I was initially pleased when I saw a recent letter to the editor in The Daily Item, titled “Stopping the lawlessness” (Jan. 24). I thought it would condemn the recent lawless actions by federal agents, including the killing of American citizens by ICE and the Border Patrol. I was wrong. Shockingly, the writer instead defended the masked agents attacking civilians on our streets. With thousands of Americans recording these incidents on their phones, anyone who wants to know what is happening can see it for themselves. In Minneapolis, videos show Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, turning her car away from an ICE agent when he shot her three times at point-blank range. As Good was dying, agents prevented a doctor from attempting CPR. Multiple cellphone videos show Alex Pretti, a beloved ICU nurse at a VA hospital, attempting to help a woman being pepper-sprayed by a Border Patrol agent. Pretti was then sprayed in the face, forced to his knees, beaten by several more agents, disarmed, and shot from behind at close range before he was shot nine more times. Almost immediately after both killings, senior government officials claimed that the victims were “domestic terrorists” intent on killing federal agents. They blocked local police from collecting evidence and detained eyewitnesses for hours. They refused to investigate the shooters and instead said they would investigate the victims. These acts of violence are not isolated. There is extensive footage of ICE and CBP agents beating defenseless people, using chemical agents on civilians, smashing windows and using explosives to break into homes. The men are dressed and armed like tactical units in a war zone, with desert fatigues, body armor, ballistic shields, assault rifles, silencers with night-vision scopes and stun grenades. They use these battlefield weapons to haul civilians out of their houses in their pajamas. One agent was recorded on video saying that it is “like ‘Call of Duty’… so cool, huh?” The letter writer refers to these men as “dedicated public servants who are sworn to uphold the law and protect the safety of all.” But arresting people without warrants, conducting illegal searches and seizures and assaulting civilians without cause shreds the Constitution and puts us all in danger. Referring to violent lawbreakers as “law enforcement” dishonors the work of hundreds of thousands of police officers, state troopers and others. Actual law enforcement professionals and former service members have begun speaking out against the brutal and inept actions of the impostors. If a member of the U.S. military committed violence against civilians, that person would face court-martial and/or criminal prosecution. The ICE and CBP agents who attack and even kill civilians should not be honored but instead prosecuted — along with their superiors. The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are sickening. But the greater outrage is the message from Washington that followed: The shooters will be protected. Vice President J.D. Vance declared, falsely, that ICE agents are “protected by absolute immunity.” President Trump, who has pardoned hundreds of violent criminals, denigrated the victims and refused to condemn the killings. It is troubling when we see television images of armed paramilitary forces in a foreign dictatorship beating or shooting civilians on the streets. It is even more infuriating, and deeply heartbreaking, to see similar images in the United States, with the federal government repeatedly unleashing heavily armed tactical squads against American civilians. We once were better than this. The video evidence is readily available to anyone willing to watch. Every American of good conscience and an open mind must decide whether he or she stands for the rule of law or for state-sanctioned violence.
Harry Gural, Lewisburg