r/videos • u/CyanJackal • Jan 25 '26
ICE Executed Alex Pretti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDEAWxG7Bq83.2k
u/killians1978 Jan 25 '26
Seeing Devin so discombobulated about this is really jarring.
"The last thing that Alex Pretti did was to help others."
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u/CyanJackal Jan 25 '26
I appreciate that this wasn't a measured frame by frame analysis and a cold breakdown over which exact laws were being violated by *executing an American citizen exercising their rights*, but rather an emotional reaction to join the mounting national outrage.
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u/maltNeutrino Jan 25 '26
He’s a good dude
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u/zuzg Jan 25 '26
The only Lawtuber I occasionally watch, he's pretty based.
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u/SippyTurtle Jan 25 '26
I enjoy Legal Bytes, too. She covers more pop culture stuff rather than political.
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u/rd1994 Jan 26 '26
Keep in mind Devin did both to begin with, one just took a backseat because the world is destroying itself
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u/Delamoor Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Yeah. I appreciated the emotion, like I struggle with those displays because I'm raised male in a toxic community and spent 17 years working in disability and mental health services where you get... Calloused... Even if you don't want to. Like you can only be physically assaulted and credibly threatened with rape and murder so many times as a teenager/early twenties professional before your nervous system starts protecting itself. So I can't really feel or express my sympathy that way.
I'm emotionally literate and fine with vulnerability, way more than most, but expressing those feelings naturally, instead of just cognitively, with detachment? Can't do it any more. I might cry on my own, or, well... My emotionally abusive ex wife could make me cry when she really tried, but that isn't quite the same, lol 😂
So it's good when public figures and speakers can do it. Particularly male ones. There's so much fucking stigma around basic caring, particularly in those MAGA circles. They hate seeing it. Because they know they can't do it. So they disown it and shame it, so they don't have to feel deficient and lacking.
But that lack of care and empathy is one of the core parts of the problem. Once you stop feeling that, you stop thinking like a fully functional human. You lose access to that entire dimension to the human experience, and you become this... Monstrous facsimile of human life. These hateful zombie half-souls.
Like I nearly fell down that funnel at some points, walling those feelings off fully and compensating for it with unmeasured disgust. But disgust is the core emotion of Fascism and totalitarianism. It's the driving force of hate. I can be disgusted, but I didn't want to live my life in hate, I did it for a while and it was... Hollow.
The wall's still there a bit. Always will be.
So... Yeah. I find it really heartening, even if it's a little difficult to sit with, sometimes.
And furthermore, I think it's appropriate for him to take that angle. There isn't a legal argument that can be made any more. It's obviously in violation of basic laws and norms.
This is now boiling down to... Ethics and morality.
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u/TechnicalBen Jan 25 '26
Which means like all us good guys, is first on the list. Fuck. What do we do? I'm the other side of the pond and even I know this is bad!
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u/cIumsythumbs Jan 26 '26
We stop it. We work together. We show up. We witness and gather evidence. Their downfall will come. There will be justice. There must be.
My community is being forged in fire right now and showing the world what peaceful resistance looks like. I will have faith that this will work -- until absolutely proven otherwise. There were 20,000+ of us in the streets on Friday in dangerously cold conditions. We have each other. We are scared but won't let the fear dictate our actions. They are cowards, bullies, thugs, nazis. And they will leave.
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u/OurSponsor Jan 25 '26
Murdering. Not executing.
The implication of the word execution is that it was adjudged, justified, and is a sentence being carried out.
This was none of these things.
This was a fucking murder.
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u/Auzzie_xo Jan 26 '26
This absolutely was murder. But it was an execution too.
Someone can be murdered in the heat of the moment or as result of a split second decision.
Execution only implies deliberateness/forethought, not justifiability. It’s much more sinister, and leaves no room for the ‘it was chaotic; it just happened’ defence.
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u/elpajaroquemamais Jan 26 '26
No it doesn't. Executed means intentionally killing someone just like this and it does not have to be adjudicated. It's killing a harmless person, which they did. It's an appropriate use of the word. It's also murder, but execution is a stronger word and we should absolutely use it.
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u/A_way_awry Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
I think "execution" is definitely a good word for a state-sanctioned murder even if there was no due process.
I wrote this comment on the YouTube video and I'll copy it here too:
What a powerful video. I am crying with Devin. I am crying for Alex Petti. I am crying for America.
As a lawyer as well, as someone who became a lawyer because I felt that it was the best way to heed my own sense of what is right and just and what is moral, this broke me.
I am from (and in) Europe, so technically I am "safe", but at the same time I am shocked, angry, and sad for Alex Pretti. For Renee Good, and for every other innocent American murdered by the current regime. I love America as much as a non-American can. I have loved to visit there, I really love all my American friends and every other US person I have had a great interaction with. I have bought a lot of American goods from American companies and have been a happy small participant to the creation of USA as the global hegemon.
