On January 24, 2026, six masked federal agents surrounded Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street, punched him repeatedly, pepper-sprayed him, wrestled him to the ground, removed a firearm from his waistband, and shot him multiple times while he lay on the pavement. He died at Hennepin County Medical Center. He was 37 years old, a licensed ICU nurse at a VA hospital, a US citizen with a legal permit to carry a concealed weapon in a state that allows open carry. His only prior contact with law enforcement: traffic tickets.
Alex Pretti is not the story. He is a symptom of what happens when constitutional mechanisms fail.
The Department of Homeland Security claims Pretti approached officers with a gun and violently resisted when they attempted to disarm him. Video recorded by multiple witnesses shows something different: Pretti stepping in to help a woman who had been shoved to the ground by agents, getting pepper-sprayed, agents tackling him, then shooting him while he was down. His cell phone was in his hand. He never drew his weapon.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called him a domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement. President Trump posted on Truth Social: “Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off?” The National Border Patrol Council suggested there would be “severe consequences and repercussions” for brandishing a loaded gun at officers – though video shows the gun remained holstered until agents removed it themselves.
When federal agents attempted to seize evidence from the scene, detain thirty bystanders, confiscate cell phones, and order Minneapolis police to leave their own crime scene, a federal judge issued an emergency restraining order on a Saturday to prevent destruction of evidence.
This is the second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in three weeks. On January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good three times as her car turned away from him. She was 37 years old. Before her, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celia was shot in the leg on January 14. Minneapolis is now under what amounts to federal occupation: approximately 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents deployed in what DHS calls the largest operation in its history.
What the Founders Feared
James Madison stood before the Constitutional Convention in June 1787 and warned: “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”
George Washington wrote that “a large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country.”
Alexander Hamilton, arguing in Federalist No. 8, described the safeguards of a free state: armies “rarely, if at all, called into activity for interior defense, the people are in no danger of being broken to military subordination. The laws are not accustomed to relaxations, in favor of military exigencies; the civil state remains in full vigor, neither corrupted, nor confounded with the principles or propensities of the other state.”
Elbridge Gerry stated plainly during debates over the Bill of Rights: “What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson wanted the Bill of Rights to explicitly include “protection against standing armies.”
The entire constitutional architecture was designed to prevent what’s happening in Minneapolis: permanent armed domestic forces, deployed against citizens, claiming authority supersedes constitutional protections, operating independently of civilian control, using military equipment and tactics on American streets.
The Declaration of Independence lists specific grievances against King George III that justified dissolving political bonds:
“He has sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people”
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power”
“For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States”
“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”
These were the conditions that made revolution necessary. These are the conditions we’re watching unfold in Minneapolis. The modern mechanism for “protecting them from punishment” is qualified immunity: over 95% of civil rights lawsuits against federal agents are dismissed before trial because the specific violation was not “clearly established” by prior court precedent.
The Pattern Across the Country
Minneapolis is not isolated. ICE operations began in Los Angeles in June 2025, followed by Chicago’s Operation Midway Blitz in September, Florida’s Operation Tidal Wave (over 10,400 arrests in eight months), then high-profile raids in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Miami, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington DC. The ICE detainee population reached 73,000 in early January 2026 – a record high. Between January 26, 2025 and January 7, 2026, there was a 2,500% increase in detention of people without criminal records. The composition of detained populations shifted: in 2023, approximately 40% of detainees had no criminal conviction. Currently, 82% have no criminal conviction.
ICE is hiring 10,000 new employees in 2026 on top of 20,000 hired in December 2025. Signing bonuses: $50,000. The recruitment campaign is described internally as “wartime recruitment.” Training requirements have been minimized to accelerate deployment.
The Department of Homeland Security has taken the position, via internal guidance, that entering homes without judicial warrants using administrative authority is lawful. This is assertion by agency memo, not constitutional principle recognized by courts or statute. The Fourth Amendment does not bend to administrative convenience. Judicial audits in the 7th Circuit found that 72% of these warrantless home entries resulted in detention of bystanders who were not the original targets.
Federal courts in Los Angeles found ICE engaged in racial profiling. ICE ignored the court order and continued operations. In Chicago, a federal judge ordered the release of 608 people whose arrests violated the Castañon Nava consent decree and the Fourth Amendment. Of those 608 people, only 16 had criminal histories. In Maine, despite DHS claims of targeting violent criminals, court records show many detained have no violent convictions. The Tampa Bay Times investigation of Florida’s Operation Tidal Wave found that “officers are often taking whoever they can.” In that same operation, over 90% of non-criminal arrests involved individuals of Hispanic or Haitian descent, despite these groups making up a smaller percentage of the total undocumented population in targeted counties.
By December 2025, ICE reported 32 detainee deaths since January 20, 2025 – the highest number since 2004, compared to 24 deaths during Biden’s entire four-year presidency. The increase is attributed to surging detainee numbers, increased use of private detention facilities, frequent transfers between facilities, and dismantling of government offices that investigated discrimination and medical neglect in detention.
