Below is my column in The Hill on the recent controversies over enhanced images of Alex Pretti and his shooting in Minnesota. As seen throughout our history, Pretti has achieved mythic status — even having an ice cream invented after him by one of the founders of Ben & Jerry’s. Reality recedes when politics demand the perfect hero.
Here is the column:
“Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy.”
That statement, from F. Scott Fitzgerald, has never been truer than with the posthumous treatment of Alex Pretti, killed in a confrontation with federal officers in Minneapolis. He has been called a “hero” and a “martyr” by the left as a rallying cry for protests around the country. In the process, many have “enhanced” both his story and his image.
MS NOW has admitted that it used an AI-enhanced photo of Pretti that made him look more handsome. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was criticized for bringing to the Senate floor an altered image, featuring a headless immigration agent, that made it look like officers executed a kneeling Pretti with a shot to the head.
Pretti needs to be be inviolate to make the government seem vile in the eyes of the public. He is being described as the combination of Florence Nightingale and Crispus Attucks.
A CNN panelist and co-host of “The View,” Ana Navarro, voiced the new orthodoxy that Pretti was the “perfect guy … the guy you’d want to date your daughter, the guy you want your son to grow up to be, a decent human being who was serving humanity.” She added that he was so perfect that “there is nothing that has been said about that man that isn’t wonderful. And so they can’t malign him.”
The point is that any skepticism, let alone criticism, is no longer acceptable.
In fairness, Pretti was vilified before he was canonized. Many of us objected that the videotape evidence did not support the original description of Pretti’s conduct. Pretti did not threaten officers or approach them brandishing a weapon.
But he did disobey police orders and he did resist arrest. Indeed, eleven days earlier, he had spat at officers, damaged a police vehicle by kicking out its taillight, and again resisted officers.
The remaking of Alex Pretti by both sides is strikingly familiar. On Tuesday, my book on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution will be released. “Rage and the Republic” looks at both the American and French Revolutions to explore why one became the world’s oldest democracy and the other became a blood-soaked terror.
At the height of the social unrest of the French Revolution, the Jacobins also “enhanced” the images of their martyrs. One of the most famous paintings by Jacques-Louis David was called The Death of Marat, the depiction of the murder of one of the architects of the Reign of Terror. David was an ardent supporter of the radical faction that carried out the mass executions of the period.
Marat was a vile human being who had delighted in his summary executions. Covered by painful sores from a rare skin condition, he was stabbed in his bathtub by a young woman who gained access by promising him a list of new traitors to be executed. David portrayed the slain Marat as a flawless martyr with alabaster skin, laid out like a religious Pieta.
Pretti was no Marat. He was described as a caring nurse at the Veterans’ hospital. He also vehemently opposed immigration enforcement and was a member of a group committed to filming and disrupting ICE operations.
What occurred on that day will be resolved in the ongoing investigations. However, few are waiting for such findings. He is now a figure to be enhanced while dehumanizing law enforcement.
As with the French Revolution, establishment figures are fueling the mob to ride the rage wave to the midterm elections. Walz even repeated the debunked story of the “bait boy” and said that undocumented persons being sought for removal were like Anne Frank, an assertion that drew a rebuke from the Holocaust museum.
Protesters responded to such rhetoric with signs reading, “Kill Nazis.”
Deification and demonization have long been methods used to push a populace to embrace radical action, or even revolution. As we celebrate our Declaration of Independence, “Rage and the Republic” asks whether the American Republic can survive the 21st Century with the pressures of civil unrest and economic upheaval.
Yet, when I wrote the book, I never anticipated how we would hear many of the same voices calling for revolution and resistance in the U.S. Walz has even referred to this as a Fort Sumter moment, a reference to the fight that led to our civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The history of the American and French Revolutions shows that heroes can be discovered or created for political purposes. They can produce true tragedies when they are used to radicalize some and dehumanize others.