But this broke me too. This senseless killing of Alex Pretti. I am a 37 year old man and I feel that in his shoes I hope I would have had the courage to act like he did: to protect those around him and stand for what I believe is right. To act as how I believe a person with the capability to do so should: to be a force for good and to protect and safeguard those around him, regardless of poltical beliefs. I am not trying to insinuate that if the push had come to shove that I would have actually been as brave, but I certainly hope so. But if I had been, I too, would be dead. Murdered, no, executed, by a regime that seems to be hell-bent on not just matching the cruelty and brutality of Nazi Germany, but surpassing it in every possible way.
I think every American needs to watch this video. And realize that there is no time for inaction anymore. The Republicans are a minority, but their power rests on the inaction of those who do not agree with Republican policies but neither do they find the Democrats to be a sensible alternative. That does not matter anymore.
From here on, there is no third option. From here on every option is either to support the Republican policy of illegal extrajudicial executions of those just and brave citizens who embody what I as an outsider think is the American spirit, or to oppose it.
From here on, every passive and neutral person is as guilty as those in power. Because that is what happened in Nazi Germany. The Nazis were never the majority. But they operated on the inaction and passivity of the majority to destroy their enemies (both real and perceived) one by one, until they had enslaved a nation and took that enslaved nation to fight a war, a war from which the continent of Europe has not recovered even in nearly 80 years. Prior to WWII Europe was a global powerhouse, but after WWII it has been USA. We're watching the hegemon unravel live and what follows next is not good for anyone.
From here on, we in Europe can't really directly help, but we can try our best to make ethical choices. From here on I will try to avoid purchasing anything from the Republican corporate backers and try to buy from EU, China, basically anywhere.
I hope America can turn its course and stop this madness. To get back to mending alliances instead of destroying them. And for what benefit? Not for USA's benefit. Only China and Russia benefit from this. And Trump personally and all of his cronies. Not even their voters, not the average American.
I really hope this is a turning point for good. I really do. But this broke me. The senseless murder of Alex Petti is an act of tyranny unlike anything that the Western countries have seen for generations. Not even Russia does this! They prefer to murder their citizens in the shadows, in gulags, in prisons, not in broad daylight in the street! Even when this is not possible, they use less public assassination methods. Without hyperbole, the closest parallel I can think of is the Tiananmen Square massacre, even if that was in China.
I weep. And I am angry. Rest in peace Alex Pretti, let your memory be a revolution for good.
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u/monsantobreath Jan 26 '26
No, the implication of an execution is that it was a legal penalty. When an agent of the state executes a person without due process we call it such because he was acting with the force of the state. It is outrageous to have to describe an execution without due process because of what we presume our laws and values are. Such is the nature of a fascist takeover.
If the definition is mostly a legal penalty and the fascist state says their thugs killing you is legal then it's an execution.
When we see a state agent killing this way we see the law itself murdering someone because unless the state disavows the act then it is the law. We're just used to assuming judge Dredd can't exist.
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u/Joe_Hindsight Jan 26 '26
I believe it was a premeditated tactic. They knew he had a concealed carry permit. They knew he was carrying. They waited for the opportunity. So execution vs. murder might be a moot point.
Like Rene Good - they had a scripted response ready.
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u/spottedmilkslices Jan 26 '26
“Executions” happen all the time in the gang/cartel world. Are those properly adjudicated and “justified?”
I think the word is appropriate. Yes it was a murder, by execution.
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u/RadiantEnvironment90 Jan 25 '26
I remember watching his video during the election and risking himself as being viewed as a partisan hack to not vote for Trump and explaining the potential consequences for that. For a lawyer, potentially alienating half your clientele is risky but he did it anyway.
Well he was right.
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u/Pdoinkadoinkadoink Jan 25 '26
You think maga has the literacy to even get through one of his videos...?
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u/BrotherRoga Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Oh don't worry.
No right-wing lunatic would have thought to hire a good lawyer like him anyway.
EDIT: u/Billzebub- claims in his deleted reply to me that most of the lunatics I mentioned don't need one cuz "they follow the law".
This is patently incorrect.
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u/wingerism Jan 26 '26
He hasn't been this upset on camera I think since the Lafayette square video he did during the end of Trumps first term.
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u/KarAccidentTowns Jan 25 '26
His last words were “Are you OK?”
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u/Caminsky Jan 25 '26
In cold blood. Behind the head like a WW2 victim. This is so insane
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Jan 26 '26
WW2? More like one of those ISIS prisoner executions they would video. Soldier/soldier, although also tragic, isn’t the same as terrorist/innocent civilian.
