When Renee Good was killed by a masked federal agent, I was consumed with rage.

Still am.

Her death shocked me, not because police violence isn’t rare in this country, but because of how nakedly cruel and dishonest the response was. An unarmed mother was shot dead, her name dragged through the mud, and the system snapped instantly into defensive formation to protect the man who pulled the trigger.

But after the killing of Alex Pretti, I feel something different layered on top of the anger.

I feel sadness. A deep, exhausted sadness.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m no less angry about either killing. Renee Good’s death was horrifying. Alex Pretti’s death, somehow, felt inevitable, and that’s the part that scares me the most.

Because what does it say about a country when government agents kill another citizen and the dominant emotion isn’t shock anymore, but resignation?

Renee Good’s killing felt like a line was being crossed in real time.

Alex Pretti’s killing feels like confirmation that the line is gone.

This is what it looks like when a country that once wrapped itself in the language of liberty now represents…whatever this is. A place where masked agents conduct raids, shoot citizens, disappear behind internal reviews, and call the dead terrorists before the blood is even dry.

And where are all the loud Second Amendment absolutists now?

Where are the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ decals slapped on the rusted-out shitboxes idling in Walmart parking lots? Where’s all that chest-thumping about resisting tyranny when actual government agents are killing citizens with zero transparency and zero accountability?

Funny how quiet that crowd gets when the boot doing the treading belongs to their team.

Kristi Noem said that agents fired ‘defensive shots’ at Alex Pretti.

That phrase should offend anyone who still believes words mean things.

There is no such thing as a defensive shot.

A firearm is, by definition, an offensive weapon. It is designed to maim or kill. Pulling a trigger is not a shield. It is a decision to use lethal force. Calling it ‘defensive’ is a linguistic trick meant to anesthetize the public and pre-justify whatever comes next.

Let’s call Alex Pretti’s murder what it was: cowardice.

And once again, the administration’s reflex was the same. Label the dead person a domestic terrorist.

Because once you slap that label on someone, you don’t have to answer uncomfortable questions anymore.

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse.

He treated veterans. He worked in trauma. He spent his life dealing with the physical aftermath of violence inflicted on others, often in service to this country.

If we’re going to talk about patriotism, then Alex Pretti embodied it more honestly than anyone currently slithering around inside the Trump administration.

But patriotism doesn’t protect you anymore. Compliance does.

And as of this writing, we still don’t know the names of the agents who shot him.

Just like we don’t know why the ‘man’ who killed Renee Good isn’t sitting in a cell but instead has been quietly squirreled away by the government, insulated from consequences by his badge and the machinery behind it.

This is not transparency. This is not justice. This is secret police behavior, no matter how offended that comparison makes people who desperately want to believe it can’t happen here.

If this were really about ‘illegal immigration,’ ICE wouldn’t be concentrating its terror theatrics where it’s politically useful.

Why isn’t ICE descending on states like Texas or Florida, where undocumented populations are more statistically significant?

Because this was never about immigration.

It’s about power.

And Donald Trump clings to power the way a baby possum clings to its mother, panicked, desperate, and incapable of surviving without it.

These raids generate fear. Fear generates obedience, and obedience is the point.

I don’t pretend to know the full strategy, assuming there even is one.

Some people believe these operations conveniently distract from unresolved issues like the Epstein files. Others argue this is groundwork for something darker: emergency powers, martial law rhetoric, even suspending elections under the guise of ‘security.’

I don’t know if this administration is capable of thinking that far ahead.

However, I also wouldn’t put anything past people who have already shown they’re willing to excuse state violence as long as it serves their interests.

What I do know is this: the trajectory is bad. And it’s accelerating.

I’m worried enough about this country’s future that, if I had the resources, I’d seriously consider leaving. But the longer this goes on, the more it feels like there will be nowhere left to run, especially as Trump fuels international instability, escalates conflicts abroad, and treats global tension like a branding exercise.

Some people will ask why I’m writing about this here.

Because these are murders.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by agents of the state. The fact that the government insists on calling it ‘justified’ doesn’t change the underlying reality. Justice doesn’t stop being justice just because the killer wears a uniform.

If anything, the standard should be higher.

Instead, it’s nonexistent.

I also want it documented that I will not comply.

Once again, FUCK ICE!!!