Video evidence shows that on Saturday morning in Minneapolis Alex Pretti was shot in the back by an ICE agent while he was on his hands and knees. After he fell motionless to the pavement, he was shot multiple more times. A few days before that, Renee Good was shot in the face by an ICE agent while slowly turning her car to leave the area. Neither Pretti nor Good had presented a threat, yet both were killed.

The administration and some right-wing media immediately claimed the shootings were justified, that Good had run over an ICE agent and that Pretti was armed and therefore dangerous. But multiple videos show that Pretti had been disarmed before being shot in the back, and that Good had not run over an ICE agent. These were pointless executions.

Combined with Trump’s ongoing pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters and multiple other criminals, and with his use of the Department of Justice to prosecute those he views as enemies, it feels like we are living in a third-world country. It is easy to dismiss these horrors because we live in central Pennsylvania, where things are peaceful and life goes on as normal. But remember, we all are living with the same government.

William Sweeney

Bedford