On Saturday, the same day that federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street, the Justice Department sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The letter did not have anything to say about the violence caused by the Department of Homeland Security's presence in the state. Nor did it offer Minnesota any assistance in the investigation of Pretti's death or that of Renee Good's just more than two weeks earlier.
It's more obvious than ever why recording encounters with federal agents matters: without bystander videos, it would be much harder to disprove the government's Orwellian lies about how Alex Pretti was killed last Saturday. But there are also risks when you pull out your phone to take a video at a protest or if you see an ICE agent abducting, say, a 5-year-old child. Here's what to know about how to protect your technology and yourself.
A witness's video shows San Jose police cruisers, sirens blaring, racing toward a busy downtown intersection. Shots ring out. A man authorities said had been in multiple gunbattles with police - and had shot a sergeant in the head - emerges from the driver's side of a police car, then runs from officers before collapsing amid a hail of gunfire.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis wrote the footnote in a 223-page opinion issued last week, noting that the practice of using ChatGPT to write use-of-force reports undermines the agents' credibility and "may explain the inaccuracy of these reports." She described what she saw in at least one body camera video, writing that an agent asks ChatGPT to compile a narrative for a report after giving the program a brief sentence of description and several images.
PSA: A vehicle is a deadly weapon, First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli wrote in a social media post. Using it against law enforcement justifies their use of deadly force in self-defense. Essayli alleged the man who was shot had rammed his car into vehicles driven by immigration agents trying to arrest him, causing agents to worry for their safety, and prompting one of them to discharge his weapon, wounding the man and, inadvertently, a deputy US marshal.
AB 847 gives oversight commissions the same access to peace officer files currently held by prosecutors, grand juries and the state attorney general. While many oversight panels can subpoena documents and investigate misconduct complaints, requests for officer personnel files have routinely been denied by law enforcement agencies. Without that information, they say, it's difficult to identify patterns of misconduct, understand disciplinary history or recommend policy changes.
