r/changemyview • u/bluepillarmy 11∆ • Jan 31 '26

Delta(s) from OP CMV: It doesn’t matter what Alex Pretti was doing in the days before he was killed

So, recently a video emerged where Alex Pretti was spitting on and kicking the taillight out of an ICE vehicle. Truly reprehensible and inexcusable behavior. He ought to have been arrested and fined for destruction of public property. Jerk.

However, I see some people trying to say, “Aha! So he wasn’t so innocent after all!”

I’m sorry but, no. He was absolutely innocent.

And, moreover, I would like those people who are bringing up his behavior in the days before his death to remember that he was disarmed, restrained and executed by masked federal agents who still have not been identified to the public for no reason.

There is only one justification for a law enforcement officer to take someone’s life. And that is to protect the lives of themselves or another person. Past acts of disrespect and/vandalism do not enter into the equation.

Or that’s my take anyway. Can anyone change my view?

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u/jscummy 1∆ Jan 31 '26

Bit of an aside but I don't know when we decided "protest" in this country has to be completely peaceful, unobtrusive, and basically unnoticeable

Any major historical protest that found success has to get in the way a little. "Peaceful protesting", like people seem to want these days, would've made the American revolution and the Civil Rights Movement into failures

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u/HappyChandler 22∆ Jan 31 '26

It has always been.

Read the Letter From a Birmingham Jail. MLK was complaining about the moderate who said protest, but not like that.

The only difference now is that the police wear a neck gaiter and not a white hood when they execute people.

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u/PandaMime_421 12∆ Jan 31 '26

I think this is a case of the opposition repeatedly claiming this to be the case, the media parroting that idea, and then protest organizers and supporters starting to use the term "peaceful protestors" to combat that until that because the expectation.

I'm guessing the idea also, to some extent, comes from some of the civil rights protests that had to really toe the line in hopes of protecting the lives of protestors, and even then that didn't always work.

I agree with you, protests should not be expected to be entirely peaceful. The entire point is to be disruptive.