"It was difficult to avoid the videos of what I can only think of as their executions. The images captured by bystanders and immigration agents were reminiscent of the lynching postcards that white spectators once bought and traded reproductions of retributive violence, tailor-made to titillate and intimidate. Pretti's killing, in particular, struck a chord of dismay with a cross section of Americans."
"Just before Jonathan Ross, an ICE agent, pulled the gun that he discharged into Good's minivan, he was shooting video of the incident on his cellphone. The gun and the phone are both weapons one a tool for violence, and the other a tool of control. We understand what the gun is intended to do. That's why, finally, opposition to the Trump administration seems to be coalescing around a rallying cry: Abolish ICE!"
Federal agents in Minnesota shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, with bystander and agent videos resembling historical lynching postcards. Pretti's killing produced widespread dismay, revealing that public conscience can still be shocked by visible retributive violence. The shootings prompted renewed calls to 'Abolish ICE' as a demand to control agents wielding lethal power. The cellphone video recorded by an ICE agent underscores that both the gun and the phone act as weapons: one for immediate violence, the other for control and spectacle. Expanded ICE funding and growing Department of Homeland Security tracking capabilities amplify concerns about surveillance and state power.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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