What is happening in Minneapolis reminds me of what happened at Kent State 56 years ago in 1970. Then university students were protesting on campus the escalation of the Vietnam War. The National Guard murdered four students and wounded nine more. Insanity!
I have written from the beginning of ICE operations that what should have occurred first was a pathway for those here who are undocumented or illegally to become citizens based upon the fact they were allowed entry by the government and since their entrance they have contributed to their communities.
Only then should there have been action to deal with those with serious crimes here or from their place of origin.
Police state actions never end well. These inflame citizens’ passions and lead to what we are seeing in Minneapolis.
I have seen three angles of what happened to the protestor on Saturday. Initially he was going to the aid of a woman shoved to the ground by an ICE agent.
There is no evidence that Alex Pretti (RIP) was brandishing his gun or reaching for it.
What happened to him is a travesty and the escalation was by ICE not by him.
What I see is like an abortion. It is anti-life. But worse, lies by the administration in Washington about what we are seeing are incredible.
Catholics must stand on the side of truth, not lies. We must stand on the side of life and treating each other with dignity and respect.
73 comments:
The 2 loons in Minneapolis were not murdered, so please don't buy into the Left's narrative. This all came about because the Dem Party has morphed into a terrorist organization with their own brownshirts, Antifa and BLM. The Dems are sacrificing American citizens lives and livelihoods because they need to import replacement voters because a majority of Americans will no longer vote for them. They are also the Party of a myriad of intrinsic evils, such as abortion. Pius XI would condemn this party today. There is no moral equivalency between the Parties.
Whoever shot him could be charged with murder. We’ll wait and see. I am a Catholic first and a political independent a distant 10 or 11. The Church is pro life and respectful of life.
Only in a leftwing loon state like Minnesota where truth is the first casualty of the Left
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-vikings-captain-says-minnesota-liberal-resist-ice-because-were-deporting-voters
If the left does something it's bad if the right it's not is the worst and laziest of all logical fallacies you could bore seriously thinking people with. I don't like the left but murder is murder. I've watched the videos and there was no reason this man should be dead. If I don't trust my own eyes I can trust an American marine calling those men cowards. Anyway if all that is true of the democratic party it's certainly now true of Trump Republicans. And those that support ice. Talk about brownshirts.. You have to actively turn a blind eye to all the illegal things ice is doing at this point, unless arresting citizens and not letting them access legal representation has always been the law. Using violence to justify violence and gaining support from people to support the violence by saying the other side is the problem is how facism spreads. I don't know why the right gets a pass for crime and murder but not the left from you TJM. Either everyone or no one I say. Preferably no one. Thanks Father for this very Catholic message. I'm tired of politics. Truth is truth and the kingdom is not of this world. Murder is always murder even if they are left leaning people is something no one should actually have to point out.
Andrew - why did he bring a gun to a peaceful protest? I thought you lefties are all in favor of disarming the populace? Epic fail!
TJM you get a big fat F or 0 in Catholic pro life teachings. Also in law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn’t murder someone who legally was carrying a concealed gun. He was not brandishing it . A fair investigation might well lead to one or more ICE agents being arrested and charged with murder.
I could same the same about you! An officer had a right to defend himself and you fail to address why he was armed at a so-called peaceful protest. He was looking for trouble. He was a St Floyd aficionado and nutcase
There is no video evidence that he was reaching for his gun. One ICE agent took the phone away from his hand and threw it aside. You don’t kill a suspect who legally has a concealed gun. I will wait for the inquiry’s investigation and conclusions that might well lead to a murder charge.
So you are saying TJM that Americans can't legally carry guns? In Minnesota if you have a permit you are allowed to carry a gun at a protest or not. So why are you suspending the law for him? Everyone insists so much that we can carry guns so I'm not for sure why we wouldn't be defending him having one too as per the second amendment. The peaceful Jan 6 people had guns. Anyway it's clear from his murder video he was being peaceful as father already pointed out. Again you a fail for you inability to use basic logic. Also great job labeling everyone who doesn't agree you an enemy. I'm a Catholic not a leftist. A pro-life conservative college graduate who had to learn about history and the Constitution, and also had to visit Holocaust museum and learn about the 1930s. No wonder you like Trump who calls everyone who disagrees with him be you a Democrat or a Canadian an enemy. If Trump wanted your support all he'd have to do is call you up with a link to a fox News article explaining why murder is justified? Why some people can carry guns but others can't even if the actual law is clear. Sloppy.
Why was he there with a gun? He.was the author of his own death and the Gov and Mayor are egging the mob on. Read some Turley for reality
Carrying a gun in Minnesota is 100% lawful. He never took the gun from its holster. Agents removed the gun AFTER Pretti had been shot.
"Multiple videos show Pretti apparently recording federal agents as they shove a woman, then placing his body between the woman and agents as she is pushed. Agents then shove another woman into a snowbank. An agent sprays Pretti at close range with a chemical irritant. A brief struggle follows, ending with Pretti on the ground beneath several agents. The footage does not show Pretti attempting to draw or use a firearm."
ON THE OTHER HAND, the once-current "Pretty Boy" of the radical and lawless right was Kule Rittenhouse. HE crossed state lines with a rifle which he brazenly brandished in a violent situation. He then shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz.
Oh, but Rittenhouse is a HERO! Kyle is standing up for RIGHTS! Hyle is lionized while Pretti is branded a domestic terrorist.
TJM you a dead wrong, Dead wrong.
What I fear is that Trump will pardon any and all ICE and CPB agents in a preemptive move. To be honest, I suspect the pardons are all kept in a safe in the White House, all signed and waiting to be dated. These will cover every rogue ICE and CPB agent, every member of his cabinet, his White House staff, and anyone else they know who is executing the illegal orders of this president.