Pretti needs no enhancement. Neither he nor the officers on that day were “perfect” beings. The facts of what happened on January 24, 2026, are likely to be as conflicted and subjective as the political environment itself. Any shooting of this kind is imperfect — events that could have been changed by a myriad of different actions or movements. That is the true tragedy.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of the Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
I Need A Hero
Order a sammich, but for you citizens in Minnesota can find some, they’re in ICE😝
Pretti was the “perfect guy … the guy you’d want to date your daughter, the guy you want your son to grow up to be,”
Nope. After watching the video of him attempting to spit on LEOs, destruction of government property, the profanity, resisting arrest, failure to obey LEOs lawful orders, that is not the kind of guy I would want my daughter to date. He appears to be unhinged, full of rage and with that much ammunition, thought he was a Rambo/John Wick character in a Hollywood movie. I would tell her to stay away from him.
I would also add that he was carrying a gun which is supposed to make him a demon in the leftist world. However that would not fit the narrative.
I remember when Joe Biden threatened Americans with Fighter jets and laughed at citizen’s puny guns.
But now they are advocating for gun ownership, so the right won that battle, or they are huge hypocrites…oh, wait…
I remember when biden said to shoot a shot-gun thru the front door.
Has everyone forgotten about the 76 year old man that threatened to shoot Biden with his old sniper rifle? As I recall, Biden’s gestapo conducted an early morning raid at his home where he was summarily executed. Neighbors said he was a kindly old man that let his grizzly bear mouth overload his canary ass. Where’s the outrage?
😔
He wasn’t merely carrying a gun, he was carrying an Sig Sauer semiautomatic handgun with an optic sight and two magazines. A year ago Biden and 98% of all Democrats would call this an assault weapon and want it banned and confiscated.
The decisions Mr. Pretti made over the course of those 2 weeks were not made by someone with a sound mind.
You forgot his victim complex.
Notice they didn’t say marry your daughter. just date them.
@Upstate
Sadly, what you’ve described quite possibly IS the kind of guy many radicals would approve of. It is no less a purity test IMO than religion used to be for many people (Catholic/Protestant etc.). And the fact that they are free to have their opinions is STILL lost on them, It’s madness.
Was Pretti an Eagle Scout?
Imagine if your daughter brought him home for dinner and he discovered you voted for Yrump
Pretti was an activist. Period. What fascinates me is that nobody has mentioned the failure to include the second shooting when discussing ICE’s ‘brutality,’ a failure which sustains the narrative because the second shooting was not only clearly defensive, the innocent ‘immigrants’ and ‘neighbors’ were on the verge of killing an ICE agent — hardly the narrative CNN and the Democrats prefer.
To put Pretti’s death in perspective some of the older readers here may remember the execution of the CNN reporter in Nicaragua. This took place in Manaqua during the exodus of Samosa, a Communist versus Dictatorship civil war. The reporter approached a forward position manned by government troops, he claearly identified himself and interacted with the troops. An officer reviewed his information and then summarily executed him with a bullet through the back of his head. Why? Because when people are trying to kill and harm you they are in full defensive mode. Pretti was stupid and he paid for his stupidity with his life. Walz and Frye are responsible through their respective actions, they should be held accountable.
EightBall,
I agree with you, especially about Walz and Frey.
After Homan spoke to Walz he’s singing a different tune. Walz realized he was in trouble. NOW suddenly he always wanted the feds to cooperate with local LEO.
So, Walz’s move negated every single MN protester’s efforts. There’s a reason politicians and celebrities are egging on their mob instead of getting out in front: They’re not that stupid but know some are.
Also shows how insincere the left-in-charge is about illegals. Just a tool for power to them and caused them untold suffering and dashed hopes, and then just throws away the ‘fight’.
I remember watching “The Running Man” so long ago now where they used what we would now call AI created video to demonize someone. The left is now doing that with images. How long before it is audio and video? And when so many people WANT to believe it, it won’t matter that it could be proven to be fake like Durbin’s headless ICE Agent. Durbin and his follows WANT to believe it, so it doesn’t matter that it is obviously fake and he will face zero repercussions for his lies.
I did not click the link, but any ice (ICE?) cream “honoring” Pretti should have main ingredient of vomit, with butt nugget chunks added, and be served with chancre sore squeezings on top. That would be an appropriate concoction, and should be particularly appetizing to the warped and twisted anuses who view him as a hero.