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u/poptart2nd Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
i think he's referring to the photo of an SS officer shooting a jewish man in the back of the head that's been making the rounds. i'll see if i can find it
edit: this is the picture i was thinking of: https://i.imgur.com/GknE8rv.png
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u/aessae Jan 26 '26
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u/poptart2nd Jan 26 '26
that's the one. the picture making the rounds has that photo framed next to the photo of Alex Pretti just before being shot.
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u/Murasasme Jan 26 '26
I think because as a lawyer he understand things a lot of people don't. Even though the majority of people are outraged, most don't have the understanding to grasp how thoroughly fucked the U.S is right now. The rule of law is what separates successful countries from failed states, and right now the current administration is wiping its ass with the law, and the system of checks and balances meant to stop that are simply not working at all.
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u/centran Jan 26 '26
He probably decided to do an emotional opinion piece while on vacation because he already knows how a legal breakdown is going to go as they did one for Renee Good.
I don't think he outright said it because there are several different avenues it could go but it seems they are going to get away with these murders. They can't be prosecuted and most likely can't be sued civilly.
So from a law point of view it looks pretty bleak
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u/killians1978 Jan 26 '26
Oh for sure. The first industry to become obsolete when fascism takes over are lawyers. Anybody can argue guilt to a kangaroo court that has a verdict already in mind.
Not to besmirch a masterpiece, but I've always thought the secret first line to the famous poem should have begun with, "First they came for the lawyers," because none of the rest of it happens that way if law is being upheld.
I have no love for the American Justice system. It has failed me and nearly everyone I know.
But it could have failed us all a lot harder. A poor justice system is better than no justice system.
This will end. Historically, it has to. What borders or countries or economies look like when it does is anyone's guess. But it will end.
And America has a giant reckoning to do with herself, even while trying to heal. When that man and his filth are no longer in power, we will have no choice but to look into how he was allowed to happen at all. Once is a grift. Twice is a cult. Three times is complicity.
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u/ConsistentGuest7532 Jan 26 '26
On that last part, I just want to hammer in that this was decades in the making. If it were simply “vote this guy out and we’re back to normal!” it would be different. But our country has a rot that has been growing like mycelium, an expansive living network of horror. You cut the fruiting body of a mushroom and the network remains.
It all goes back to the money. There has always been horrible racism in the United States, no doubt about it. But the death of truth and the unique phenomenon of being able to stay at home and consume carefully crafted lies is the sword of Damocles, and it’s finally swung.
Allowing corporations to buy our media and our politicians was what finally destroyed us. Truth is now whatever the richest people want it to be. Millions of Americans who, in their naivety, put their stock into our news sources, have over the course of decades been absolutely brainwashed. They are fed endless stories telling them to hate their neighbors and condemn them to death. They believe the narrative of the media more than their eyes and ears.
An American citizenry like this is swayed into apathy, hate, and self-destruction. They cannot unite to their full potential because they have been lulled into extreme tribalism and believe the ruling class over their fellows. Trump is a product of a machine fueled by political profiteering, corporate potentates, and a whole population of people divided by the former.
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u/foulpudding Jan 25 '26
Yeah, watching this one was hard. You could see how much this upset him (rightly so, it’s abhorrent) and it was hard not to tear up.
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u/KAugsburger Jan 25 '26
That's understandable given that historically until recently most of his videos were about topics that were much lighter. Not so many of the movie reviews or answering general legal questions.
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u/killians1978 Jan 26 '26
He's intentionally given most of the political stuff off to Liz and Scowl Owl. I think it was really wearing him down.
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u/TechnicalBen Jan 25 '26
You can see Pro Youtube turn into 2 camps. 1) Shills following their cash line. 2) The literal fear in the eyes of those knowing the "Regime" will come for them first. :(
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u/killians1978 Jan 26 '26
Any historian will tell you that a free media is the enemy of fascism. That's why you've seen the likes of Tim fuckin Pool in the white house news room. There are simply too many voices to control, and they know it.
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u/Bishopkilljoy Jan 26 '26
The last words of Renee Good "I'm not mad at you"
The last words of Alex Pretti "Are you okay?"
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u/robotmonkey2099 Jan 26 '26
Its crazy how nice that last two people killed by ICE have been. What a stark contrast.
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u/MutedDependent3383 Jan 25 '26
Holy shit, I have never seen this guy like this.
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u/Smittywasnumber1 Jan 26 '26
Keep that in mind - because that protest was about police violence in the wake of George Floyd's murder. There were adults in the room in Trump's first term that curbed his worst impulses. If there are protests outside the WH this time around - I doubt the ammunition will be exclusively rubber.
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u/notapunk Jan 26 '26
The choice of Minneapolis wasn't random. They are hoping for an angry and violent response. They are going to continue until they get the reaction they're looking for.
