Minneapolis, Political Violence and the End of Democracy

 As the situation has been evolving, this original 1/24/26 post was updated 1/30/26. 

Political Death. Death in the name of politics. Do they suggest they are the same thing?

George Floyd died during the confusing time of COVID and galvanized the African American community and sympathetic whites. And this accomplished the Black Lives Matter movement.

White folks got three political deaths recently, Charlie Kirk, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They don’t carry the same resonance of oppression. Charlie Kirk had already founded his movement and made it into a multi-million dollar business which flourishes now all the more and Renee Good and Alex Pretti believed they were standing up for the oppressed and their deaths have inspired more messy protests but there doesn’t seem to be a galvanizing emergence of a new movement. Pardon the cliche but we all seem to be deer still stuck in the headlights.

Now, I ask you... What good did any of it do, anyway, except to outline the times in which we now live?

I’ve been particularly upset about Renee Good, and now Alex Pretti, but probably because I see myself in them. When I look at how both cases would play out in the courts, I don’t think it would go well for justice for Renee Good, because she was still behind the wheel of something the courts call a “deadly weapon” and was moving, so she was being eliminated as a threat. Still, I feel what happened was cold-blooded murder vs. eliminating a serious threat. The problem is that the courts will not be able to decide, because for reasons I apparently don’t understand, an arrest warrant was not issued for her killer. So it will not play out in court.

Alex Pretti's killing, on the other hand, taking place after the Good killing, had so much video evidence from so many angles that couldn't be faked, appears to have an iron clad case for an execution. Even the video that surfaced from a days-previous encounter with ICE where Pretti kicked the tail light off a car, would be used as evidence that agents had a vendetta against Pretti for which he was executed. An agency of the government deciding on its own that the penalty for property damage is death is so far out of the possibility of anyone's consideration, and seems so absurd - and yet, there is so much evidence for it. There seems to be no movement toward bringing his killers to justice (they are on administrative leave).

We seem to be in the time of denial about what is happening politically in this country. We have an agency (ICE) that grants its own warrants for entering private property, snatches people from their home and the street, (citizen or not) and detains them, violates court orders (96 orders in January alone according to Judge Patrick Schilitz) and executes people. Therefore, ICE has now become the complete lawlessness for which it claims to be the remedy. At this writing there is the promise of a de-escalation (which has not happened yet) and a hold on "extra" funding until reforms are in place. But even if some or all of that plays out, the experiment has been successful: Federal police can now move into any area of the country and do whatever they wish, with impunity.

For those of us who are powerless at the moment, we can remain powerful if we document, document and document. See what good it did in the days following Renee Good's death? To that end, protesters are doing the right thing, even if blowing whistles when it’s obvious to everyone that ICE is there, just turns out to be a desperate angry act. That’s what needs to be put away. By everyone: desperate and angry. Passion has its place, but if those perpetrating this “political revolution” now will ever have to answer for what they have done, such a reckoning will best be served cold.

Everyone mentions Hitler and Nazism (the Gestapo) when it comes to what is happening (ad nauseum for every President actually since I’ve been around and I’m 64). But, I saw a video from an African American woman who said it bears a closer resemblance to our country’s own history of slave hunting and capturing. Her argument is powerful, because she says we own what is currently happening and we’ve always owned it, and the Nazi comparison makes it part of something outside of us that we don’t own. No one mentions the Nuremberg trials, though, or the end of slavery.

Is there something deeper going on with picking Minnesota and Minneapolis, the place of George Floyd's killing? Is there some punishment for the town for the meager justice delivered after George Floyd's death? Is someone saying "you won that battle, but now we're bringing the war to you." It's an overwhelmingly Democratic place, so is the effort to cow places like this into submission and serve as a warning for anyone that opposes Donald Trump and the Republican party?

My advice, if I can dare offer it, is to stop thinking of Hitler and conspiracy theories (mine or others), and instead, plan for and aim toward exactly how we will bring about a time of change and a reckoning for those dismantling American democracy now.

Challenges on American Democracy must all be met with analysis and counter planning. There are so many such challenges! Take the raid on the Fulton County election office for example. This may play out to mean that the Federal government can seize and change the results of elections. Our decentralized and local approach to elections has actually helped to ensure democracy. Even if one such locale went rogue, it would be just that, one. If the Federal government can seize and over-turn results, they will have power over all elections. So, anyone who thinks American democracy isn’t being swept away is a fool. It’s past time to stop being in foolish denial.

We need many groups that will take on each and every one of these violations that we are assaulted with daily, that will focus on just that one event or policy, analyze it, come up with a plan to counter it, and ultimately bring to justice all those who are committing these violations. And again, as with Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, who do you think is better organized and better funded?

Document. Vote if it’s still allowed and predictions don’t come true that mid-terms won’t happen due to the current manufactured emergencies. Organize and make plans for next steps. But, be peaceful. The answer in many cases needs to be compromise. There is a left-right war on book banning right now. What if there was a voluntary system, like in the motion picture industry, where we have ratings on books? We must explore every avenue.

There is a scene in the film “Ghandi,” where British soldiers club an endlessly long line of non-violent protesters who don’t fight back at all, and become exhausted because the soldiers are the ones expending too much energy. An endless number of righteous people cannot be reckoned with. Just remember, we are the silent majority. Such is the force that always wins in the end.

Blessed Be!