When the cameras did not look away, and what we cannot unsee
The street is bright with winter glare. Snow is packed hard at the curb, greyed by traffic and footprints. A cluster of men in heavy jackets and tactical gear moves quickly across the roadway, boots slipping slightly on ice. Their movements are abrupt and purposeful.
A man stands nearby holding a phone at chest height. He is filming.
Ahead of him, an agent shoves a woman who stumbles and falls. Another person nearby is pushed aside. The man moves toward them, lowering his phone, appearing to help the people who have been knocked down. His attention is on them, not on the agents.
An agent turns toward him. The distance closes quickly. Words are exchanged but are indistinct, carried away by movement and wind. The encounter escalates without pause.
Pepper spray is discharged at close range. The man recoils immediately, coughing, his hands coming up to his face. His phone dips as he bends forward, disoriented, focused on breathing through the burning in his eyes and throat.
Agents move in and force him to the ground. Knees and bodies press him down onto the pavement. He is pinned by multiple people, his movement restricted by their weight and positioning.
While he is held down, agents strike him repeatedly. The blows land while he remains restrained, unable to rise or disengage. He continues coughing and turning his head, reacting to pain and pressure.
One agent reaches to the man’s side and removes a holstered firearm. The weapon is taken away and moved out of reach. The man does not regain his feet. He is brought upright only enough to be on his knees, still surrounded, still controlled.
He remains kneeling. His hands are not holding a weapon. He does not attempt to stand or move toward anyone. He is coughing, wiping at his eyes, visibly impaired by the spray and the restraint.
An agent steps back from the group. His firearm is already drawn.
He changes position, moving laterally to gain a clear line of sight. The movement is deliberate. He can see the other agents and the man they are holding. He has an unobstructed view.
The man is still on his knees when the shots are fired.
The sound cracks sharply through the cold air. The man collapses forward onto the pavement. For a brief moment, no one else moves.
Then voices rise. An agent steps back. Another looks down. The snow near the curb darkens.
Cars continue to idle. A door opens somewhere nearby. The winter light remains unchanged.
What is left is a body on the pavement, a phone lying nearby, and a sequence of events preserved only by the footage that recorded it.
Link to the above video (warning: graphic)
And the government lies about
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Alex Pretti was shot multiple times (possibly up to 10). This was an execution.
The murderous, swinish, hunnish, Trumpist, evil, insane, repulsive USA.
And yet, some 37% of US citizens say they approve of trump and his minions (The Economist), and a similar percentage agree with the actions of ICE (various sources).
This indicates to me that the US is a terminally sick society that is likely to self-destruct from the inside out.
Stephen Miller;s egregiously false narrative regarding the latest ICE murder in Minneapolis,puts him in the same league as Heinrich Himmler was to the SS thugs.
The whole thing reeks of revenge by the criminally insane Trump.How much more of this criminality will be tolerated by the American people before it breaks out into civil war?Maybe some in the shadows,Miller for example, are actively seeking internal conflict…martial law..goodbye elections.
The PPOTUS (Pederast Protector of the United States) and his ICE Brownshirts in a facemask are repeating German history from 1918-1945 for the same reasons; to please the industrial BILLIONAIRES CLUB at the expense of the American voters.
The SCOTUS has been purchased so legality is owned by the billionaires; the decrepit, geriatric, demented multiple bankrupt convicted felon representing the billionaires has unleashed chaos as a population control measure, proving that the USA can imitate any autocratic regime in the world that American foreign owned multinationals corrupt the political process for corporate benefit.
Why would any thinking person want to travel to the USA?? Well, perhaps only for the release of the unredacted Epstein files that TACO Trumpery continues to obstruct.
I am reminded of the fates of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mussolini in Italy and other foreign sponsored dictators working against the best interests of their voters.
the majority of MAGAs can’t see what’s happening in front of them – or else CAN but quietly accept it.
There is no future for anyone in the USA who does not toe the MAGA line if these thugs can simply murder anyone they don’t like on any given day without repercussions.
Is this the beginning of a civil war?
Not only did Pretti have a right to carry his firearm he also had a greater insight into the damage he could cause with it than the halfwit who shot him 10 times with his “legal” gun. Still when you have puppy shooter, border control Barbie defending your right to shoot a woman in the head through the side window of her car as she tries to run you over, 🤷🏼♀️ l guess you can expect to get away with self defence against an unarmed man on his knees being beaten by 5 of your mates.
The multiple shots were possibly the most shocking thing about the scene.
That bastard kept firing, slowly and carefully. It was cold-blooded murder; the deliberate execution of a helpless man.
L’America, home of the brave, land of the free.When you look closely at their history, it becomes clear that what’s happening now, should not be a complete surprise, and neither should where it’s going to end, as with all empires that rotted from within.
