The second fatal shooting of an American citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis became the fulcrum for fresh public protests and political condemnation in the Bay Area on Saturday.
A protest organized by Bay Resistance at San Francisco’s Embarcadero and march on Market Street was called after Saturday’s killing of Alex Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
“Our hearts break for today’s tragic ICE murder in Minneapolis,” said a poster in support of the demonstration. “Join us for an emergency action to demand an end to ICE’s terrorizing of our communities and cities!”
Pretti’s death was the second fatal shooting of a protester in Minnesota after an ICE agent killed Renee Nichole Good on Jan. 7.
Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol, said agents attempted to disarm the man who was killed “but the armed suspect violently resisted.”
Video of the shooting appeared to disagree with Noem’s assessment.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded, “Kristi Noem must RESIGN.”
“Suspend the LAWLESS mass deportation raids nationwide NOW — ICE is no longer just deporting dangerous criminals,” Newsom said on social media. “INVESTIGATE and PROSECUTE every single federal agent who is breaking the law.”
Pretti’s killing “is a direct result of enforcement operations that treat American communities as combat zone,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement.
“These operations have resulted in senseless deaths and created an atmosphere of terror rather than safety — and we must condemn them unequivocally,” Lee, a former Democratic member of Congress, said.
“Trump’s untrained thugs have murdered another person in Minneapolis,” San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener said in a statement. “These Gestapo secret police are rampaging through American cities with a total sense of impunity, because there’s zero accountability.”
Wiener has written a bill, the No Kings Act, SB 747, that would allow Californians who are harmed by federal agents to sue them, as they can local and state law enforcement. It will be voted on by the California Senate in the coming week, a spokesman said.
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