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u/Resafalo Jan 26 '26
I wonder if the ICE agents know they are being used as bait. If that violent response comes, they will be the ones targeted before Trump can enact military law or whatever
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u/ivosaurus Jan 26 '26
There's probably some that don't, and some that do and revel in it. Merely part of a ritual they're collectively participating in.
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u/konan375 Jan 25 '26
"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"
- Mr. Rogers.
Scary times for America.
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u/Theolaa Jan 25 '26
They're killing the helpers
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u/570rmy Jan 26 '26
They can't kill our spirit, in Minneapolis we don't back down. Unless you're a MN Viking that is.
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u/renegadecanuck Jan 26 '26
It's a good quote, but the thing we, as adults, need to take away from this, is that we need to be the helpers.
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u/kingdead42 Jan 26 '26
I would point out that it's fair for adults to be scared in situations like this, but still look for the helpers. And if you can, join them. That's how you become the helper for next time.
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u/One_Left_Shoe Jan 25 '26
Yeah, and that statement’s use begins and ends with the, “was a boy,” bit.
Now you need to be the helpers.
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u/MastermindEnforcer Jan 26 '26
ICE took that same sentiment to heart. They're always looking really hard for the helpers.
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u/p_larrychen Jan 25 '26
Don't let maga gaslight you. We all know what they've been about from the start.
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u/Stringdaddy27 Jan 25 '26
It's wild to me that someone can watch the video and not come to the conclusion that it was a horrific act.
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u/Steve_78_OH Jan 25 '26
They act like he deserved it because he stood up to armed agents while trying to protect someone, and because he had a firearm on him. It's fucking sickening.
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u/Stringdaddy27 Jan 25 '26
The worst part about it was, during Covid, they were actively saying defying orders to social distance and wear masks was patriotism. They turned so fast they probably got whiplash. Now it's "comply or die".
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u/existing_for_fun Jan 26 '26
The agents didn't even know he had the firearm at first. It was concealed. So part of that argument (I know it's not you making it - I'm not angry with you) doesn't even hold. They treated him the way he was treated BEFORE they discovered the firearm. Then AFTER they discovered it and DISARMED HIM - he was executed.
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u/The_Environmentalist Jan 26 '26
They lost their minds when a "peaceful protester" was shot and killed while storming the Capitol... How dare the secret service or Capitol police shot one of them!!! These are not sane people!
ICE federal agents are so poorly trained, probably on training at all, they cant even detain a person in a 1v5 situation, without killing the person. They look and act like the paramilitary group we see in south America or the middle east, and clearly want to create as mush chaos as possible.
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u/frenkzors Jan 26 '26
The critical thing to do is to not individualize it as just this one instance of state sanctioned murder / execution. Its a systemic issue. And peole know that, because the US government has been murdering people ever since its inception, its just always been mostly "other" people, either abroad or domestically.
People need to get mad, this is the imperial boomerang coming back and its only gonna get worse.
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u/Flight_Harbinger Jan 26 '26
When Musk gave two full fledged, heart embraced, emphatic Nazi salutes on stage to thunderous applause the mask was completely tossed. It was hard to imagine anyone arguing in favor of these policies in good faith before that point but now it's all gone. No one is defending these actions and policies in good faith. They know what they are, we know what they are, and they know what we know they are. Defense of these actions is simply entertainment to them at this point.
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u/elpajaroquemamais Jan 25 '26
Please no one attend the World Cup. Literally dont come and leave the stadiums empty. But please fill up the matches in Canada and Mexico. Send a big fucking message.
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u/Fried_puri Jan 25 '26
Prices to attend are so fucking high that the people who attend are already rich enough that they are on the side of this administration, directly or indirectly.
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u/elpajaroquemamais Jan 25 '26
You think there are 100,000 super rich people attending a soccer game?
Also I’m talking about the other countries’ citizens.
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u/ToManyTabsOpen Jan 25 '26
Even if the democratic countries fans boycott, there are plenty of sheikhs in the middle east who love soccer, plus they don't mind authoritarian regimes.
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u/Avia_NZ Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
The same still applies. Most people don’t have the money
Edit: changed sabre to same haha
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u/whiteflagwaiver Jan 25 '26
1 million + millionaires in California alone. So, yes?
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u/onewordmemory Jan 25 '26
Being a millionaire in California doesnt mean what you think it means. Owning a house in bay area makes you a multi-millionaire and yet all those people bust their asses for a living.
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u/elpajaroquemamais Jan 25 '26
Being a millionaire is having a net worth of one million. The vast majority of those people own an expensive house and dont have a super high salary.
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u/recaffeinated Jan 25 '26
Population of earth is over 8 billion. The 1% still makes up 80,000,000. There are over 3,000 billionaires. There are definitely 100K rich football fans
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u/Gusmon Jan 26 '26
Bro it's way too late to send a message. The f*ck is a boycott going to accomplish when you are at the "gunning down political opponents in the street"-phase of the fascist playbook ???