When are the Superbowl playoffs.?We’ve exchanged the Circus Maximus for a squillion dollar act of overpaid actors with a funny shaped ball, and half time entertainment by overpaid ‘celebrities.
I have been left agonising about man’s inhumanity to man and the way that The USA has been so easily and readily corrupted by such a corrupt President to perform his will when he is clearly ignorant and suffering mental decline himself. I cannot understand why Trump has not been swiftly removed from any position of power.
He still wants to pretend that he can be the CEO of billions of dollars to join his ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza- a term so transparent that it’s laughable when he has his ‘Goons’ killing legitimate American citizens in US cities.
The puppeter behind Trump and ICE is Stephen Miller (Tanton Network), with Vought OMBS (Koch Heritage) equals Project 2025.
More interesting is how Miller shares the same Tanton Network (TSCP) published Raspail’s ‘Camp of the Saints’ which inspired ‘The Great Replacement’ of Renaud Camus, with a conga line of white Christian nationalists and nihilistic or ‘radical right’ libertarians and MAGA.
The idea starting with Bill Buckley in ’80s, like Project Esther, is to target, pummel, neuter or eliminate centrists, to keep the far right, Neo-Nazis, KKK etc. from specifying targets that may suggest anti-semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.
Others who have been inspired by Camp of the Saints include Steve Bannon (who wooed Farage), Musk, former Fox News Carlson, Orbán, Le Pen, Berlusconi, Reagan et al.
Also locally ABF Terror Unit successfully applied for Camp of the Saints to be reclassified down to ‘unrestricted’, while decades earlier a SusPopAus (then ZPG Oz) patron bagged an interview with Raspail, published in Tanton’s The Social Contract.
Hence, locally we hear the mantra, while ignoring black shirts and anti-semitic dog whistling in RW MSM & social media, Orwellian ‘the left is anti-semitic’; risible.
Seems redolent of the late Weimar era in pre WWII Germany…..attacking the centre, then provoking kick back from the centre to be if not eliminated, neutered.
I agree with much of this, especially the identification of a shared ideological ecosystem rather than isolated actors. Miller’s role as an architect and amplifier of nativist, civilisational-decline narratives is well documented, as is the influence of The Camp of the Saints and related “replacement” mythology across far-right movements.
Where I’d nuance it slightly is around the idea of a single puppeteer or tight coordination. If that level of discipline existed, we’d likely already be somewhere far darker. What has paradoxically limited them so far is fragmentation, rivalry, and ego — too many people want to be the Führer.
Figures like Miller seem to understand this and play a different game: the “ever so humble” court ideologue. Not seeking the spotlight, not competing for dominance, but shaping language, normalising extremes, embedding ideas, and letting louder egos overreach and burn out. That makes the threat quieter and less theatrical — but also more brittle.
This is also where the Goebbels comparison only goes so far. Miller may borrow methods, but he doesn’t appear emotionally fused to Trump in the way Goebbels was to Hitler. Goebbels was willing to go down with the regime; Miller looks more like someone who values longevity and influence over martyrdom. That difference matters.
I do agree that Nazi-era methods are clearly admired and selectively plagiarised — particularly propaganda techniques, scapegoating, and the strategic elimination of the centre. The belief appears to be that they can do it better this time, without the mistakes. History suggests that confidence always ends the same way.
So yes, the danger is real — but it’s messier, less coherent, and more internally unstable than a single-mastermind narrative suggests. That instability has saved us so far. It won’t save us forever.
Just what is Stephen Miller’s role in life? What are the requirements of his position description? What is he paid for and by whom? Is he subject to performance reviews by his employer? What are his KPI’s? Simple questions that apply to anyone else who is employed so why is he not subject to criticism? Who is protecting him?
@ Mediocrates – I suspect the answer is fairly simple:
– Trump
– MAGA
– ultra-wealthy white male arseholes
– oh, and some “good Christian” folks
For Trump, the Truth in Minneapolis Is What He Says It Is
The Trump team has advanced one-sided narratives to justify each of the killings, even when bystander video shows something else entirely
New York Times
Outright murder, pure and simple!
https://planetwavesfm.substack.com/p/update-situation-in-minneapolis?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/19/the-disconnected-present-neoliberal-fascism-and-the-politics-of-erasure/
The egomaniac in charge did say he would be a dictator from day one.
Based on this report, what took place was cold blooded murder, in which Trump, based on his comments is complicit. This from a “man?” who was going to make America great again!!!
As more people are almost certainly to be murdered the excuses are going to become more and more desperate and totally in the realms of fantasy. How many more have to die before (here’s hoping it doesn’t go that far) civil war breaks out?