Widely circulated video of Pretti’s killing by federal agents undercut earlier assertions of him being a gunman
White House officials sought to rapidly distance Donald Trump and top officials from their initial portrayals of the man fatally shot by federal officials in Minnesota as a gunman, as they faced a deepening backlash after video footage was widely seen to undercut their assertions.
The move came as Trump advisers appeared to realize that the caustic portrayals of the man, Alex Pretti, who was reportedly licensed to carry a gun, had turned the killing into an even larger political liability for the president.
Over the weekend, senior administration officials including Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, called the victim “a domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate law enforcement”, while Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused him of perpetrating “the definition of domestic terrorism”.
Mother fuckers we ALL saw the videos. Pretti’s handgun was removed from him and carried across the street by an ICE agent, a full 10 seconds before the first shot was fired. Shit the fuck up with your lies. He did NOT have his gun on him at the time he was shot, there is NO way his weapon accidentally discharged and therefore caused the agents to react by shooting him
FUCK you leavitt
The only possible unintentional discharge is in the diaper in chief
I’ve watched that video so many times, I don’t want to do it again, but I’m pretty sure this is accurate. Grey coat removes the gun from Alex, and as he’s walking away there’s a muzzle flash and the first shot can be heard. Then the rest of the shots all come a second or so later. The angle from the street where you can see Grey coat run away has the clearest view of it.
Oh and it wasn’t an accident. Motherfucker had gun training, he put his finger inside the trigger guard, he intended to discharge that weapon. You don’t get an oopsie poopsie for that.
The one video from the other angle (think it’s “pink jacket woman”) show’s the shooter unholstering his weapon as he watches the grey jacket guy take the victim’s gun. I don’t know where the first shot came from, but that guy straight up executed an unarmed man.
I mean I’m with you but don’t say a full 10 seconds. That’s easily contradicted by the video. You’re right on all the other points, but exaggerating the time like that really harms the point you are making.
Even it the weapon did discharge, that would still be ICE’s fault for pepper spraying and beating the shit out of the guy. Maybe be more careful while you don’t know what on his person.
I was explaining this to my partner last night. It doesn’t matter it’s a blatant lie, what’s important is the average dolt believes the lie.
“Oh, a domestic terrorist with a gun? I’m glad they dealt with him”.
“Oh, she tried to run an ICE agent over? I’m glad they dealt with her.”
Remember the ‘big lie’: if a lie is large enough and repeated frequently, the masses will eventually believe it.
I’m fairly sure the reason this latest incident is blowing up in their faces is not the blatant lies, it’s that they tried to spin it so that Pretti deserved to die because he was carrying a gun. Which pisses off the 2A crowd. If they had shot an unarmed protester that wouldn’t be a problem, he didn’t comply, FAFO, etc., apply thought terminating phrase of choice. But because the conversation has become whether you should be executed for carrying a gun, that’s touched a nerve.
Sure, I absolutely agree with you.
In my previous comment I was trying to highlight a slightly different topic: the fact that “the official story” and what has happened are often mutually exclusive and that it’s not important the official story is correct but that it’s believed.
Maybe I didn’t frame it right but I’m talking about the same thing. They lied, egregiously, obviously, repeatedly. The issue now isn’t that the story was a lie, and that their supporters are outraged at having been lied to. No, the issue is that it was a poorly chosen lie and not what they wanted to hear.
I guess selling the big lie was always an effective strategy, only now it’s being taken to extremes. The fascists don’t care about objective reality. They get their reality from the leader and the in-group, and as long as it gives them the right feels it doesn’t matter how obviously untrue it is. Those of us who see the lies can point out that the lying liars have lied again, but that’s boring, it happens every day. So any backlash is minimal.
But as you say, it also works on the masses who just aren’t thinking critically, and given the sheer volume of that flood of lies, that’s a big problem.
I would say it was more like 3 seconds than 10, but that doesn’t change what you said.
Also stabilized video from the person who run behind and recorded it (so glad he did it, I think they purposefully blocked view from the street but didn’t expect someone record from the back) shows that the murderer was facing directly where the gun was so there’s no way he didn’t see it being removed.
Given ICE’s general level of competence, is it possible the gun accidentally discharged as the agent was carrying it away?
That’s what you’d call a negligent discharge, not accidental. The first time I saw the video of the thug taking Alex’s gun, I immediately noticed and said, “Why the hell is his finger on the trigger?”
There is a concept taught to anyone handling firearms professionally: you DO NOT put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire.