"In Minneapolis, two recent fatal encounters with federal immigration agents have produced not only grief and anger, but an unusually clear fight over what is real. In the aftermath of Alex Pretti's killing on Jan. 24, 2026, federal officials claimed the Border Patrol officers who fired weapons at least 10 times acted in self-defense. But independent media analyses showed the victim holding a phone, not a gun, throughout the confrontation."
"That pattern matters because in fast-moving crises, early official statements often become the scaffolding on which public judgment is built. Sometimes those statements turn out to be accurate. But sometimes they do not. When the public repeatedly experiences the same sequence - confident claims, partial disclosures, shifting explanations, delayed evidence, lies - the damage can outlast any single incident. It teaches people that "the facts" are simply one more instrument of power, distributed strategically."
In Minneapolis, two fatal encounters with federal immigration agents produced grief, anger, and disputes over factual accounts. After Alex Pretti's killing on Jan. 24, 2026, federal officials said Border Patrol officers who fired at least ten times acted in self-defense; independent media analyses showed the victim holding a phone, not a gun. Conflicting reports about Renée Good's earlier death intensified demands for independent review and transparency. Minnesota state and local officials described clashes with federal agencies over access to evidence and investigative authority. Repeated patterns of confident claims, partial disclosures, shifting explanations and delayed evidence erode public trust and harm democratic legitimacy. Historical examples include Civil War censorship, Iran-Contra, and misleading WMD claims.
Read at Brooklyn Eagle
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