CNN is reporting that Alex Pretti had an encounter with ICE a week before he was murdered when he was assaulted by a group of agents for filming and blowing his whistle and they broke one of his ribs. It’s unclear if they knew who he was when they killed him but it’s possible. They keep saying they’re building a database of protesters and observers or maybe one of the agents recognized him.
I wouldn’t be surprised. But the man Trump has sent in to calm the waters is in favor of making the protesters and observers “famous” by putting them on TV so that they can be harassed, fired and run out of town — or worse:
Some Trump officials have spoken publicly about the idea of creating a database of protesters, though it’s not clear what ICE has done with the information collected through the form circulated to agents in Minneapolis.
“One thing I’m pushing for right now … we’re going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding and assault, we’re going to make them famous,” Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told Fox News earlier this month. “We’re going to put their face on TV. We’re going to let their employers, in their neighborhoods, in their schools, know who these people are.”
Meanwhile,the very delicate swarms of armed ICE agents dressed like they’re fighting in the streets of Fallujah, must keep their identities a secret because otherwise they might be yelled at in restaurants.
The government is apparently under the illusion that the protesters are the unpopular ones in their communities. That’s simply not true. But there is always a lone MAGA nut out there who could do some serious damage, not to mention the uniformed thugs who have been given a license to kill. I guess we just have to hope the gun nuts are sufficiently aroused to keep them out of the fray.