US politics
fromTruthout
18 hours agoVA Reportedly Launched Probes Into Workers Who Attended Vigil for Alex Pretti
The VA investigated employees for speaking about the killing of nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted the new video of Alex Pretti kicking an ICE vehicle will not change the way his death is being investigated. Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was shot and killed by federal agents last Saturday. At the time of the altercation, Pretti was legally carrying a handgun in his holster. When agents wrestled him to the ground, one of them appeared to remove the firearm from Pretti's holster. Moments later, at least one agent opened fire on the presumably-unarmed Pretti.
The big crowd outside New York Harbor Health Care on East 23rd Street not only condemned Pretti's death one that sparked outrage across the country but also honored the way Pretti lived. The slain nurse worked at a VA hospital himself, and had come to the aid of a fallen protester moments before he was gunned down. Pretti was shot dead after ICE agents shoved him to the ground,
Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti's stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces. It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control.
Letting bad-faith Trump trolls (but I repeat myself twice) smear slain protester Alex Pretti as a violent psychopath in the name of debate is a line that responsible news organizations should not cross. Allow me to set the table here. I'm talking about the newly resurfaced viral video that desperate MAGA flying monkeys have seized on to try and stanch the bleeding from what America saw last Saturday.
Megyn Kelly skewered MS NOW for using what the channel admitted was an AI-enhanced picture of Alex Pretti, with Kelly pointing out multiple manipulations to the photo, including that they tanned him up, fixed his teeth, darkened his hair, and made his nose smaller. Kelly roasted MS NOW for the edits on the Tuesday episode of her show. Apparently, they did not think that their hero was hot enough, Kelly said. And so they or someone from whom they got the picture
I thought they made a good step forward with trying to put someone with a lot more experience in charge. It was just outrageous that the secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, just got up there and trashed Alex Pretti, he said. It's unbelievable. I agree, Carlson said. Obviously what she was saying was false and I don't understand it. I found it dehumanizing and gross, Shellenberger continued. Yes, I agree, Carlson responded.
Newsmax host Greg Kelly on Monday held his phone as if it were a gun to make the argument that the ICE agents who shot and killed Alex Pretti were simply mistaken. Pretti, 37, was killed Saturday in Minneapolis during an altercation with several agents. Throughout the ordeal, Pretti held his phone in his right hand to record them. He was then taken to the ground before one of the officers suddenly opened fire.
My personal conundrum is, my friends know who I am and what I stand for, but in terms of being the owner of [a] magazine, how do you take sides when 50 percent of your readers might be on one side, and 50 percent on the other? It's difficult. That's my answer to that.
The outrage sparked by the death of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti at the hands of immigration agents last weekend has derailed what was thought to be a sure thing to approve funding for part of the government, potentially leading to a partial government shutdown later this week. The Senate will reconvene on Tuesday in an attempt to approve a budget that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
It is described as being a protest "in solidarity with the American people after the killing of Alex Pretti", and all are welcome to attend. Alex Pretti was killed in Minnesota over the weekend by agents of the American immigration enforcement agency ICE. His is the second death in Minnesota at the hands of ICE agents in the space of a month - in both cases videos have circulated showing that neither of the victims appear to pose a direct threat to ICE agents.
In the moments after federal officers shot Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti dead, Trump administration figures almost immediately made public statements in press conferences, televised interviews and social media posts that were at best indifferent to the evidence available at the time and at worst completely fabricated. A pattern is emerging, in which the Trump administration prioritizes the vilification of the dead victim as to blame for the incident over preserving the neutrality of any investigative process.
Among the lies that Melugin disseminated after the murder were that: The person CBP was snatching was "an illegal alien wanted for violent assault" That Pretti "approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun" "[T]he armed suspect violently resisted" "Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject" "[T]his looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement" "200 rioters arrived at the scene"