Thanks Father so much for posting this. I don't know if I would have agreed about everything personally with this murdered gentleman, but I'd like to think if we ever sat down for a beer together we would have seen our common humanity.. what I see on the short clips of his murder, and from people like his parents talking about him, and his own speech at the veteran's hospital last month was a man out there because he believed in freedom, not it's obstruction. He stood up to an unjust government action and is murdered as one was in the 1930s who dared defy a dictator. Or as Catholics in the 1960 / 70s Ireland when they were oppressed by British protestants.
I also saw someone who was defending peacefully other human beings, women in fact, being brutally pushed by "men" with guns. He did not attack any federal officer although the sound bites were out like lightening, which by the way isn't how a normal way of law enforcement happens in the wake of something like this. There was one real man in the huddle, and one pro-life person there even if he happened to buy into the paradoxical lie of anti life or whatever liberal policy as good before his tragic death. Being created in the image of God comes first. America allows for people to protest, and protest against things TJM likes too. I don't know if I would have said I even liked Minnesota last month but the people there absolutely have the right to protest and stand against what is happening there. ICE is the one documented breaking serious laws and oppressing Americans. Catholics should feel very uncomfortable supporting what the government is using ICE for as it starts to spread around to other states even if they in my opinion buy into the dangerous narrative about immigrants most of whom are innocent people, much like 1930s Jews in Germany.
So what if Minn permits guns? Lefties want to disarm the populace other than criminals. Why was he there with a gun? Because he was a leftwing loon hypocrite. And why are Walz and Frey are stirring up the mob? So much for leadership. They’re just trying to divert attention from massive Somali fraud!
Apart from your anti life name calling to denigrate and disrespect life, this man has an American right to peacefully express his moral and political views. Are you opposed to people praying before an abortion clinic with signs and placards and the like, even trying to convince a woman not to have an abortion. An innocent man was killed and after his gun removed and then shot again on the ground. If you don’t have moral outrage over that, then you need to repent of having embraced coloring book Catholicism !
The Kent State Massacre was in 1970, not 1966, but otherwise I agree with you and think this is vital information.
Thank you. I doubt you and I agree on much of anything political, but if we’re going to stop madness like what happened in MN, people who disagree have to join forces. I respect your courage on this so much.
He had a gun! Why? Missing the forest for the trees!
There is no evidence that he had his gun in his hand or was reaching for it. And why was he shot additional times as he laid lifeless on the ground? You are missing a lot due to your political ideologies which is a thick forest of nonsense.
He had a gun - in his holster. He had a gun - and did not brandish it. He had a gun - which is perfectly legal.
Until recently federal agents didn't shoot people simply because they carry guns. Until recently federal agents don't strafe survivors in the water after their boat is crippled by extra-judicial bombing.
Here Lefties. The truth of the “leadership”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/minneapolis-police-chief-claims-it-does-not-matter/
These “protestors” are obstructing justice and violent.
They should try this in any other Country, including the Vatican, and see what happens to illegal aliens!
I guess you love illegal alien thieves, rapists and murderers
All Highest K the greatest hypocrite of all just weighed in!
TeeJayEmm - You are allowed to say, at any point, "I can't support this anymore." Even if you were unsure, you can say, "This has gone too far." And while the best time to say that was earlier, the second best time is now.
Father McDonald – Thank you for this post and your comments.
Andrew – Thank you for your comments also.
TJM – I watched the video on The Gateway Pundit and invite others to do so also. The video is captioned “Legacy media will never show you this video of Alex Pretti reaching for his loaded handgun before an ICE agent shot him in self defense!” I watched the video three times and cannot see Pretti reaching for his gun. Perhaps others can.
In any event, one of the agents removed Pretti’s gun before he was shot and then walked away Giving the most charitable explanation, it demonstrates very poor training if he didn’t then tell the others he had secured the gun. A less charitable explanation is that he did tell them and the agents shot Pretti anyway—not once but ten times or so when he was already prone on the ground.
Perhaps Pretti was unwise to exercise his Second Amendment rights to carry a concealed weapon in Minnesota. But then again, perhaps he brought it for security—in case the ICE thugs tried to kill him without provocation. You would be all in favor of someone doing so against a tyrannical government on the Left. Your double standards are obvious but understandable: What you say—what you always say—is straight out of the Trump-Roy Cohn playbook—never admit fault or apologize, never back down, counterattack even harder (oh, and manipulate the media). And this is exactly what we see the Administration doing. Instead of saying there will be an impartial and independent investigation, the Trump regime immediately leaps to the defense of the ICE agents, lies, and besmirches the victims by calling them domestic terrorists (after Trump pardoned the January 6 domestic terrorists).
And please stop with Turley. I have already demonstrated his duplicity and bias in previous posts, so I won’t do it again here. He is a disgrace to the legal profession and to legal academia (as are some other “talking heads” on the Left).
Mark J.
P.S. And please stop too with the replacement voting shibboleth. If you knew anything about immigration law, you would know that even legal noncitizens, let alone “illegal” noncitizens, are not permitted to vote (except in some local elections in some states) and that doing so is a criminal and removable offense. To be able to vote requires that one be a citizen (it is one reason I naturalized—so I could help “throw the bums out” -:)). Yes, some “illegal” noncitizens can find a legal pathway that eventually results in permanent residence and then some years later in citizenship, but the vast majority cannot. And even after the possible legalization to which Father McDonald alludes it would be many, many years before the noncitizen could become a citizen (if ever, depending on the details of any legalization program).
And there is no evidence that legal or “illegal” noncitizens are voting except in the limited local instances I mentioned. There is evidence of a very small number who try but that is all and certainly not enough to sway any election.
And if you don’t believe me, read this:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/content/noncitizen-voting-us-elections
And go learn something instead of listening to MAGA lies.
