I would offer that Alex Pretti putting his body—with his hands up—between a woman and the BP agent who had just violently shoved her into the snow, offer stark competing visions of manhood. Pretti, a nurse caring for veterans, who took a face full of pepper spray to shield that woman, is a much better masculine ideal that the masked coward shoving the woman and executing a man on his knees. MAGA may venerate the latter, but most people in a healthy society want the former.
I do not usually comment on political posts, and this is not intended to be political. As we all know a tragic event happened in America. I am speaking strictly from a professional training and use of force perspective.
Before coming to train Ukrainians, I spent years training various law enforcement organizations through my company on use of force and high risk encounters. That background includes departmental policy, police training standards, threat assessment, de escalation, and the legal thresholds for justified and unjustified shootings.
Several facts matter here.
The individual involved was a licensed concealed carry holder from the state. He was legally permitted to carry a firearm, including in a public setting such as a protest. There was no violation of law simply by his possession of the weapon.
At no point did this individual draw, point, or openly brandish the firearm. The weapon was physically removed from him by law enforcement officers prior to the shooting. Once that occurred, the immediate deadly threat no longer existed.
When a weapon is secured and officers have physical control of a subject, the legal and training based justification for deadly force disappears. At that stage, the situation transitions to control, restraint, and de escalation. Deadly force is reserved for an active, imminent threat, not a past or hypothetical one.
Any use of deadly force also carries an absolute responsibility to consider public safety. Officers are trained to identify their backstop and ensure that rounds fired do not endanger civilians or fellow officers. In this case, there were multiple officers and civilians directly within the potential line of fire. The risk of catastrophic injury, friendly fire, or unintended civilian casualties was extremely high.
Equally important, this incident does not align with established de escalation principles. Rather than slowing the encounter, increasing distance, and reducing risk, the situation was escalated rapidly to lethal force after control had already been achieved. That is the opposite of what modern policing doctrine teaches.
Based on the available video footage, camera angles, and observable officer behavior, this incident reflects failures in threat assessment, use of force decision making, backstop awareness, and de escalation. From a professional standpoint, it represents a breakdown across multiple training and policy standards.
This is a tragic outcome. It deserves a serious, objective review grounded in established law enforcement practices, not emotion or politics.
This definatley deserves a full independent investigation and review.
Kash Patel today: "You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want."
Kash Patel in 2021: "This is what Fight with Kash is for. We will help Kyle Rittenhouse."
Do you get it now, people. They don’t give a crap about you or your rights or your safety. They only want your money. That’s it. They are lying grifters like this administration. They are the same.
@NRA The one time a literal tyrannical government executes a law abiding gun carrying citizen you side with the boot lickers.
What little bitches you’ve become.
When Ozturk was jailed, many insisted the State Dept must have had some reason beyond her op-ed. But by the government’s own admission, it appears the op-ed really is it. What’s the argument for deporting someone based solely on their published opinions?
Facts: California contributes $83 billion more than we receive from the federal government.
We have higher wages, lower gun deaths, and better health outcomes.
Blue states aren't failing. We're subsidizing red states.
Jennings: Let's not get our knickers in a twist here
McGowan: Why are you talking like that? It's insane. Your attitude is just horrifying….Everything that is in these files—it could bring an entire house down. And if it has to, it has to. If it brings down Democrats, bring them down. If it brings down Republicans, bring them down. Bring down princes, world leaders, Hollywood people, bring them down. But what it feels like right now is that there's a giant cabal of people that do not have to listen to the law
Rogan: "You don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people — many of which turn out to be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them. Are we really gonna be the Gestapo, 'Where's your papers?' Is that what we've come to?"
Seeing Vance's comments, I lived a similar moment 19 years ago in a Russian courtroom hearing a judge state that the police officer's testimony had to be trusted over our video evidence because "he was wearing the uniform". Total immunity beats reality in a police state.
I'm a former defense attorney and currently a civil liberties attorney with no political dog in this fight. I watched the video at least 10 times from different angles and at different speeds and waited to offer an opinion, which I still reserve the right to change if additional information changes the calculus.
It is very clear that the officers instigated the confrontation. The woman initially tried to wave them past her.
ICE officers have no authority to search a US citizen or arrest her (unless there's probable cause to believe she's harboring undocumented individuals, not a contention here). A woman surrounded by masked, armed men who have no law enforcement authority over her has every right to try to escape. Video shows her steering wheel is turned to the right, clearly an attempt to leave WITHOUT hitting anyone and steer clear of the officer standing towards the front of her car. That officer had time to step to the side, which is where he was when he shot her.
Even a real police officer would not have the right to shoot at her for trying to flee. This is well-established in the case law; deadly force may not be used simply to prevent someone from getting away. Given that the ICE officers had no law enforcement authority to begin with, AND the video footage shows she was trying to escape a perceived threat, not to kill anyone, the crime is all the more inexcusable.
I'm praying for the victim's family, especially her children. I'm also praying for all the conservatives who are so unprincipled and lost they're excusing this terrible crime, and gloating over a death that will leave three young children motherless, because of the victim's politics.
John Miller: If you're confronted by a moving vehicle that could be a threat to you, get out of the way. I'm reading to you from DHS policy; 'DHS law enforcement officers are prohibited from discharging firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle or other conveyance.'
The US is now doing the kind of things we used to make fun of banana republics for doing when I was a kid.
I know not all the people who supported this man are idiots. Is there a point where the non-idiots say "enough is enough?"
"I became a Trump supporter because I couldn't buy access to the democrats" is definitely something I would expect someone to think in their head rather than say out loud.