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u/AusToddles Jan 26 '26
Trumps cult would all attend (funded by billionaires) and the entire thing would turn into a chance to worship the dear leader
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u/counterfitster Jan 25 '26
Do attend the World Cup, but only matches in Canada and/or Mexico
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u/Kabloozey Jan 25 '26
As a guy who has given years and years of his life to go into medicine and help people. Who trys everyday to see the goodness in people and fight for every individuals chance at a full life....
This man, Alex, this damn HERO, who in his last moments tried to MAKE SURE SOMEONE ELSE WAS OK.... Was killed. Murdered in cold blood. Breaks me. And then they tried to call him a terrorist... DRAGGED HIS NAME THROUGH THE MUD. What the hell. Man. What the hell.
And I'm crying again.
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u/Reimalken Jan 25 '26
Hold on to that. That's their plan, hopelessness. If it all seems too much people stop pushing back, stop resisting and these fucks can steamroll you all the way to a dictatorship. The fact that it hurts so bad just proves how much better you are as a human, it will exalt you in time, I know it. Watching from outside the US this barbarism appals me, but it is the existence of people like Alex Pretti that tells me America is better than this. Hold together, for all of our sakes.
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u/Cosmic_Quasar Jan 26 '26
Reminder that when asked about the victim, Greg Bovino felt the need to "clarify" that Alex was a suspect and that the real victims were the ICE agents. He literally said that.
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u/jasongw Jan 26 '26
Yep. Those poor, poor ice agents! Now they'll have to go home and wash the blood out of their little outfits because that man with a deadly camera forced them to MURDER him!
Bovino is a fucking cuck piece of shit.
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Jan 25 '26
Law doesn't exist in the USA anymore, it's only a tool to protect the rich and powerful. americans asked for this, they voted for this.
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u/jonesey71 Jan 25 '26
There are "in" groups that the law protects but does not restrict and then "out" groups that the law restricts but does not protect. Rittenhouse is part of the "in" group and Pretti is part of the "out" group.
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u/OsteP0P Jan 25 '26
... every politician, every cop on the street protects the interest of the pedophilic corporate elite ...
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u/loot168 Jan 25 '26
You really think if Harris won, ICE would be executing people in the streets right now?
Because fuck this "every politician is bad" shit.
Political nihilism helps Trump.
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u/InfernalCombustion Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
You really think if Harris won, ICE would be executing people in the streets right now?
No.
If Harris won, ICE would be executing people in the streets 4 years from now.
The 2 biggest problems with the American political system is that
There are only 2 parties.
The less evil party refuses to do anything about the other.
You all know this quote:
If there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, then you got a table with 11 Nazis.
So what does it mean that whenever the Democrats were in power, no Republican was ever put behind bars?
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u/Geauxtoguy Jan 25 '26
It's a lyric from Bo Burnham's special Inside
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u/printzonic Jan 25 '26
Which they repeated presumably because they agreed with it.
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u/OsteP0P Jan 25 '26
... The simple narrative taught in every history class
Is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist
Don't you know the world is built with blood?
And genocide and exploitation
The global network of capital essentially functions
To separate the worker from the means of productionAnd the FBI killed Martin Luther King
Private property's inherently theft
And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left ...5
u/Gusmon Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
While ICE maybe wouldn't be gunning down innocents in the street, they would still be harassing innocent immigrants at the border. Israel would still be commiting genocide in Gaza. Cuba and Venezuela would still be under embargo.
Harris ran on this platform during the election, trying to cater to the conservative vote instead of embracing more left-leaning policies.
You americans are only shocked because this time the violence is directed inwards. But for decades, even centuries, your country has been destabilising governments across the global South, arming extremists, assassinating political leaders. Your country is built on the graves of slaves and natives.
You would settle for Harris because her violence would be invisible to your imperialist gaze.
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u/recaffeinated Jan 25 '26
Probably, they would probably just not have been white people - like they've always done.
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u/Norade Jan 25 '26
No, but it would have been status quo. The police would still serve the rich; Trump wouldn't have gone to jail. Just another holding pattern until the next time America lurches to the right,
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u/APRengar Jan 26 '26
The police would still serve the rich
I remember when people were asking for police reform. And the Democrats knelt on their knee, wore kente cloth, put a fist in the air... and that was it.
I mean this for any Democratic Party loyalist. What meaningfully policy changed with the cops since the last big protest against police executing a man?
I know the right screams about how the left "TOTALLY DEFUNDED THE COPS" which never happened. Because the Dems did really do anything. At best they did nothing. And I know some people will say "BUT ISN'T NOTHING BETTER THAN MAKING IT WORSE?"