Mark J.
Those of you supporting illegal aliens are sick in the head. Move to England or France where you can feel the love there!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/video-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-slams-tim-walz/
The state could charge the agent… no presidential pardons for state prosecutions.
Even if we feel strongly about immigration, someone being an immigrant doesn't lessen their dignity. Not that citizens have more dignity or even much more protection under written American law, but the number of reports of citizens being arrested and not being given access to legal representation , or ice entering a house without a warrant per the United States constitution is growing. These are not illegal aliens. Even illegals have dignity however. Literally last night in whatever bill is going through for DHS funding currently the white House just removed the clause in the funding for ICE not being used to arrest citizens. The White House. They want to arrest citizens. Why does immigration need to arrest citizens? I mean it worked well for the KGB to arrest people. You can see in various Eastern cities for example Vilnius the places where prisoners got to do things like sit on a block of ice and be kept awake for hours. Many of these were Catholic criminals like priests. What crime did they commit? You sound more like the hobbits in the shire doing what Sharkey says because Sharkey says. It's small time and boring and lacks imagination and the reflection of God's generous grace for all of us. Do you think God thinks like you? Psalm 50:21
As Catholics we don't get to pick who we stand up for or protect. Jesus tells us who our neighbor is very clearly with the Samaritan and the Jew. For us he might be an illegal alien or a lady with a wife disagreeing with ICE and the government's use of excessive force clearly on display with enough videos to prove the administration is lying. Neighbors take many annoying forms but Jesus clearly doesn't excuse us. I don't make the rules there is a reason Jesus did, he knows our weak natures and the likelihood of us wanting to keep ourselves safe and let others get hurt and pass on by. The question I have is if citizens are targeted who is really safe and for how long. Even if we aren't targeted how pro-life is it to abandon the weakest?
I have a mixture of feelings about this event. As expected, the left is making a hero/martyr of Alex Pretti as they did Good, which makes perfect sense if nearly all the facts are ignored. Pretti was a member of an ICE watch group, formed for the sole purpose of interfering with federal law enforcement. They are externally and well funded, organized, mobilized, and trained in their tactics. Their stated goal is to destroy the country from within and their primary modus operandi is Marxist.
Look at the protests, where hundreds of people show up within minutes, with similar signs that could have not been instantaneously produced. This is the Floyd riots on steroids. Pretti came to an area where federal officers were conducting an enforcement action with the obvious intent of disrupting the action. Numerous videos show him doing just that. Protestors are trained to bother, harass, insult, obstruct, get in the way of, and otherwise inhibit the officers from performing their duties. They are trained to push the officers, stressed as they are, to the limit.
Pretti brought a high end version of the SIG P320, which has a 21 round magazine, and he had an extra clip. Why? Did he think he needed to be armed with as many as 42 rounds? And why? What was his plan, his end game? We may never know.
He had no identification, nor his carry permit, while carrying his weapon at the protest, which, for a person with a carry permit, is a crime. He interfered with officers, which is a crime. He resisted arrest, which was his third crime. Yes, he was shot and killed - an avoidable tragedy.
It is incredibly stupid to struggle with officers who are placing you under arrest. It is doubly stupid if you are armed. How could anyone expect such an altercation to end well? This man may have had many redeeming features, but he unfortunately became a useful idiot and tool of dark elements in our sociocultural and political landscape.
And we have total idiotic leadership in Frey, Walz, Klobuchar and breathless fanning of the flames by our legacy media.
And Mark, while you're telling us all that the Democratic party hasn't been violating/not enforcing immigration law for years now, why have so many politicians been caught "saying the quiet part our loud" about their desire to boost democratic votes thru open borders? You really have your hands over your ears and eyes. Why are so many states and big cities trying to block examination of the voter rolls? Was there a reason that Biden flew hundreds of thousands into the country in the dead of night during his 4 years to communities not equipped to receive them? The USCCB has its hands dirtied here, by accepting hundreds of millions to facilitate this mass migation experiment. The whole multifaceted Minnesota fraud was designed to funnel money and votes to the Democratic party. What good could these billions have potentially done had the funds not been sucked up by fraudulent purposes?
I myself want to see the illegal immigration actions continued, with the primary focus on the criminal elements, which I believe has largely been the case thus far. ICE is not kidnapping and imprisoning 5 year olds, like the "news" says. But the streets become filled with folks who are convinced that they are doing something altruistic, when for the sake of peace, they should stay home. Minnesota obviously wants the feds out of their backyard, to divert the focus away from the billions in fraud and the involvement of politicians at likely every level of state government.
Opposing murder by cop doesn’t mean supporting illegal aliens. That’s as much of a false dichotomy as anything the left pushes.
Pretti exercising his Second Amendment rights is no justification for being shot. If there’s any evidence that he was an immediate threat to someone’s life or limb immediately prior to being shot, I haven’t seen it.
Otherwise, it really is hard to see this as anything but an unjustified homicide. I haven’t seen anything to the contrary. And just because it’s “our guy’s” guys doesn’t change that.
Nick
Father, much of the country is focused elsewhere because of the crippling storm, health insurance issues, etc. That being said, it will nor deescalate. It may calm down temporarily, but inevitably the storm will come for you and Father Mike. The left will hate you for being prolife and being priests. The right will accused you of adding and abetting the enemy. You both may even be killed at some point, not out of odium for the faith, but rather being caught up in the drama of violence. When the violence comes, Satan will take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate priests. So both of you pray and stay in a state of grace.
TJM:
Sorry, I forgot the other technique in the playbook—distract. Thank you for reminding us. And let me rephrase your taunt to be more accurate: “Those of you who support Catholic teaching are sick in the head.”
