Dear Editor,
They said, “He was a good son and a good friend and brother. He was a goodhearted soul and he deeply loved his family and country and cared deeply for veterans and the well-being of others.”
These have been the words of the parents of Alex Pretti. As well as his sister and friends and co-workers and his patients and their families saying, “That’s great who Alex was. He would help anyone without thinking twice.”
When terrible things are happening to others it can bring out a kind of courage in some. They’re unable to think just of themselves when someone else is in need of help. And that was Alex. But then he was just doing what came natural, being an emergency nurse at a VA hospital.
So of course, while videotaping and documenting the violent activities that were happening in his community he went to the aid of a woman who had been violently shoved down and pepper sprayed.
When then he, too, was attacked. Leaving many asking the question, “Is this what we’ve come to?” You can’t even help someone up and show concern and ask if they’re okay? Even as he was being pepper sprayed and thrown to the ground Alex kept asking if she was okay. Until they shot him in the back, face down, execution style.
Not just one time or even three, but 10 times. It was with intent to kill. And it happened After they removed his ‘licensed’ firearm from his back holster that he had not once threatened them with.
An unarmed man shot to death with only his cell phone in his hand. And these agents said they were afraid (?!?) The ones who were doing the pushing and shoving and tackling with their arson of weapons. More like angered because their lawlessness was being recorded.
Yet these so called ‘agents of helpers’ this administration say are making us safer denied Alex emergency medical assistance when a medical professional on the scene offered to help. Instead they kept rolling Alex around like a rag doll counting how many bullets they put in him. Like he was a trophy.
Like a deer they just took down. But if that wasn’t bad enough for Alex’s parents Trump and Vance and DHS still try to demonize their son to justify murdering citizens. And as Danny Baker wrote in his op letter, ‘Murder in Our Streets,’ Americans can see what’s really going on. And saw the evening of the day Alex was brutally murdered how Trump and his billionaire friends were in their ‘Marie Antoinette world,’ tasting champagne at Melania’s gala affair celebrating her and her documentary about her glamorous life.
As if a mockery of what has been happening to us and our country over the past year while besieged in shock and horror with another citizen’s killing by DHS. But then I suppose it couldn’t have happened at a more likely time brutally reminding us of the two different worlds we live in and getting more different with each passing death, as protests grow. These ‘gents-of-chaos’ are paid for with our tax money taken from badly needed FEMA funds that it in itself is a crime. It’s not what Americans voted for.
Alex’s parents have pleaded for us not to believe the lies told about their son. That he was not a domestic terrorist or a would-be assassin. The lies we’ve been fed by this administration that’s out of touch with our reality.
A horrific reality for Alex’s parents I can only imagine their pain being I too, have a son who has spent his time and energy and resources trying to get truth out and people’s voices heard.
So I write on behalf of Alex Pretti’s parents who raised him to be passionate about the well-being of everyone and smart enough to know little children in bunny hats are not a national threat to our country or warehousing thousands of men, women and children against their will is a dark part of history repeating itself. Even if it meant it would be at the cost of Alex Pretti losing his life.
J.M.
