Minneapolis Under Siege
Minneapolis Under Siege
Federal agents shot a man in Minneapolis on January 24th. Alex Pretti was 37 years old. He was an American citizen with a legal permit to carry a firearm. His only prior contacts with law enforcement were traffic violations.
The Department of Homeland Security said he approached officers with a handgun and resisted arrest. They called the shots defensive. They said he wanted to massacre law enforcement. The local police chief said federal authorities had provided his department no information about the killing.
This was not the first shooting. On January 7th, federal agents killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother. An FBI agent investigating that case resigned after pressure from Washington to end the inquiry. The Department of Justice was ordered to investigate the victim and her wife instead. The agent who fired the shots has raised nearly 800,000 dollars in online donations.
The day before the Pretti shooting, thousands of Minnesotans protested in temperatures of minus 29 degrees Celsius. Hundreds of businesses closed their doors. Workers stayed home in what organisers called a general strike. The mayor reported no broken windows.
After the shooting, protesters returned to the streets. Federal authorities pushed them back with tear gas and called them rioters. Available footage showed people who were angry but not violent.
One group demonstrated in freezing temperatures and broke nothing. The other group arrived masked and armed and killed two people in three weeks.
The protests continue. So do the operations.