To the best of my recollection, you have never once—not once—conceded that “Supertrump” (as you used to call him following the election) or his Administration has EVER done anything wrong—NEVER ONCE! It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that you are a MAGA operative and are guided by precisely the same Trump/Cohn playbook. But as Father Kavanaugh suggests, it is not too late to repent. And I think everyone stands ready to forgive you. No-one is beyond redemption—not Trump, not Miller, not you, as St Paul proved so strikingly.
And for those who want a schooling in Orwellian doublespeak by this Administration, here is CNN’s Dana Bash interviewing Border Patrol Chief Bovino:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBJx116hqk
Bovino says there will be an investigation. Please will someone explain to me how we can trust an investigation conducted by the very same Administration that has already LIED about the incident and apparently already made up its mind what occurred.
As Father McDonald says, as Catholics we must stand on the side of the truth, not lies.
Mark J.
The country is turned upside down by all of this. Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Arizona, etc have had more ICE arrests than Minnesota, but they have cooperated with federal law. And no tragic deaths of protesters have occurred that I have heard of (and we surely would have, right?). ICE has come and gone from these jurisdictions. Little unrest is happening anywhere else in America on any scale comparable to the state of Minnesota, or any other city, compared to Minneapolis.
Strange that Walz proposed as a comprise solution that all federal law enforcement should leave the state, immediately. In this way, no federal laws will be enforced. In return for this concession by the federal government, Walz is willing to continue accepting tens-of-billions of dollars in federal taxpayer money, which he will happily forward to the fraudsters bankrolling the Democratic party in the state. Taxpayers and everyday people are under the thumb of such a regime.
I'm going to annoy both sides in this debate
a) I fail to understand why immigration enforcement officers require to carry firearms .
b) I'm very hard line when it comes to immigration enforcement, with the exception of minors (and even them I'm not totally absolving them) those who cross borders illegally should be sent back to where they came from. Likewise people claiming asylum who commit serious crimes have forfeited any claim to protection.
File that under “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
Nick
wounded - What external source was funding the watch group Pretti was supposedly a member of? Please post a link to receipts. (Is is George Soros AGAIN???)
Post also the proof that the goal of ICE watchers is destruction of the country from within.
Either Fr: Wouldn't it have simply been better to have stayed home allowing government agencies to do their jobs? I tend to mind my business in most things. As opened borders and resulting bussing (whatever the distribution was called) created this perfect storm, some legislative solution would seem appropriate; but what about the criminals now hiding in U.S. cities and towns? Per capita they "might be" less dangerous, but they are nonetheless still dangerous.
In regard to the following claim: Alex Pretti (requiescat in pace) had belonged supposedly to an ICE watch group whose purpose was to interfere with federal law enforcement.
Is there proof of that?
=======
If the claim in question is true: Is there proof that Alex Pretti had exceeded his rights as guaranteed on federal, state, as well as local levels?
Thank you.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Always interesting who does and doesn’t merit a prayer for peaceful rest from you, MT.
Nick
You could have done a simple search.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=who+is+funding+ICE+watch+groups&source=web&summary=1&conversation=08a9653879ea8c4239ac879ecec5e469fc17
All you have to do is waatch what is coming out of the mouthpieces of these groups and the actual protesters; https://search.brave.com/search?q=ICE+watch+groups+Marxist+goals&source=web&summary=1&conversation=08a9eb228d262ffe1d1eeb77a874e2c3b0a4
https://search.brave.com/search?q=Pretti+ICE+watch+group&source=desktop&summary=1&conversation=08a99800df122224143e483132bdc8e2c98d
If they're convinced DHS is sending bloodthirsty, untrained, maliciously motivated executioners into the streets, why aren't they warning their own residents to stay home where it's safe? Wouldn’t that be the responsible, caring, prudent thing to do?
Because they want confrontation, tension - they want martyrs. From Lenin to Alinsky, forced confrontation has been a tactic of Marxist activism
Instead of calming their constituents, Walz, Frey, Klobuchar, and Ellison are fanning the flames and spreading outrageous falsehoods. Per Walz, ICE is shooting people in the face coming out of donut shops. He says incorrectly that the state is responsible for enforcement of immigration law - not true. Political (lack of) leadership led to the stand down (or at least stand back) orders for local law enforcement.
It is not a defense of democracy - but mobocracy in Minnesota. The strategy? If you generate enough chaos, you get to decide who can do what. If you are aggressive enough, the rules don't apply to you.
They are all stoking the chaos and then demanding that law enforcement stop enforcing the law because of the chaos they are causing.
Their claim is that "Minnesota values" trump federal law and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. That was the same claim made by the slave states when they seceded.
There are actually multiple manuals instructing people on how to interfere with law enforcement operations, viewable online. Part of being a good citizen?
Weird that ICE is operating in dozens of states, but it only gets violent in the one where a multi-billion dollar fraud ring was uncovered, with probable links to the highest levels of Minnesota governance.
Weird that multiple political operatives, including a state senator, Lt Gov Flanagan, and a former Walz campaign operative are part of the ICE Signal chat, which provides a marked level of coordination and well funded agitation against federal immigration activities. Flanagan is an admin of the Signal chat. This means that the state of Minnesota is behind the protests, fomenting active and organized interference in a law enforcement operation
Wounded - "Sunrise Movement, Unidos MN, Defend the 612, and Copal MN—key groups associated with "ICE Watch" activities in Minneapolis..."
What does "associated with " mean. You are "associated with" Fr. ALLAN McDonald, TJM, and me on this blog. Does that mean something nefarious is afoot?
The Ford Foundation granted the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace $200K this year. Are they suspects by "association"?
What about the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a $100K recipient from Ford last year. AAAS dangerous?
The MacArthur Foundation gave $1 MILLION to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. Which should be fear due to this "association," MacArthur of Teddy Roosevelt?