The irony of Pretti as a hero of transitioning through queer affirmative action.
It’s Ben & Jerry’s, the company that bent the knee to their headquarters being “on stolen land”, yet did nothting to return it to the peoples it was stolen from.
I know who it was, I didn’t want to enhance their publicity if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Maybe they’re leasing it now?
This could be avoided by just turning prisoners over to ICE at the jail instead of releasing them back onto the street.
Ya think huh? The Gov. Walz rejected that idea. Thank God for democracy.
Walz ‘n Karma-la
N.n.
I thank our Lord every day it didn’t happen. Can you imagine? How can you be Governor and/or the Mayor of a State or a respective City that has reported fraud in the BILLIONS and not be on top of it? This idiot Walz was one breath away from the Presidency that would have been made up of the same Clinton/Obama Communist bureaucrats like Samantha Powers, Susan Rice, James Comey, Cass Sunstein and others. Bottom feeders all…
huh?
https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/1qsh6w6/tim_walz_im_gonna_give_them_the_benefit_of_the/
Ano
Thank God for democracy.
_______________________________
For which “we” are not.
Yes, illegal aliens with judicial orders to be repatriated to their native lands. The mob of insurrectionists are xenophobic Diversitists and accessories to their crimes in sanctuary states, and witting activists in cover-up of redistributive change schemes, immigration reform, human trafficking, reproductive rites, etc.
Well said n.n. Now translate it for the masses.
“Now translate it for the masses.”
He can explain it to them, he cannot understand it for them…
What is civility? How is it learned? How is incivility to be discouraged? How much incivility is injurious to the orderly conduct of a free society? What responsibilities do media have?
These are gnarly questions. They demand our attention. Simple answers (e.g. double standards) are evasions, and will not do.
Kill people who piss others off ?
Entertain abortive ideation of “burdens”? No.
Abortion in self-defense? Yes.
Civility is a reconciliation of rights and responsibilities between parties of equal standing (e.g. men and women, mothers, fathers, and babies, etc).
The only persons I can think of that were as heroic as Pretti are Wyatt Earp, William Wallace and George Floyd.
Sarcasm?
Pretti stupid in defense of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and other criminal aliens ordered to be repatriated to their native lands?
George “Fentanyl” Floyd, a criminal of progressive standing who died from extensive natural causes while mobs prevented access by authorized medical professionals?
No Good came from those Choices (pun intended).
Remember the media did the same thing with Ashli Babbitt, the veteran killed during J6. They built her up into some sort of hero killed by a Capitol Police office. After all, she had voted for Barack Obama. FAKE-they did no such thing. They vilified her as part of the vicious mob, trying to steal an election from its rightful winner. And there is more and more information coming out that she might have been right. The media is the enemy of the people.
Media enemy? The people are the enemy of the people. Read the comments here as a starting point.
What “more and more information”? She “might have been right” about what?
This kind of vague insinuation is the poison that is overtaking our republic. If you can’t state things clearly, and back them up with facts, do some research to clear up your thinking before posting.
God deliver us from speculative grievances.
How about “FBI searches election hub in Fulton County Georgia”, ” Fulton County admitted more than 315,000 votes were associated with unsigned tabulator tapes”. Biden won Georgia by 12,000 votes and if Trump had won Georgia he wins the election. How about that for speculation ding-dong. You probably haven’t seen this “news” on CNN. Posted by BillG and proud of it Anon, you little shy creature!
Billy G. Right on!
If Trump had won Georgia he’d still have lost, 290 to 248.
““FBI searches election hub in Fulton County Georgia”
That one wasn’t all that meaningfully reported in venues where the headline did run (JTN for one example), until much later. I was scratching my head (I think that’s what I was scratching;-) for nearly a day, trying to figure out what they hoped to accomplish by conducting a search over 5 years after the fact. Wouldn’t any incriminating evidence have long since been destroyed? It wasn’t until I read a couple of other reports this morning that I was able to piece it together. The critical bit that was initially missing is that in Georgia, election officials have an affirmative duty to document pretty much everything they do: omission of required documentation is a crime. So, the investigators are looking, in effect, to *not* find certain documents.
