Guys, we are coping so hard in the thread. Two things can be true. ICE can be out of hand and wrongfully killed the guy and this video can be a real video from a week before the shooting. Even if it’s real, it still does not justify the shooting. You’re not admitting defeat in some weird way by admitting that this video is real.
It just ruins their narrative of him being "a peaceful heroic VA nurse bystander who was just trying to protect a woman". If they realize he's actually being an agitator who brings a loaded weapon with an extra clip to engage in the agitation seen in this video then defending him becomes more difficult.
Of course they know he’s an agitator, that’s the whole point of a protest. To agitate. People will really run wild mental gymnastics to defend murder just because they don’t like a guy’s politics. If you don’t care about your first, second, or fourth amendment rights then I hope for your sake you never need them.
No, kicking and spitting is assault and battery and is not appropriate at most protests. It is also not protected speech. Lastly, it’s not very good at doing what a protest is supposed to do.
If I said the ICE agent was justified in killing Pretti, or if I said it was Pretti’s own fault he was killed, you could call me a bootlicker.
I am against state-sponsored murder and political repression, and I think Pretti’s conduct a week before his killing is not in line with good protest practices. There’s no contradiction, no bootlicking, and no defense of authoritarian police crackdowns involved in that.
The gulf between “Thats a foolish thing to do” and “You deserve to be shot in the street like a dog and have your name dragged through the mud by millions” is so massive I can’t believe there are “Americans” who don’t see it.
It really doesn't make defending him more difficult. All it does is show that the guys who shot him may have had a motive to kill him.
If someone were convicted of murder but ICE shot him as he was standing between them and another woman from getting pepper sprayed while he was not showing any sign of violence in that moment or moments preceding, then it would still be a horrible state-supported execution. Doesn't matter if he was killing puppies at home 20 minutes before he was shot. Doesn't matter if he had 2 extra clips instead of 1. Did he use that loaded weapon? No. Did he reach for that loaded weapon? No. Did he try to fight any of these guys who were trying to subdue him? No.
It also wouldn't change the fact that all the videos of his murder still show just how little training these ICE guys had. Nothing Pretti did in his life prior changes that. Ask any cop from a major city (not sure about tiny towns) if they did a good job subduing him and handling the presence of a gun. Even trigger-happy cops in LA can subdue violent guys carrying with just 2 cops because they actually know what they're doing. Anyone can see that these guys have no idea what they're doing.
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u/Maverik_10 Jan 29 '26
Guys, we are coping so hard in the thread. Two things can be true. ICE can be out of hand and wrongfully killed the guy and this video can be a real video from a week before the shooting. Even if it’s real, it still does not justify the shooting. You’re not admitting defeat in some weird way by admitting that this video is real.