I am sorry for your density. You have but to do your own work, if you really care. If you don't understand that this organized, nefarious, coordinated effort is funded by dark forces, many of which have not been discovered yet, I can't help you. Do you think all this effort is funded by grandmoms and housewives with nothing else to do? You think these people just show up randomly, that these protests are organic? Right. Can you prove that? Where do the signs come from? Where does the food, handwarmers, communications apparatus, etc come from? It isn't free. The Signal chat software is at least as sophisticated as that used by terrorists and insurgents in the Middle East, according to intelligence sources.
Minnesota Freedom Fund and Immigrant Defense Network, Hopewell Fund, a central hub in the Arabella network (purveyor of Democratic dark money) are two more. Major donors to Hopewell include the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Ford Foundation, Melinda Gates’s Pivotal Foundation, Omidyar Network, Heising-Simons Foundation, Wyss Foundation, Rockefeller-affiliated philanthropies, and George Soros through the Open Society Foundations. These funds have enabled SATC to train over 1,000 Minnesotans in monitoring and disrupting ICE operations.
Other groups involved in protest coordination and support include:
Indivisible Twin Cities, linked to the national Indivisible Project and reportedly backed by Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), which supports protest organizing and provides resources for arrested individuals.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=coordinated+funding+for+Minnesota+protests&source=web&summary=1&conversation=08aac3cbf85dfac6d1d62419e64b964a84be
wounded - I am deeply sorry for your self-delusion.
You speak of "...dark forces, many of which have not been discovered yet,..."
Are you trapped in some Sauron-centered macabre dream world? The world of conspiracy theories owes you a Gold Medal.
I showed up "organically" at THREE of the local rallies protesting the immoral and un-constitutional action of the Trump regime and will attend others as time allows. No one pays me. No one recruits me. None of the people I see there are bent on destroying our nation. Rather, we are acting to save it from a tyrannical regime. The signs I carried I made with my own two little hands - a little posterboard, some colorful electricians tape, a staple gun, a split dowel, and pictures I downloaded from the interweb.
And of course it takes money to protest. You find this "nefarious"?
You know what else takes money? Bribing Trump by donating millions to his Inauguration party. Buying millions of his meme coins. Those, by the way, once sold for $74.34 - today's they're at $4.94. Seven Hundred And Sixty Four THOUSAND crypto wallets lost money. But, guess what? You man Trump MADE nearly ONE BILLION on the scam.
And you wonder why we organically protest and make our own signs......
wounded - Here's some news that will solidify your belief in "dark forces, many of which have not been discovered yet" in the "activist liberal judges" category:
Chicago reporter Dan Mihalopoulos on writes:
"We’ve covered lots of losing teams on the back page of the paper. But none with a record as bad as the Chicago DOJ during Operation Midway Blitz:
0 conviction
11 charges dropped
3 no-billed cases
1 jury acquittal
And James Queally of the LA Times:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in L.A. has lost every case it brought to trial against a protester who allegedly attacked a federal LEO last year. A number of other cases were dismissed or rejected by grand juries. As these people note, Federal prosecutors usually win most of the cases they bring, and legal insiders like to repeat the old joke that a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. So this is a remarkably bad record.
This is why we organically protest and make our own signs.
You have a right to protest of course. Great that you made your own sign with your very own hands, but I bet you didn't carry a gun, did you? Did you obstruct law enforcement, get in front of their vehicles, spit on ICE officers, throw frozen water bottles at them, corner an officer with a group of protestors and attack them? Did you bite off an officer's finger? Did you try to throw a flash bang grenade back? No? Well good - sounds like you had a nice cold night on the town.
The dark money, some of which has been shown to be coming from outside the country, is being chased down. I guess you haven't seen that the Minnesota Signal Chat group was infiltrated, and members/donors are being chased down right now. There are thousands of screen shots of the dialogs. You will choose to be in denial, of course.
All you have shown is that the judiciary in many Blue states/cities (many of whom have Soros funded district attorneys) will let people who broke the law walk. What a surprise. Hardly a day passes without news reports of someone committing a rather heinous crime being released or the decision made not to prosecute. You prove my point by naming Chicago and LA.
Legacy media has no interest in searching for the truth about the protest group funding and organization because they are complicit. You get your news from CNN, MSNow, and other corrupt legacy news sources, so you will never be exposed to any information that would be useful to your understanding. It is left to independent investigators (whom you will reflexly attack no doubt) who risk their lives to dig for the truth. You are wasting your time if you are trying to claim that the protests are organic overall.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/01/inside-the-resistance.php
https://washingtonstand.com/article/mainstream-media-refuse-to-report-the-full-facts-on-ice-protests-so-americans-must-rely-on-x-indies
W, The question isn’t about protesters going beyond protesting and thus breaking the law by interfering with a law enforcement procedure in progress or the other crimes you mention, felonies or misdemeanors. I would caution anyone who asked me about legal protests not to break the law and in a volatile situation, even if legally permitted, not to bring a gun, concealed or not, to an event like this—that is just foolish and the height of bad judgement. But issue of my post is the overreaction to the interference of the woman first, that Pretti, in what should be commended male chivalry, was helping/protecting. Who cares if he was funded by the mafia or someother anarchist, he might have deserved being arrested, but not shot multiple times, after his gun was removed, btw, and then shot several times after the ICE agents mortally wounded him, in fact probably shot several times more already dead. That is a crime too.
wounded - No, I did not carry a gun. I would not carry a gun, nor do I own one. I haven't given into the claptrap of the NRA that the only thing that stops a bad guy with gun is a good guy with a gun. Yeah, tell that to the two national guard troops who were shot in D.C. in November 2025 when the city was being patrolled by 2200 good guys with guns, the other national guard personnel.
