The Duty to Heal and the Right to Witness

It is a truly remarkable feat of modern governance when the state manages to execute a man whose primary professional calling was keeping people alive.

Alex Pretti was a thirty-seven-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA who was apparently so dangerous that he had to be neutralized by federal agents outside a doughnut shop.

One has to admire the efficiency of the ordeal. Usually it takes years of bureaucratic neglect to fail a veteran but the Department of Homeland Security decided to cut out the middleman and go straight for the person providing the actual care.

I want to be clear that I have the utmost respect for law enforcement when they are doing their jobs correctly. There is a profound dignity in the work of those who genuinely protect and serve our communities with restraint and integrity. However these agents – much like the more overzealous elements of ICE we have seen in recent weeks – were not doing their jobs. They were cosplaying as an occupying force on a Minneapolis street corner. When federal agencies begin to view a law-abiding nurse as a primary threat simply because he has the audacity to witness their behavior the system has stopped functioning as law enforcement and started functioning as an intimidation racket.

When federal agencies begin to view a law-abiding nurse as a primary threat simply because he has the audacity to witness their behavior the system has stopped functioning as law enforcement and started functioning as an intimidation racket.

The official narrative suggests that Pretti violently resisted while brandishing a handgun. It is a fascinating claim to make in an era where everyone carries a high-definition film studio in their pocket. The bystander footage does not show a man brandishing a weapon. It shows a nurse who was trained in the delicate art of de-escalation stepping in to protect a woman from being pepper-sprayed.

Even more inconvenient for the official script is the fact that Pretti was a responsible gun owner with a valid permit to carry. He even followed the textbook protocol of informing the officers he was armed before they decided his life was a secondary concern to their tactical maneuver. He treated them like professionals and in return they treated him like a combatant in a war zone they created themselves.

We often hear the current administration sermonize about the sanctity of the Second Amendment and the “good man with a gun.” It is a stirring narrative provided the man in question is wearing the right jersey. When Alex Pretti stepped onto that sidewalk he became a glitch in that particular matrix. You cannot claim a firearm is a tool for liberty on Monday and then use its mere presence to justify defensive fire against a pinned man on Saturday.

If the mere existence of a licensed firearm in a holster is enough to make an agent fear for his life to the point of a ten-shot execution then the Second Amendment is not a right. It is a death warrant signed in advance by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a surprising twist of judicial irony a federal judge appointed by the very administration overseeing this occupation has stepped in to ensure that the truth is not shredded. U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud has issued an order for federal agencies to preserve all evidence related to the death of Alex Pretti.

It is a fascinating commentary on our republic when a judge feels the need to legally enjoin the government from potentially misplacing its own records. One might think that a transparent investigation would be the default setting for a democracy but we currently live in a world where the preservation of facts requires a court order.

Judge Tostrud’s intervention is a quiet admission that the “trust us” phase of federal transparency has long since expired. While the Department of Homeland Security continues to paint a picture of a violent aggressor the emerging details suggest a much more disciplined reality.

Pretti followed every rule and respected every protocol and was still shot ten times in five seconds while pinned to the ground. We talk about humanism and spirituality as if they are fragile things kept in glass cases for Sunday mornings. Alex Pretti lived them as living forces. He stood on a sidewalk in Minneapolis and decided that the dignity of a stranger was worth the risk. It turns out he was right about the risk.

We cannot claim to be a nation of laws if those who enforce them are allowed to treat transparency as a threat.

One can only hope that the ethical foundations we claim to cherish are strong enough to support the weight of the justice he is now owed.

We are forced to confront a chilling question about the actual cost of witnessing in a society where state power feels increasingly unchecked. When did the simple act of standing for a stranger’s dignity become a capital offense?

Alex Pretti was not an agitator or a career criminal. He was an observer with a conscience and a nurse with a permit. If his story tells us anything, it is that the “ethical foundations” we brag about are only as strong as our willingness to demand accountability when they are bulldozed by men in tactical gear. We cannot claim to be a nation of laws if those who enforce them are allowed to treat transparency as a threat. The next time we talk about the power of hope or the resilience of the human spirit, we should remember that those forces are only “living” as long as we refuse to let them be silenced by ten shots on a sidewalk.