The January Offensive: A Blueprint for Occupation
The execution of Alex Pretti was not an isolated tragedy; it was the tactical climax of a month-long siege. In the first twenty-four days of 2026, the federal executive transformed Minneapolis into a laboratory for domestic occupation.
- January 6: The Incursion Begins. DHS deploys 2,000 agents to the Twin Cities under “Operation Metro Surge.” This is the first time the “Big Beautiful Bill” funding is seen in full force, utilizing the 12,000 agents hired in the preceding 120 days.
- January 7: The First Casualty. ICE agent Jonathan Ross kills Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, during a routine traffic stop. The administration’s refusal to discipline Ross sends a clear signal: federal agents now operate with total tactical immunity.
- January 14: Mistaken Identity as Policy. Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis is shot in the leg by agents who, according to later FBI affidavits, were looking for a different man entirely. The shooting confirms that “abbreviated” 42-day training cycles have replaced the professional standards of law enforcement with the chaos of a paramilitary surge.
- January 15: The Whipple Building Siege. Federal forces use chemical weapons and flashbangs against peaceful protesters. Reports emerge of “black site” conditions inside federal facilities, where detainees are denied basic needs while agents attempt to coerce names of community leaders.
- January 24: Execution in Daylight. Six masked agents surround Alex Pretti. Despite multiple witness videos showing his firearm remained holstered and his hands were occupied with his cell phone, he is beaten and executed on a public street.
This timeline proves that the “coordinated strategy” is to overwhelm local jurisdiction through speed and violence. By the time a state investigator or a federal judge can intervene, the evidence is seized, the witnesses are intimidated, and the “new reality” is established.
When Every Mechanism Fails
The Constitution provides mechanisms to prevent tyranny. Those mechanisms are being tested in Minneapolis:
Courts: A federal judge issues emergency restraining orders to preserve evidence. Federal government appeals and continues operations. Courts can rule, but enforcement depends on federal compliance.
State Authority: Governor Walz demands withdrawal of federal forces. Mayor Frey seeks restraining order to halt operations. Minnesota Attorney General files suit. Federal agents ignore state authority, claim immigration enforcement supersedes state sovereignty.
Congress: Could halt operations, defund ICE, investigate constitutional violations. Won’t act. The body that Madison expected to check executive overreach is silent.
Peaceful Protest: Tens of thousands march on January 23. On January 24, federal agents execute Alex Pretti at the protest. Deploy tear gas and flashbangs against crowds. One agent mocks protesters: “Boo hoo.”
Press Documentation: Multiple videos from multiple angles show what happened. Federal government simply lies about what the video shows. When reality contradicts the narrative, they assert the narrative anyway.
Elections: Next opportunity is years away. Two citizens executed on the street, 32 deaths in detention since January 20, 2025, 73,000 detained, constitutional protections suspended in practice.
The Fifth Amendment states: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Alex Pretti received no arrest, no charges, no trial, no due process. Just execution on the street. For those detained rather than killed, access to legal representation has collapsed from 30% in 2021 to 14% currently. The administration calls this law enforcement.
The Position We’re In
The founders designed the Constitution with one final mechanism when all others fail: the right of revolution, articulated in the Declaration. They understood that when government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was created – securing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – the people have the right to alter or abolish it.
But they also understood revolution as catastrophic, a last resort undertaken only when “a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism.” They built multiple mechanisms into the Constitution specifically to avoid reaching that point.
Minnesota is testing whether those mechanisms still function. A state governor demanding federal forces withdraw from his state. A city mayor seeking court orders to halt operations. State courts trying to preserve evidence from federal destruction. Local police attempting to maintain jurisdiction over crime scenes. Citizens exercising their constitutional rights to assemble and protest. All while federal forces continue operations, execute citizens, seize evidence, and claim supremacy over state authority.
If state force is deployed to protect citizens from federal agents, that’s civil war. If state force is not deployed, citizens continue dying while exercising constitutional rights on their own streets.
The Libertarian National Committee statement observes: “The left fights in the streets. The right cheers the legitimacy of the force used against them. Together, they move in a morbid waltz toward total technocratic control.”
Alex Pretti was white, employed, a veteran’s hospital nurse, a licensed gun owner in an open carry state. He intervened when he saw agents shoving someone. He had a cell phone in his hand and a legal firearm in his waistband. Six federal agents surrounded him, assaulted him, and shot him to death. The administration calls him a domestic terrorist.
Kyle Rittenhouse was seventeen, crossed state lines with an AR-15, killed two people at a protest, and became a conservative hero for defending himself.
The variable that changed is which side they’re perceived to be on.
Which means the question “who is safe?” has a simple answer: no one. Constitutional protections either apply to everyone or they protect no one.
The mechanisms designed to prevent this moment are failing in real time. Courts issue orders that are ignored. State authority is superseded. Congress remains silent. Peaceful protest is met with chemical weapons and execution. Video documentation is countered with lies. Elections are too far away.
What’s left when every constitutional mechanism has been tried and failed? The founders knew the answer. They wrote it in the Declaration. They designed the Constitution hoping it would never be necessary again.
Minneapolis is testing whether it still is.
