Two weeks after the killing of Renee Good, Minneapolis was shaken again by the tragic shooting of Alex Pretti.
Two American lives lost. Neither had a criminal record. Together, their deaths raise a chilling question: What does democracy look like when the federal government treats its own people as enemy combatants?
Democracy in America is under siege, and Minneapolis appears trapped in an abusive relationship with the Trump administration—one marked by coercion, threats, and lethal force. Federal immigration agents, ostensibly deployed to remove “dangerous criminals,” instead left two unarmed U.S. citizens dead. If this is public safety, it is safety defined by fear.
The concern is no longer hypothetical.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has demanded transparency from the Department of Justice, asking how many of the individuals involved in the January 6, 2021 insurrection—people who violently assaulted U.S. Capitol Police officers— have since been hired into federal law enforcement agencies such as ICE.
“Who is hiding behind these masks?” Raskin questioned in a Jan. 13 letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “The American people deserve to know how many of these violent insurrectionists have been given guns and badges by this administration.”
Many Proud Boys have criminal records. Good and Pretti did not. That contrast is damning.
Instead of accountability, Washington’s response has been escalation. Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) offering to withdraw ICE from the state if the state grants ICE access to voter rolls.
The implication is unmistakable: federal enforcement power is being leveraged not merely for immigration control but for political surveillance and intimidation. This raises a question—was ICE ever truly about removing criminals, or about exerting control on Democratic-led states and cities?
The most sobering reality is this: when white federal officers feel comfortable killing white citizens who pose no threat, every Black person and every marginalized community becomes even more vulnerable. History shows who bears the brunt when unchecked power is normalized.
Good and Pretti are not anomalies. They are warnings. A democracy that allows federal agents to kill with impunity, demand voter data as ransom, and evade transparency is in danger of collapsing from within.
Many Americans are now witnessing what Ella Baker said more than 60 years ago.
“Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s son,” Baker said, “we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.”
With protests happening from Minneapolis, Washington, D.C. and nationwide, hundreds of thousands of people are realizing they can no longer rest as democracy is in danger.
Silence now is complicity.