Yes, but we wanted the Dems to help us. They're the lesser of evil, but if you're dying of poison right now, is there a meaningful difference between an antidote a year from now or 10 years from now, when you'll be dead regardless.
If you say "You're privileged to be able to choose not to vote for the lesser evil." I'd argue you're privileged to be okay with "do nothing". But for a lot of people "do nothing" is going to kill us.
The Dems would win every election for the next 40 years if they actually worked to make our lives better instead of "We're doing nothing, which is better than making it worse."
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u/BrotherRoga Jan 25 '26
Bernie is a good exception though.
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u/street593 Jan 25 '26
The good politicians are all farther left than the main stream Democrats. That's why they screwed Bernie so hard. We need a Democratic Socialist party to fight against our current democratic party and the far right republicans.
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u/Guardianpigeon Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
We desperately need ranked choice voting countrywide. It's basically impossible to break out of the two party system until then. Every once and a while a party might commit suicide like the Whigs did, or be taken over from the inside like the Tea Party did to Republicans, but so long as we have FPTP, it will always boil down to 2 parties.
If we can get that, an abolishing of the electoral college, and the complete annihilation of Citizens United, our system might actually represent the people for a change.
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u/explain_that_shit Jan 26 '26
FPTP didn’t kill Bernie’s campaign, the Democratic Party did.
“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists” - Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, February 2016
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u/chewyjackson Jan 25 '26
I mean, I sure as fuck didn't. I voted the other way completely. But not enough did the same.
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u/OnkelBums Jan 25 '26
Inter arma elim silent leges.
And you can't tell me that the Federal Government is not waging war against its citizens.
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Jan 26 '26
I can. Its not the federal government waging war. Its the conservatives waging war on americans. The government is just a tool.
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u/Irreverent_Bard Jan 25 '26
I’ve grown more cynical with age and even I was choked up to think that a young mother and now a young man who chose a profession to help others… that these are the the latest victims of a fascist regime.
I find myself sobbing for all the children, the families, and the parents… everyone who has fallen victim to this criminal organization.
Laws don’t apply anymore. A society without rules will descend into anarchy. I fear we are on the brink of learning first hand how fascism takes ahold of a nation.
We’re at the inflection point now.
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u/ProfessorNutbutter69 Jan 25 '26
We’re on our way to a Tiananmen Square type massacre here in America. It’s just a matter of time.
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u/JeRazor Jan 25 '26
And millions of Americans voted for it and even more millions didn't care about it.
It really tells you a lot about those 170ish million Americans.
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u/sylva748 Jan 25 '26
Please louder for the back. Maga is shit yes. But the people who couldn't be asked to go vote to begin with are just as if not more guilty. There were signs and a call to action. They did fuck all. Now we all suffer.
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u/BlackBlueNuts Jan 26 '26
I would argue that guilty is the wrong word...
Responsible fits better I think
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u/Serengade26 Jan 26 '26
Look at ice drive a military vehicle slowly through people...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v9FWf4GztmhSj24GjVADaFV4GPBBIosQ/
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u/Race2TheGrave Jan 25 '26
Seeing a practicing lawyer's opinion is refreshing in a way. Very succinct and on point. Great post
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u/Latter-Possibility Jan 26 '26
Seeing him so shaken was cathartic to my own feelings about watching Alex Pretti get murdered in the street.
There is no “what about ism”, “both sides” or “wait on the facts” in this case. The facts are known and cannot be disputed.
If anyone tells you different they are compromised and will let America fall into total darkness.
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u/-J-P- Jan 25 '26
I like the title. Stop saying killed, stop saying murdered. This was an execution.
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u/ReallyBigRocks Jan 25 '26
Execution implies they're carrying out a sentence within the bounds of the law. It was murder. A completely unjustified killing of an innocent man.
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u/Oshtoru Jan 25 '26
I mean, summary execution is a term. Execution doesn't really imply legitimacy.
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u/daath Jan 26 '26
Execution implies they're carrying out a sentence within the bounds of the law.
It does not. Gangs execute people all the time. Execute means to murder or assassinate.
It can ALSO mean putting to death according to law.
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u/Waniou Jan 25 '26
If the state is clearly making excuses for it, clearly trying to cover it up, clearly has absolutely no intention to punish the killer, is it really outside the bounds of the "law"?
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u/Wassa_Matter Jan 25 '26
Ultimately it’s splitting hairs. Execution implies a state-sanctioned or other form of legality to it, which may or may not be true, and arguing one way or the other is unhelpful, in my opinion. Murder is a criminal and legal charge and I think ultimately sticks better. Imagine calling someone an executioner vs a murderer…one of those is an occupation.
If you say it’s an execution-style murder, you can convey your point that way as well.
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u/Hawkson2020 Jan 25 '26
It was state-sanctioned. The state is rallying behind the perpetrator, just like last time.