As for letting people who break the law get away with it, tell me, dear boy/girl (?), who deported more undocumented aliens, Trump (R) or Biden (D)? Trump(R) or Obama(D)? Trump(R) or Clinton(D)? (Hint: the answer is never Trump(R)). Yeah, sure, the Dems let criminals run wild...
Father Allan, I very much respect your thoughts and point of view. The historical scenario that comes to mind for me is the Eisenhower suppression of rioters in Little Rock Arkansas who were blocking black children from going to school.
I think we would both agree that civil rights don’t mix with anarchy.
Likely none of the protestors in the streets of Minneapolis is old enough to remember that time when white supremacists flooded the streets—destroying property, blockading innocent citizens … And the way in which local law enforcement, in the hands of state and local Democrat governors and mayors whose electoral supremacy seemed permanent, merely stood by while all this took place. That time, too, elected officeholders not only refused to act, but actively encouraged growing disorder at the hands of the most radical members of their committed political base.
Does this sound familiar? - the exact same scenario is occurring on the ground in Minnesota. What have Frey, Walz et al done to protect their citizenry? Absolutely nothing. To the contrary, they have inflamed the situation. As I said before, if they cared for the citizenry, they would have acted differently.
When this happened in Little Rock, though, a Republican in the White House acted and, historically and dramatically, deployed the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. The National Guard was also federalized. America seemed very much on a civil war footing, pitting the President’s military might versus the righteous outrage of a constituency convinced of its absolute right to resist in whatever fashion it chose.
What about the Constitution and the right to protest, screamed the press and the maddening crowds?
Over their objections, President Dwight David Eisenhower made sure that nine black students were escorted safely into Little Rock Central High School. Luckily, even though the violence was intense and caused significant injuries, there were no fatalities among the protestors.
The ICE operations unfortunately have taken more time due to the number of criminals involved, the lack of cooperation by local authorities in some areas, and the non-organic, well orchestrated and well funded protests that have had time to organize.
There are similar politics in all the areas where major protests and violent confrontation has occurred. I read that about 70% of the violent confrontations thus far have occurred in just nine counties, all home to major Blue governments of Seattle, Portland, LA, Chicago, etc.
I await information from the body cams of the officers involved with the Pretti death - I don't think they have been released, though it looks like an unnecessary shooting. He may have been chivalrous, but , yes he was foolish, with poor self awareness - he impeded officers and resisted arrest, all while carrying a loaded handgun (illegally without his permit and ID) with a red dot sight and an extra clip. To me, the Good incident is different. The videos are more convincing that the officer's life was at risk - he later was hospitalized and observed for internal torso bleeding.
wounded - And since you're whining about dark money, shall we talk about the VERY dark money behind Republicans?
Ever hear of the 45 Committee? Tax records indicate that at least 60 percent of the money the 45Committee raised during its first two years came from four unidentified donors — who each gave $7.5 million. Seven other unknown donors contributed at least $1 million to the 45Committee during this period.
Oh, and there's Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. They collected $250 million in dark money that has allowed the far right to engage in an ongoing, multiyear effort to accomplish through the courts what they failed to do legislatively.
Much of this began with the disastrous 2010 "Citizens United" case before the SCOTUS in which corporations were found to be "persons."
So, you see, your conspiracy theory needs to cover all the party bases fairly.
This shooting incident will be thoroughly investigated but in the meantime, could we please focus our attention on what is actually going on here and in other anti- law and order,
“ Sanctuary” Democrat run jurisdictions which are now violently calling for the abolition of “ ICE “ , just as in 2020 , similar radicals were calling for the defunding of police!!!
The tactics of the left will always be the same because they have been soooo very successful! Good people are so vulnerable to propaganda because of their instinctive emotional responses to good words, good narratives- and so fail to use their intellects to explore what the words are attached to, the accuracy of the narrative! Unfortunately an appeal to emotions will almost always get a much quicker - and when crowds are involved , especially when infiltrated by radicals- a much more volatile, violent and very sadly, more effective response!!!
Notice how this kind of insurrection is not happening in Republican jurisdictions- even though even more criminal ( and sometimes even those who have not broken additional laws, besides entering a sovereign nation illegally and often times unlawfully accessing its resources for which there is a name too- check the 10 Commandments) are being removed! Maybe you should study this contrast!!! Also you may want to ask yourself why this wicked reaction was not occurring when President Obama was also appropriately enforcing immigration laws and removing large numbers of illegals as a natural consequence of large numbers having illegally entered our country!
The Raymond Arroyo poignant interview of “Border Czar” Tom Homan and this particular article will be very helpful for the understanding of what is actually going on here! Illegal immigrants especially the violent and other criminal ( beyond illegal entry) ones and their verbally, emotionally and physically violent supporters are not the VICTIMS, ICE Agents and other law abiding citizens are!!!
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. posted this, (Mostly ) Peaceful Protests?
It is a sobering but obviously accurate analysis of what is actually going on in Minneapolis by someone who ought to know a Special Forces Warrant Officer! And it is clearly something with which most of us here will recognize as true as soon as we free ourselves from the the deceitful, manipulative web the organizers of the insurrection have successfully woven around us!!!!
Put your intellect back in charge of your emotions and have an enlightened and Blessed Day!
https://open.substack.com/pub/frjosephfessiosj566892/p/mostly-peaceful-protests?r=486mz&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
Sophia,
Your wisdom and facts are falling on deaf ears. Believe it or not we have corrupt and evil clergy who are Dem operatives masquerading as priests!
Tom Homan, hmmm, the name rings a $50,000.00 bell.....
Did you practice debate in school by arguing with a sign post? It would help if you understood the logical fallacies you are employing, But that requires self awareness. Straw men and whataboutism are your favorites. Confirmation bias and selection bias are the trap doors you fall into the most. You are what you read and absorb.
