What’s past is often prologue, and the Trump administration almost daily provides sometimes brutal examples.
The shooting death of Renee Nicole Good reminded us of the slaying of Viola Liuzzo by Ku Klux Klan members on an Alabama highway in 1965. Like Ms. Good, she was shot and killed while driving a car, but in this case, she was carrying some of the protesters who had made the historic march from Selma to Montgomery.
ICE and Federal agents gave us another gruesome and uncalled-for fatality with the death of Alex Pretti, which in many ways was reminiscent of the fusillade of bullets that killed Amadou Diallo in 1999. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that Pretti was brandishing a gun, but that is contradicted by several videos showing him holding his phone and recording
Diallo, the NYPD said at the time, was reaching for a gun and not his wallet. They were just as wrong then as the federal agencies are now about the hail of bullets that killed Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti.
Of course, Donald Trump, in these recent instances, defended the agents, adding that both victims were domestic terrorists, though he has had to walk back those allegations. Even still, his loose lips have never failed to rush to judgment without a thread of evidence to support the charges.
We ask again, why are these agents armed, and moreover, without the proper training to deal with the militarization of our streets and the apprehension of illegal immigrants? A growing number of Americans are becoming angered by the needless deaths of citizens, all of whom are exercising their rights, including Pretti’s right to bear arms in Minnesota.
For these menacing agents, a camera is a deadly weapon, a protester an inflamed terrorist, and impunity guaranteed by their fatalistic leader. Folks in Minneapolis are showing good old American spunk in taking their protest to the streets despite the possibility of becoming another victim.
Yes, the past is prologue, but it’s time to change the expected outcome, time to stand with the brave men and women who brandish nothing but placards.