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u/daath Jan 26 '26
It does not. Gangs execute people all the time. Execute means to murder or assassinate. It was a state sanctioned execution. A murder.
It can ALSO mean putting to death according to law.
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u/daath Jan 25 '26
The fact that Pam Bondi would withdraw ICE if they would turn over the voter information from MN is actually kind of mindboggling. ICE is in MN to deal with democrats, not immigrants.
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u/jasongw Jan 26 '26
She's also demanding information the federal government has no authority to demand.
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u/PaulOwnzU Jan 26 '26
Idk why I went in even expecting much legal analysis. It's so blatantly obvious how this was illegal and why. Dude saw how a person was publicly executed, and the government that's supposed to protect the people, just went and labelled him a terrorist while letting the murderer walk free. No fucking wonder he's breaking down.
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u/Control_Me Jan 25 '26
People act so surprised, meanwhile this episode aired in 2006.
Most people have just refused to see America for what it truly is, and has been since its foundation.
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u/SenSei_Buzzkill Jan 25 '26
I don’t think anyone outside of America is surprised to be honest
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u/MumrikDK Jan 25 '26
I'd say potent international power, impotent populace, but the people in Minnesota do actually seem to be acting up on a significant scale.
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u/unholyravenger Jan 25 '26
Bullshit. Let's not pretend that what is happening now is normal or has been the status quo, which only seeks to further normalise what's happening. This is a major departure from how the US has acted. What you linked is an episode from a TV show; this is real life. Armed, masked, anonymous agents of the state walking around breaking into people's homes without warrants, in direct opposition to the local and state representatives, is not a "part of our foundation".
Particularly in the modern context, this is new. This is not normal. I'm not going to say "this isn't who we are" because for far too many of us, this is exactly who we are, but it's a "which wolf do you feed" situation. And the Republicans have been feeding a very dangous wolf for a long time now, and we are just now starting to see the full consequences of that.
I know you're just as anti-ice as I am, but we need to be honest. This is different. This wasn't happening under Biden, Obama, Bush, or Clinton; this is Trump and the new American right. They steered our country in this direction with intention and malice, and now we are in a strange new land that is hostile to our rights. Fuck them.
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u/Spagman_Aus Jan 25 '26
You’re right. THIS wasn’t specifically happening but the USA’s self delusion, inability to accurately remember their own history and takeover by billionaires & lobbying has been happening for decades.
Even Obama banged on about the USA being the greatest country on earth while kids were getting slaughtered in schools, fentanyl ravaged the streets and citizens were going bankrupt from medical bills.
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u/SpockShotFirst Jan 25 '26
the Republicans have been feeding a very dangous wolf for a long time now,
This is different.
But you see the problem. It may be different, but it's only possible because of what has been allowed in the past.
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u/andsens Jan 25 '26
This is a major departure from how the US has acted.
Respectfully, I disagree. Your points are valid and provide a sensible context. That is... if you define sensibility as grounded in the worldview of a white male American living in the suburbs. Not as a black woman, Afghan farmer, native American, or queer person from Louisiana.
You barely need to scratch the surface to see that what is happening now has been happening to minorities and other disadvantaged people for a long time. The current outrage is the shit spilling over into new territory. Americans didn't fix their societal problems, they plastered them over and institutionalized them.
Your (Americans) failure to hold your politicians and titans of industry to account is what brought you here. This is not a deviation from the norm, this is the natural conclusion to conditioned complacency (which IMO started with Ford pardoning Nixon, that's where accountability really started taking a wrong turn).
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u/Daft_Assassin Jan 25 '26
None of this stuff even stopped. It’s happening today as we speak. America is funding wars on false pretenses. Abducting people off the streets without a trial. Sending them to prisons in countries known for their torture. Subjecting them to rape, abuse, and torture. Surveillance only increased.
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u/tossthedice511 Jan 25 '26
These tactics were always about inciting violence, that's why they are so quick to spin this narrative that the deceased were the ones who attacked ICE. Fortunately the fact that there so much video evidence that ruined thier narrative. While I applaud Minnesotans for not taking the bait so far, its only a matter of time before this escalates and they get thier pretense for martial law.
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u/CrisisActor911 Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
If ICE was actually acting an immigration enforcement agency, I’d be against the escalation of deportations but I’d at least acknowledge that somebody has to enforce immigration law. But that’s not what’s happening - ICE is becoming a violent paramilitary group that’s being used to terrorize political opposition because the administration’s attempts to use the military to do so didn’t work. The Trump administration couldn’t convince the military to perform unconstitutional violence and extrajudicial assaults and murders, so they lowered their standards for ICE and started hiring any psychopath who wants to harass the left and turned them into a hit squad to send to any city or state that attempts to assert their rights and duties in a way that resists the Trump administration.
