Impunity

With thanks to Indianahoosiershirt for this timely image

It all starts at the top

When a president has a history of not respecting the law in his private life, it is a clear signal that he will not respect the law in his public life. In fact, it is a clear sign that he will use his power to disobey the law with impunity.

If you add to that formula a Supreme Court that rules he has no fear of prosecution when conducting official acts, you have increased the likelihood of lawless action.

Next, watch as he surrounds himself with sycophants who hold titles that imply qualifications, experience, integrity, and honor, but have none. Attorney General of the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for example.

We as Americans relied on a United States Senate with the qualifications, experience, integrity, and honor to conduct proper Advice and Consent and to, on our behalf, vet and ratify nominees put forward by the president. The Republican Senate is culpable in this tragedy. Their unconscionable negligence layed out the welcome mat at the door of the chicken coop and applauded the fox as he skipped in.

They threatened our national health with an anti vaxxer at HHS and our national defense with a Fox personality at DOD. Now we are threatened on our own streets.

Finally, he has imbedded the most dangerous psychopath in America in a special assistant role and put him in charge of his number 1 issue. Donald Trump may be running America, but Stephen Miller is running Donald Trump. Miller feeds the president’s* worst traits. Racism, hate, revenge, authoritarianism, unchecked power. He prepares the president three large meals a day.

This climate at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the Federal Triangle flows through the ranks all the way to the ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis. They operate in an unlawful environment with assurance that the fascists have their backs. No matter what hateful, vengeful actions they take, they have no fear of prosecution. If they make their numbers, they will never be held accountable. Their only fear is appearing too soft, too non-violent, too woke to shove women to the ground or to use a little 5-year-old boy in a bunny hat and a powder blue backpack as bait to pull his mother out of the house and arrest the whole family.

The words of a president to “smash ‘em in the face” or “shoot ‘em in the legs” or “get the slime out of our country” echo in your ears and you take whatever unlawful actions necessary to stretch for the 3,000 arrests a day goal. A goal by the way that is driven by the Biden deportation numbers, numbers that were inflated by a flow of people across the border who were merely turned around and counted as deportees. It is Stephen Miller’s number. It is a number unattainable by individual actions by ICE agents in the streets of America.

Biden’s border policy was wrong and unsustainable. But America is awakening to the fact that this is not the remedy we signed up for.

Hate. Revenge. Action.

Due to lack of training, you put yourself in the pathway of a SUV on an icy street. You lose your footing and feel threatened. You hate the protester behind the wheel. You hate that you slipped and looked weak in front of your comrades. Although out of harm's way, you seek revenge and shoot a mother-of-three at point blank range in violation of generations of police practice.

But you know they have your back.

And you’re right.

Even before the body is removed from the vehicle, the Secretary of Homeland Security is in front of the cameras calling the victim a domestic terrorist. (“violent, criminal actor...”). This unsubstantiated claim is quickly followed by statements of support for the ICE agent.

The definition of lying with impunity is looking at a video of an action and still claiming that the Agent was the victim.

In the days that followed, it was clear that there would be no investigation. Deputy Attorney General and former Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche announced that there was no need for a further inquiry.

That’s the same Todd Blanche who promised all Epstein files would be released.

Please get the fire extinguisher. It would appear Mr. Blanche’s pants are on fire.

So, if you are an ICE agent on the streets of America, what are you to deduce from this chain of events?

No matter what you do, you will not be held accountable.

Echoes of another famous soundbite. “I could shoot someone on 5^th Avenue and my approval ratings would not go down.”

Or on Portland Avenue in Minneapolis.

Lack of accountability starts at the very top and flows down like a river of sewage into the streets of Minneapolis.

So, while tragic, the story of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti was completely predictable.

After coming to the aid of a woman who was violently pushed by a Border Patrol Officer, and frustrating six officers who couldn’t seem to restrain him, he was shot at point blank range and then raked with multiple additional gunshots.

What I didn’t see coming was that after the Administration realized they had a growing problem of public perception and yet another viral video, they went on the Sunday news programs with a new set of talking points.

It seems that the officers were justified in executing Alex because he had brought a gun to a protest.

A gun that was properly registered.

A gun that he at no time in the incident touched or brandished.

A gun that had been removed from his clothing during the mele and carried a safe distance away by one of the officers (according to clear video evidence).

A gun that he had a clear 2^nd Amendment right to own and carry.

A gun properly carried by an ICU nurse whose nighttime movements in a major American city would not be without risk.

But Stephen Miller called him “an assassin”.

There was an assassination at the corner of 26^th Street and Nicollet Avenue on January 24^th. Now is the opportunity for us to demand that our elected representatives to Congress and the courts do whatever is necessary to investigate the incident, come to a conclusion, and hold the parties accountable.

I urge you to contact your congressional representatives by email or phone numbers listed below. If you are reading this from another country which many of you are, urge your national governments not to bend to the pressure of Donald Trump. Fascism in the United States of America is already having an influence across the world. Join us in doing everything possible to turn back the tide.

And if our House and Senate are not responsive, Tuesday, November 3 is 251 days away. We will have midterm elections. We will flip the House. We have an increasingly good chance to flip the Senate. The White House is helping us to do that every day. Every day.

Email www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

Call 202-224-3121, identify your state, and you will be connected to your senator’s office.

*You've probably noticed by now that I have made an editorial decision in this blog to no longer capitalize the title president when referring to Donald Trump. The reasoning should be obvious.