There is a particular species of American tragedy that no longer shocks us because it has been so carefully rehearsed. First comes the killing. Then comes the narrative. And finally comes the insistence, delivered with the confidence of power, that what you saw is not what happened.
In the aftermath of the two execution-style killings in Minneapolis by ICE and Border Patrol agents, killings that left two U.S. citizens dead, the most startling spectacle was not the violence itself, but the speed and enthusiasm with which it was laundered into righteousness. The MAGA reaction did not merely disappoint; it surpassed even the most pessimistic expectations. Ignorance was not incidental. It was the point.
Kristi Noem wasted no time stepping into the role that history always seems to need filled: the official translator of blood into virtue. Renee Good, she said, had committed “domestic terrorism.” Good had “weaponized her car,” Noem claimed, attempting to run over an ICE officer. This, we were told, neatly satisfied the legal and moral definition of terrorism.
Except it didn’t. Not even close.
Video footage and sworn eyewitness testimony show that Good never attempted to run over an agent. What they show instead is something far more mundane and far more damning: an agent who appeared enraged, who escalated, and who ultimately killed her. Not in fear. Not in self-defense. But because he was angry.
The same script was applied to Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital. Noem described Pretti as having arrived “with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation,” framing his mere presence as an act of domestic terrorism. A semiautomatic handgun and extra magazines, legally carried under a valid permit, were transformed, by rhetorical alchemy, into proof of murderous intent. The phrase “maximum damage” was invoked, as if the Constitution itself had quietly expired overnight.
Again, the facts refused to cooperate.
Local and state officials in Minnesota stated clearly that Pretti was legally armed, was not seen brandishing a weapon when first encountering agents, and most damningly was shot after his firearm had already been taken from him. Video evidence confirms this. A witness testified under oath that Pretti never attacked the agents and never threatened them. The government’s version of a violent ambush collapses under even the most casual scrutiny.
And yet, the lie persists.
What we are watching is not confusion. It is not miscommunication. It is an obvious cover-up—an attempt to retroactively justify the killing of two U.S. citizens by rebranding them as enemies of the state. Execution, when dressed in the language of “counterterrorism,” becomes palatable to an audience trained to fear labels more than facts.
Renee Good was not a terrorist. She was a Minneapolis mother of three, married to her wife, an award-winning poet and writer, and someone who volunteered as a legal or neighborhood observer at ICE operations. Alex Pretti was not a terrorist. He was an ICU nurse caring for veterans, people MAGA rhetoric claims to revere who happened to believe his rights did not evaporate in the presence of federal uniforms.
But believing that would require believing your eyes.
The MAGA base, of course, prefers not to. Many of them will never see the footage at all, sealed off in an ecosystem where FOX News, an entertainment company that admitted in open court that “no reasonable person” should believe its claims, acts as both gatekeeper and priest. The same network that paid nearly a billion dollars for lying now supplies the moral certainty required to excuse state violence.
And then there is the hypocrisy, so naked it almost dares you to look away.
When Kyle Rittenhouse crossed state lines with an AR-15 and killed two people at a protest, he was lionized. The Second Amendment, we were told, protected his right to show up armed. Law enforcement did not shoot him. Did not tackle him. Did not even detain him at the scene. A jury later agreed his actions were justified.
Now, after the killing of Alex Pretti, Donald Trump declares, “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns.” The amendment, it seems, has an asterisk. If you are MAGA, a firearm is a symbol of freedom. If you are anyone else, it is evidence of terrorism.
The rule is simple: rights belong to the loyal.
So where are the Second Amendment absolutists now? Will they still feel safe openly carrying firearms at protests? Or does that confidence exist only when the president can be trusted to pardon them, to bury the evidence, to shield the executioners? This administration has already shown its instinct: protect the agents, conceal their names, stonewall accountability.
Greg Bovino refused to reveal the identity of the agent who fired the fatal shots. He stopped short of saying the name would “never be known,” but the message was unmistakable. This is why the agents are masked. Not for safety, but for impunity.
And this is why the comparison to darker chapters of history no longer feels hyperbolic. The Third Reich did not begin with camps. It began with language. With the redefinition of citizens as threats. With the insistence that authority must be believed over evidence, power over truth, uniforms over humanity.
They want you to believe what they say rather than what you saw.
The only question left is whether enough Americans still remember that the republic was never supposed to work that way or whether we are already too far down the road, watching our own reflection fade behind the visor of a masked state.
Why It Matters
This is not a dispute over facts, it is a test of whether citizenship still offers protection from state violence. When the government retroactively rebrands civilians as “terrorists” to justify their deaths, the Constitution becomes conditional. Rights are no longer inherent; they are granted based on loyalty. That is the threshold where republics fail quietly, under color of law.
Key Takeaways
- Two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents and posthumously labeled terrorists to justify lethal force.
- Video and sworn testimony contradict official claims of self-defense or imminent threat.
- Legal gun ownership is celebrated for political allies and criminalized for dissenters.
- Masked agents and withheld identities signal impunity, not safety.
- Language, not law is being used to launder executions into righteousness.
Further Reading – Bookshop.org
- The End of Policing — Alex S. Vitale. How enforcement-first models inevitably escalate toward repression. https://civilheresy.com/The End of Policing
- They Thought They Were Free — Milton Mayer. A chilling account of how ordinary citizens normalize authoritarian power. https://civilheresy.com/thought they were free
- Our Enemies in Blue — Kristian Williams. The historical relationship between policing and political control. https://civilheresy.com/our enemies in blue
If rights only exist for the loyal, then liberty is already dead. Read. Share. Refuse silence.
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