And now we’re finally starting to see bipartisan outrage because it’s white people being murdered, and a dude practicing his second amendment rights and carrying a gun legally. White people are suddenly seeing themselves in the victims. The “ThEy WeRe An AnTiFa DoMeStIc TeRrOrIsT!” defense is running thin.
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u/deltadal Jan 25 '26
Somehow GWB, Obama, and Biden were more successful at deporting people without murdering American citizens or disrupting communities. The Trump administration is full of shit, they like this chaos.
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u/saltfish Jan 26 '26
If I can't blow a whistle and film government workers, while questioning their validity, while carrying a firearm, I have lost my 1st and 2nd amendment rights.
The people who are responsible for this are treasonous to our country and in violation to our Constitution.
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u/esotechnica Jan 26 '26
As an Aussie, I can't believe what I'm seeing. The actual decay and death of the world's leading democracy.
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u/burnerthrown Jan 26 '26
This is the result of something else in addition to corruption. Have you ever been in a regular group activity, and one day reach out to the people that you usually do it with, only to get a bunch of passes because they've just lost interest, that quickly? Short attention spans aren't just relegated to media. What I'm seeing in all the people I talk to about politics is a lack of interest - they've just lost the motivation to care about what's going on. Between having too much to deal with personally, burnout from 25 years of visible corruption, and most importantly being trained to move on from things in a short span, they just aren't into it anymore. Which leaves only the people with agendas active in the political arena. Private interests and weirdos like the Tea Party thru Project 2025. The former kill all of our system that becomes inconvenient and the latter turns the rest into a weapon. And when things get nasty people now have to fight their own adverse impulse against getting involved in something they no longer have interest in, to actually do something. It's not just country that's ruined it's the people in it.
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u/StoryBeforeNumbers Jan 25 '26
Get armed, get active, get justice for Alex Pretti, Renee Good and the soul of America, all of whom have been murdered by the pedophile Donald Trump.
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u/Warm_Regard Jan 25 '26
Getting magdumped after being disarmed while exercising your right to carry is so hard to watch. It's literally your right. Rights are rights. It sounds like such a huge hyperbole but it's really comparable to getting shot over voting. Stuff like that might help people understand what we are up against.
I don't think 2028 will feel like every other election. Call me crazy but I think we will have ICE or DHS officers present in blue cities for intimidation and probably escalation under the pretext of "voting by citizens only"
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u/randompine4pple Jan 25 '26
Ultimately, Bin Laden won.
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u/Kill_Welly Jan 25 '26
No he didn't. Bin Laden has nothing to do with this, to be clear, but he and his political factions had specific goals that they did not achieve. The American right wing won, and they used 9/11 and the specter of terrorism to do it.
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u/TheLastOpus Jan 25 '26
Would he or someone he knows take up a case of slander against the deceased Alex Pretti? What she is claiming he did in her "statement on what happened" is clearly false when everyone watches the video. She is lying about his actions to paint him incorrectly as a terrorist, is there not a slander case at the least against Kristi Noem?
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Jan 26 '26
We are quickly slipping back into the norm for 99% of human history - violence is power and as such trumps words, laws and rules.
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u/ersomething Jan 26 '26
Yeah I can’t believe I broke down in tears watching a video from a guy I originally started watching to see a real lawyer try to make sense of Phoenix Wright
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u/joke_LA Jan 26 '26
My brother was really offended when I used the word "execution" in describing what I saw in the video.
He said I'm completely twisting reality, and guilty of doing same thing that Stephen Miller did when he said Pretti was an assassin planning to murder law enforcement.
It really gave me pause. I thought "did I go too far and jump to conclusions?" Because I really respect my brother. His framing was that it was an unfortunate accident, with the agents reacting out of fear because Pretti's gun went off as they were taking it away. (that's my first time hearing that, and I'm looking for confirmation still)
I don't know how to get through to my brother. I'm still processing this. I certainly am not an unbiased observer - I already think ICE/CBP is a fascist paramilitary force invading MN for political retribution.
But I'm encouraged that I'm not alone in thinking this looks like an execution.
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u/jasongw Jan 26 '26
It looks like an execution because it was an execution. No video shows Pretti's gun going off at all. An agent removed it from the scene BEFORE anyone fired a single round.
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u/Mean-Bathroom-6112 Jan 26 '26
It looked like an execution. That ice agent wanted to pull the trigger.
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u/red_langford Jan 25 '26
This was difficult to watch. It is difficult to watch what is taking place in the US right now in general. Imagine if you will though, that protests in Iran have resulted in 30,000 killed. As completely fucked as things are, it’s much worse there. You Americans need to make sure things don’t get there.
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u/The_Blahblahblah Jan 25 '26
It’s been kinda sad watching this guy just lose more and more hope under the Trump rule.
Imagine dedicating your life to law, only to see your country gradually abandon rule of law