun negligently fired” — ?
According to the conservative _National_Review_:
“What is indisputable is that Alex Pretti never removed his firearm from his holster. Pretti’s holster appeared to be on his belt, near his back.
“During the scrum, while Pretti is on the ground, a DHS agent in a gray coat and gray cap searches his waistband, finds the firearm, and removes it. It is difficult to see how Pretti, unarmed and on the ground with agents on top of him, could have presented an immediate and deadly threat to the lives of the DHS agents around him, and in some cases, on top of him.
“The DHS agent or agents who killed him fired ten shots at an unarmed man on the ground.”
I agree with you. It’s tragic.
Everyone involved still gets an F.
Source of my quotation: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/kristi-noem-growing-liability-for-the-trump-administration/
Warning: the link goes to a Christian Nationalist site that seeks to gull you into helping them hijack information and sell subscriptions. Dunno of this is normal as I normally cross the street to avoid such links.
I can’t see in the video where Pretti’s gun was accidentally fired by the ICE agent. I went frame by frame (which you can do on youtube by hitting pause and pressing the period key repeatedly), but I don’t see where the gun recoils, I don’t see a muzzle flash, and I don’t see the agent carrying it reacting as if a gun he was holding just accidentally went off.