Yes, it's quite an ironic paradox to realize how many illegal immigrants were deported by Obama. What is he saying now? Why has the Democrat's tune changed so much? Could it be they lost the election and huge demographics they once controlled and took for granted?
You do know that Trump's deportation efforts have been blocked at every turn by activist judges, misguided local authorities, and law enforcement agencies being told to stand down and not cooperate.
Bringing up an unproven allegation, like that is a worthwhile point?
You have forgotten that Tom Homan was awarded the 2015 Presidential Rank Award as a Distinguished Executive by President Barack Obama in recognition of his effectiveness in immigration enforcement and deportations. The honor was presented for his leadership as Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where he oversaw large-scale deportation operations.
Unproven... Like dark forces as yet unknown? DOJ shut down the investigation. I don't wonder that they did. Or why they did. It's the Trump regime pattern. Be loyal enough or bribe Trump enough and they'll shut down and investigation of you, your family, or your corporation.
You are soo right TJM! I admit that it can be extremely demoralizing. That’s precisely why I don’t comment that often! But sometimes when there is as important a topic as this and there is so much misinformation/distortion I feel an obligation to weigh in! I have little to no expectation that it will have any effect on those who for whatever reasons are obdurate in their misinformed, illogical, morally unsound positions! So I post to offer other information which corrects/modifies what those people have posted, for the benefit of the unsuspecting, vulnerable readers who may be inclined to believe whatever is presented by certain persons here only because of their perceived “expertise “!
I suspect that you, Nick and others with similar perspectives also post for a similar reason as mine- a moral obligation to correct error and to educate more generally! We recognize that we are expected to use our God- given gifts and talents in the service of others! Thank you for being willing to contribute so regularly on behalf of this important cause!
All these competing “narratives” resolve nothing. No-one is persuaded. So, I am no longer going to participate by trying to educate those posting here about “facts.” Anything I said would be summarily dismissed by the likes of TJM, woundedpig, and Sophia. True, I did teach immigration law for 35 years; moreover, as part of my public service obligations as a legal academic, during the first Trump Administration, in addition to working with several immigration lawyers and legal organizations on various immigration-related projects, I became actively involved in local and state-wide civic groups that were pro-DACA and more broadly pro-immigrant and that were organic, nonpartisan, and well organized (but unpaid). But what do I know? TJM, woundedpig, and Sophia are the only ones with access to “wisdom and facts.”
Therefore, I propose a very simple solution: Let President Trump and/or Congress set up an independent and impartial commission to investigate all of the allegations swirling around—allegations of ICE and Border Patrol brutality and lack of proper training, allegations regarding the types of noncitizens ICE is targeting and deporting (giving precise percentages for various categories), allegations regarding denials of due process, allegations regarding the nature of the organizations involved in the ICE protests and regarding their funding, and so on.
Now that Trump is rightly on the back foot in damage control mode over the shootings of U.S. citizens (even contradicting Vance and Miller), the disastrous and mendacious Kristi Noem rightly appears to be on her way out the back door, and Border Patrol Commander Bovino’s superiors have barred him from posting on social media, at least temporarily, perhaps Trump and/or Congress will do it. But I am not holding my breath.
Mark J.
This is for the braindead leftists supporting criminals in Minneapolis:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-nation-of-laws-or-leftists/
Mark J, you support every leftwing piece of nonsense. You have an excuse for every evil committed by the Dem Party
Note that the Department of Homeland Security has now REVISED its description of the events that led to the death of Alex Pretti.
Here is more info for the Dem Intrinsic Evil supporters:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/james-okeefe-goes-undercover-inside-minnesota-mob-leftist/
Do you think, at all?
TJM:
Complete B.S. Go read everything I have written, both on this blog and in my book. But you won’t, of course. Just like your master Supertrump, you will say whatever serves the immediate purposes of MAGA. Your master could walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and you would be fine with it. Heck, you ARE fine with it when his minions do it. Nazism and Stalinism was built on people like you repeating slogans and talking points: “Four legs good, two legs bad” until of course it was “Four legs good, two legs better.” Not that many on the Left are much better (of course, you will conveniently forget that I wrote this).
Let me know when you are ready to have an adult conversation, Until then I am done with you—again—and will no longer engage with you.
Mark J.
Ooopsie!
And how do you spell HYPOCRISY—Rittenhouse and January 6 rioters versus Pretti, that’s how.
MAGA is imploding due to its own hypocrisy and internal contradictions.
See: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2nd-amendment-backlash-portrayal-alex-pretti-trump-administration/story?id=129559823
Mark J.
To Father Kavanaugh’s point about the changing DHS story:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/01/28/trump-pretti-shooting-minneapolis-officers-leave/
Trump is on the back foot because some Republicans are finally getting a spine (probably due to political pressure from their constituents and terror that DHS will not get funded unless there are necessary reforms as well as terror that they will lose the midterms big-time and the Trump regime will then be held to account unless they do so). Politically, the independent and impartial commission I proposed sounds let an increasingly good idea for their political survival.
Mark J.
As I indicated earlier, until TJM starts conducting himself as an adult, I am no longer engaging with him. However, that does not mean I will not respond to his comments by addressing readers as a group.
At 4:09 p.m. on January 29 TJM posted the following comment:
“Here is more info for the Dem Intrinsic Evil supporters:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/james-okeefe-goes-undercover-inside-minnesota-mob-leftist/
Do you think, at all?”
I watched the embedded James O’Keefe 28-minute video in full on X and, as is my custom with suspicious sources, decided to do a fact check and background check. If you watch the video, ask yourself some questions such as:
“Who tear gassed the O’Keefe team?” (that’s easy; it wasn’t the protesters but obviously federal law enforcement).
