The Triumph of Empathy in Minneapolis

"When I first saw the video of the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, I immediately thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Federal agents shot Pretti after he tried to help a woman they had thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves and help those in need. "Do this and you will live," he says. Not in Donald Trump's America."

"Americans have now seen with their own eyes the cost of President Trump's abuse of power and disregard for the Constitution. Videos of the killing of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents have exposed the lies of Trump-administration officials who were quick to smear the victims as "domestic terrorists." Even Americans who have grown habituated to Trump's excesses have been shaken by these killings and the reflexively cruel and dishonest response from the administration."

"This crisis also reveals a deeper moral rot at the heart of Trump's MAGA movement. Whatever you think about immigration policy, how can a person of conscience justify the lack of compassion and empathy for the victims in Minnesota, and for the families torn apart or hiding in fear, for the children separated from their parents or afraid to go to school?"

Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti after he tried to help a woman who had been thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Videos and public reaction exposed officials' attempts to label victims as "domestic terrorists" and revealed an abuse of power and disregard for the Constitution. The killings of Pretti and Renee Good have shaken many Americans and exposed a deeper moral rot within the MAGA movement characterized by diminished compassion and amplified cruelty. The administration appears to use inhumane tactics and heavily armed federal deployments to spread fear. Previous presidents deported millions without turning cities into battlegrounds or making spectacles of detained children. The cruelty is the point.

Read at The Atlantic