ALT: elon musk speaking into a microphone with his eyes closed

As someone who worked at the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, I want to be very clear about how we would assess what just happened in Minneapolis if this had happened overseas. Based on the publicly available evidence, this would be classified as an extrajudicial killing. Under U.S. human rights law and policy, we would withhold assistance to the police or military unit involved in such a violation. There is no ambiguity about that standard. The irony is not lost on me that I am now writing about conduct of a similar nature inside the United States. I have now watched the videos multiple times, from multiple angles. Alex Pretti — an American citizen and ICU nurse at the Veterans Administration — was not holding a gun. He was holding a camera. He was outside. He was protesting. He was exercising rights explicitly protected by the U.S. Constitution: freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and the right to dissent. And yet he was killed. What is especially disturbing is the attempt by senior government officials to construct a false narrative — claiming he “pulled a weapon” or posed an imminent threat. The available video evidence does not support that claim. By all credible accounts, the firearm remained holstered. After it was pulled away from his body, he was shot repeatedly. There is no justification — none — for killing an American on U.S. streets for exercising constitutional rights. I say this as someone who has worked on immigration policy for years. I have supported border enforcement. I have supported lawful pathways and orderly systems. But what we are witnessing now is not enforcement — it is draconian, militarized overreach, untethered from constitutional norms. And you are losing Americans because of it. Rapidly. Where, by the way, are the self-proclaimed defenders of gun rights now? We have seen armed right-wing protesters show up at public demonstrations — during COVID and beyond — “armed to the teeth,” with their rights defended and protected. Yet here, an American who did not fire a weapon, who did not threaten anyone, is killed and immediately smeared after the fact. This is not equal justice. This is not the rule of law. And it is not America as it is supposed to function. You can label protesters “domestic terrorists” until you are blue in the face. It does not make it true. People do not lose their constitutional rights because the government finds them inconvenient. Killing Americans for dissent is indefensible. Full stop. If this is the direction we are going, then we are not merely losing our way — we are abandoning the very principles we claim to defend. | 110 comments on LinkedIn