Planned (ironic) obstruction and insurrection in defense of murderers, rapists, molesters, and human traffickers, while armed is Pretti stupid. Still his abortion was not Capitol punishment.
Dr. Turley, I love your articles! A voice of reason in the face of unreasonable craziness! Thank you!
Like most people, Alex Pretti was a mixture of good and bad, noble and not-so-noble. His chosen profession is one of service and compassion (full disclosure: I am a retired RN). And yet the initial videos of Mr. Petti spitting on ICE agents, kicking out the tail light of their vehicle, and strenuously resisting the agents attempting to restrain him all suggest significant anger management problems. While his behavior on that may have resulted in jail time had he been prosecuted, it did not justify his death 11 days later.
On the day of his death, Mr. Pretti came to a “peaceful protest” armed with a semiautomatic gun, two magazines of bullets, and unclear intentions regarding use of his weaponry. While he was within his legal rights, we may never know his intentions. Again, he strenuously resisted agents, but again his observable behavior did not justify his death. The contentious atmosphere, his weapon, and factors not yet made public may have motivated the agents’ actions. This we will hopefully learn with time. For now, “innocent until proven guilty” should rule the day for folks on both sides of the equation.
Well said, but …. anyone with a hidden weapon near a riot is looking for trouble. Especially with 2 full mags. He was ready to use it, why else did he bring it?
11 days earlier he showed his true intent. He caused his death. If there is blame, its belongs to Walz et al., they stoked the crazies.
I don’t see anything noble in his actions. And he has to judged by his actions. What other standard is there?
Noble? Na…. stupid, yes. Just like my dog.
Why would insult your dog?
This has no effect on the actions taken by Pretti or the agents. If I have read the various news articles correctly, he did not have his CCW permit with him nor a drivers license nor did he notify the agents that he had a gun when he got near him. This is in violation of the CCW guidelines so he was not legally carrying. These guidelines are to clearly protect the person carrying as well as the agent of any possible horrible encounter, such as that which happened.
“nor did he notify the agents that he had a gun when he got near him. This is in violation of the CCW guidelines so he was not legally carrying.”
I agree with most of that you wrote. However, the “duty to inform” LEOs that you are carrying a firearm varies from one state to the next. In Minnesota, there is no affirmative duty to inform, only to respond accurately if asked.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/in-which-states-must-you-notify-an-officer-youre-carrying/
Suze
Remember, this own parents told him not to go to these protests. I wonder what they knew, that we don’t. Just by watching both videos. It’s not hard to see, he had anger issued. RN or not.
The ICE agents who wrestled Pretti to the ground after he kicked off the tail light of their vehicle should have arrested and detained him for prosecution. If they had handled violent civil unrest the way it used to be handled, Pretti might still be alive. And if that sounds like broken window policing to you, I don’t apologize.
AND, if Biden hadn’t opened the borders, this whole mess would have never happened. I will never forgive the dems ofr their actions.
Exactly! This is on Biden and every Dem that allowed him to let millions and millions of unvetted, uneducated, UN-VACCINATED non-English speaking predominantly military aged men into our country are to blame.
“The ICE agents who wrestled Pretti to the ground after he kicked off the tail light…” Two discreet instances. You’re comment makes no sense.
As clearly shown by videos, Pretti was wrestled to the ground in BOTH incidents. ICE let him go in the earlier incident, and, but for the gun and his resistance, might have let him go the second time, we don’t know.
It is clear that WaltThompson was talking about what might have happened had he been arrested and charged the first time (yes ,from me)
It is YOU who are confused and make no sense. A little ornery and defensive this a.m.> Go back to bed and sleep off your obvious TDS.
But the jails may have let him out a few hours later.
Pretti was observably violent and unhinged. Pretti broke several state and federal laws, including failing to carry his state-mandated concealed carry identification, damaging a federal vehicle, resisting arrest, and assault. Pretti is no hero. He is another Darwin Award winner.