“How do we know the team showed genuine press credentials from O’Keefe Media to the protesters/agitators rather than something else?” (again an easy answer because the team member says they showed a credential stating “OK Media as in O’Keefe Media” and then makes a big deal when the protestor/agitator says they are from Portugal and not political at all—which is true (see https://okmedia.tv/). So why give a misleading credential?
“How do we know that the protesters/agitators the team interviewed really were who they said they were and not part of O’Keefe’s outfit pretending to be those people?”
“How do we know they were being followed by protesters/agitators rather than staging it themselves?”
“How do we know the text death threat was sent by the protesters/agitators rather than staging it themselves?”
I do not know the answers to some of these questions. And indeed, some seem ridiculous, don’t they? But perhaps they won’t seem so ridiculous after you read this Wikipedia article about James O’Keefe and all his earlier fraudulent, staged videos that have created so much mischief over the years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Keefe
Here is the beginning and end of the introduction:
“James Edward O'Keefe III (born June 28, 1984) is an American political activist who founded Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that uses deceptively edited videos and information gathering techniques to attack mainstream media organizations and progressive groups. Both O'Keefe and Project Veritas have produced secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters in academic, governmental, and social service organizations, purporting to show abusive or illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations; the recordings are often selectively edited to misrepresent the context of the conversations and the subjects' responses. O'Keefe served as chairman until he was fired from the organization in February 2023. . . .
The Project Veritas board removed O'Keefe from leadership positions in February 2023 for what it said was financial malfeasance with donor money. On March 15, 2023, O'Keefe launched a new organization called O'Keefe Media Group. Project Veritas subsequently sued O'Keefe and two others, alleging that they had created the competing O'Keefe Media Group while still employees, approaching PV's donors and using company funds for this purpose. O'Keefe was also alleged to have improperly spent company funds on himself.”
Oh, and to gild the lily, as it were, O’Keefe appears at the end of the video to sell you some gold.
[continuation]
The link in TJM’s post is to The Gateway Pundit, a source he often cites and whose stories I have debunked before in previous threads. This is the introduction for the Wikipedia entry in The Gateway Pundit:
“The Gateway Pundit (TGP) is an American far-right fake news website. The website is known for publishing falsehoods, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.
Founded in 2004 by Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit expanded from a one-person enterprise into a multi-employee operation, supported primarily by advertising revenue. During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, the site received over a million unique visitors per day.
In September 2021, Google demonetized the site for publishing misinformation. In April 2024, Hoft announced that the TGP parent company, TGP Communications, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming multiple defamation lawsuits. The bankruptcy case was dismissed in July 2024, with the judge finding it had been filed in bad faith to avoid the lawsuits against the site. “
TJM regularly dismisses mainstream media sources, which is his prerogative I suppose. But I thought you might like to know just what he is offering you instead. You can make up your own minds about just how reliable TJM’s sources are and the extent to which they dispense “wisdom and facts.”
Mark J.
And what is the Catholic relevance of interrogating one’s sources of “news”? Quite simply, the Eighth Commandment! So, no good Catholic should fail to exercise due diligence in checking sources before sharing information, let alone intentionally spread falsehoods in a deliberate attempt to manipulate others. See, for example:
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202003/spreading-fake-news-thats-an-eighth-commandment-breaker/
Mark J.
In the interests of facts, truth, and full disclosure, it seems that video has surfaced of Pretti being involved in a violent altercation with federal law enforcement officers 11 days before he was fatally shot. Thursday’s Tangle newsletter, published by Isaac Saul states that:
“On Wednesday, new video surfaced of an altercation Alex Pretti had with DHS agents 11 days prior to his death, in which he appears to spit at an officer before kicking out the taillight on their vehicle. Pretti is wrestled to the ground by the agents, but then let go. President Trump shared the video on Truth Social on Wednesday night but has not commented directly on the development.”
Here is a link to the video of the altercation:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/breaking-bbc-confirms-authenticity-viral-232820075.html?ref=readtangle.com
Saul comments as follows:
“The new Alex Pretti video is being framed by some people as proof he was not a peaceful protester but a violent agitator. It obviously doesn’t reflect well on him, but his actions in this video aren’t particularly relevant to how agents treated him nearly two weeks later when he was far more docile. The video also doesn’t justify shooting him. I’m most interested in how different it is from the video of his killing. His behavior is worse — he appears to spit at an agent and then kicks out their car’s taillight — while the agents’ behavior is much better. They wrestle him down, yes, but then — seeming to realize the situation is dangerous — let him off the ground. One or two agents even get between Pretti and the agents he’s screaming at to de-escalate. It’s like night and day. It’s both proof that Pretti was more aggressive in other interactions with agents, and it’s proof that the agents who killed him had many other options.”
Mark J.
P. S. Sorry, I forgot to include the link to Saul’s Thursday newsletter. Here it is:
https://www.readtangle.com/the-dhs-shakeups-in-minnesota/?ref=tangle-newsletter
As I have done before, I recommend the Tangle newsletter as a source that is as close to unbiased reporting as one can come—better than mainstream media and better than the right-wing alternatives often touted on this Blog.
Mark, it is said that some anarchist groups are training and funding some of these protests of ICE. If Pretti had gone to a training session and was told that if he had a gun permit and a right to conceal it, that he should bring it to protests, one wonders if they could be sued. And Pretti should have been smart enough to know that he shouldn’t bring a gun, even if legal and permitted to conceal it, to such a highly volatile situation. The new video shows Pretti is unhingled, not in control of his anger and committing a felony while carrying a concealed weapon! That’s not good, to say the least. ICE should have demanded that he get on the ground with his hands behind his neck, so he could be searched, disarmed and then arrested. If ICE had followed what they should have done, what happened a week later might not have happened. Pretti shouldn’t have been killed by ICE but neither should an unhinged person with anger management issues, carrying a gun that is concealed, go to such a highly charged protest!
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