Barely two weeks apart, two American citizens have been slain in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Twin Cities, raising important questions not just about the violation of First Amendment freedoms, but also the trampling of Eighth Amendment protections that bar the government from inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti are so horrendous and brazen—not hidden, but flaunted in front of cameras—that they evoke historical parallels to lynching and vigilante public execution. Yet unlike America’s lynchings of the past, here the bystanders and protesters are traumatized, not gawking with satisfaction, but left fearful, shaken and grieving.
As if torn from the pages of a family violence casebook, ICE’s conduct in Minnesota now displays the hallmarks of domestic abuse—behavior used to gain or maintain power and control, paired with physical and emotional threats. Minnesotans are now afraid in their own homes, on their front lawns and in their cars—even as they try to protect their neighbors. This is modern-day domestic violence, not between partners, but wielded by the federal government through unlawful and unconstitutional force.