“Pretti was observably violent and unhinged.” So you’re a Psychiatrist now are we?
Funny thing, designating yourself a”anti- fascist warrior.” That sounds violent and unhinged as the crazies in MN.
At least Pretti took his politics seriously and got involved. You?
You just hang around a blog all day and spew demented rants.
An expert class certification is not required to perceive that someone is a nut. Lefties can’t use their own brain to figure something out – always deferring to experts.
I suspect that Lefties hate religion because it is an institution that many people trust. The Lefties want those adherents as their own.
Leftists are overwhelmingly liberal (i.e. divergent) who occupy progressive sects under the Pro-Choice religion. Case-in-point: Diversity (i.e. class-disordered ideologies), political congruence (“=”), pride, prejudice and albinophobia, Dreams of Herr Mengele, reproductive rites, abortive ideation, redistributive change schemes, ethnic Springs, catastrophic anthropogenic immigration reform, etc. #HateLovesAbortion
I’m a leftist. But not liberal. BTW, you’re crazy, noticed that as soon as you used Mengele’s name.
Ano
used Mengele’s name.
____________________________
How long have you been on this website?
The left uses it 7/24
“An expert class certification is not required to perceive that someone is a nut. ” Really, okay. Then I say you’re nuts.
As for brains, don’t give yourself too much credit.
Since when does it require a degree in psychiatry to identify violent and unhinged behavior?
Also, the guy worked in a hospital, and no one (friends, family) noticed his behavior, degreed or not? Someone noticed and did nothing. So then, his colleagues failed him, friends and family failed him. Walz provoked him. Who to blame. There’s always blame.
Don’t take the comment seriously, its intended to provoke a response. Do note, its always the rabid low brow crazies who bite on such comments. Let them make fools of themselves.
Suze, you’re up.
Gatekeeper!
1. Doesn’t take a psychologist to diagnose unhinged.
2. “took his politics seriously” as most unwell people with violent fantasy’s do.
Diagnosis: TDS. Did he have a conniption when Clinton and Obama deported many more millions? no? OK, then diagnosis is TDS and it was a deadly case too.
Also doesn’t take a biologist to identify females, Men have that built-in.
No one needs to be Ano
Watch the videos. He can’t control himself.
“So you’re a Psychiatrist now are we?”
Been using written English for very long?
The same people that contributed most to spinning him into a violent lather, are the same ones who put the immigration laws in place. The irony.
So CCN et al made immigration law?
Obvious by now, BLM 2.0 is being orchestrated. However, it fails to catch on. Mockingbird MSM try to incite insurgency, to no avail.
Soon, we will see brand new pallets of bricks being delivered overnight to strategic hotspots, with CCN and NYT on hand to document.
Why not? Murdered in service to his country. Another for a lesbian hero murdered by ICE in service to her country.
The deification of this person has reached the point where any investigative result that does not comport to the narrative will be viewed as false,At this point truth, whatever it may be, is not relevant.
There is only Zuul
Is that the same pathological deification you and others on this blog grant Turley?
It’s terrible, I agree: I can’t believe they want to mythologize him by building a 250-foot-tall monstrosity of an arch across from the Lincoln Memorial. How ridiculous.
Why not? Murdered in service to his country. Another for a lesbian hero murdered by ICE in service to her country. True Americans. Fighting for democracy.
Is she a native from the island of Lesbos?
A trans hero wielding a high mass guided missile with the intent to entertain abortive ideation in phobic retreat of her selfie and Democrazi.
It seems to me the commenter has being satirical. Don’t like lesbians eh?
NOT the unhinged insane ones, no.
Do you want to build a memorial to Charlie Kirk and Ashlie Babbitt too? Or is it just leftists that you write this nonsense about?
lesbo was a canadian….I’m not rying to insult her, just a fact.
Yes, a monumental arch in memory of our nation’s warriors and a gateway to America. The audacity of pride and productivity. #HateLovesAbortion
It’s a monument to democrat stupidity if it’s anything at all. and right across from the first Republican President, how appropriate.