Jefferson’s 27 indictments of King George III and the Parliament of Great Britain in his Declaration of Independence: do they have application today?
I was driving on I-94 east of Billings, Montana, Saturday when I learned of the killing of a Minneapolis man by federal ICE agents. The site of the killing, Hennepin and 26th, is my old neighborhood from when, long ago, I was a student at the University of Minnesota. Alarming news, and that was before I saw the videos that seem to indicate that 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an American citizen, was murdered by a scrum of border patrol agents who held him down, pummeled him, and then shot him several times.
I pulled over for two minutes as the network I was listening to simply broadcast the voices of the witnesses and those who rushed to the scene to protest in the wake of the killing.
That’s when I burst into tears.
Before I comment on this, I want to say — clearly and unequivocally — that we urgently need an exhaustive, independent, and unbiased investigation of the incident, by an entity that is not the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service. We should all be willing to keep something of an open mind until that investigation is complete — though it looks as if ICE and the Trump administration are doing what they can to make such an investigation impossible.
I burst into tears in the middle of Montana because what I heard from the Minnesotans who cried out in protest was so much more raw and real than the chanting one normally expects in an urban protest. This was not just “Hey Ho, Hey Ho, Evil ICE has got to go!” These were uncoordinated cries of pure anguish, bewilderment, frustration, rage, and sorrow. These were just average Minnesotans reacting the way we humans react when some terrible thing happens right before our eyes. You could even hear the characteristic Minnesota accent in some of the shouts and murmurs.
I also burst into tears because these were not fair-weather protestors. It was about -10 degrees Fahrenheit in downtown Minneapolis, well below zero with the wind chill factor. I had stopped to get gas before leaving Billings. It was bitterly cold — same weather as Minneapolis — and my hands and face were numb from just a few minutes standing outside my vehicle. The spontaneous mass protest on Friday in Minneapolis (the day before the shooting) brought between 35,000 and 50,000 people into the streets on the coldest day in seven years. Of course, you will be assured by administration spokesmen and pundits that these were “outside agitators,” members of ANTIFA, “radical leftists,” “haters of America,” etc.
That is not what I heard. What I heard was grief. John Donne: “Everyman’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.”
The people of Minneapolis-St. Paul have made it clear that they do not want ICE in their cities. The Governor has asked ICE to leave. (So much for federal deference to state sovereignty.) The mayor of Minneapolis has asked ICE to leave. The two Minnesota U.S. Senators, including the very powerful Amy Klobuchar, have asked ICE to leave.
If it is essential to U.S. security to find, arrest, and deport undocumented individuals who are hardened criminals, who have committed felonies, surely it is possible to do this humanely — with respect for the rule of law (especially the doctrine of Habeas Corpus), with respect for local leadership and law enforcement and local sentiment, and indeed with a modicum of respect for the individuals who are to be arrested and deported. We are America, not North Korea or Iran. We are America. The idea that ICE and other border patrol agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves are popping out of black SUVs, snatching people off the streets of our cities and sometimes from their homes (without authorizing warrants), then sending them to detention centers down along the border or in “friendly” other nations, is anathema to everything the United States stands for. Or did.
America at 250! Tens of thousands of ICE agents terrorizing our cities, zealously engaged in unconstitutional actions with a brutality entirely unnecessary in almost all circumstances. A military incursion into a sovereign neighbor nation (Venezuela) without consulting Congress, the United Nations, or our closest allies in the world. A wild and wanton threat to just annex Greenland for our own security and economic purposes, coupled with a threat of punitive tariffs against any NATO nation that opposes this illegal land grab. Deliberately addressing the Canadian Prime Minister as “governor.” Telling NATO member states that they have failed to step up in previous international military actions — when in fact those nations (in spite of their deep skepticism) sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq where their soldiers died proportionally with our own. Threatening a 100% tariff against Canada if that sovereign nation cuts a trade deal with China.
Is this who we are?
Is this who we have become?
Is this the America you want to live in?
Do any of these actions comport with the historic ideals of America as written in those 250-year-old documents, beginning with Jefferson’s magnificent Declaration of Independence?
As I drove on towards Bismarck (500 miles) I texted one of my oldest friends and suggested that we urge fellow Dakotans to gather on the grounds of the North Dakota capitol today (Sunday) for a silent vigil for America. I will be there, shivering, silent, and terribly saddened.
I also texted several friends in Minneapolis. DS and MS are exactly what you think Minnesotans would be: thoughtful, well-informed, law-abiding, decent, respectful, friendly, good-willed, civic-minded, patient, and generous people. I knew before I texted them that they must surely have been among the tens of thousands of people on Friday who took (entirely peacefully!) to the streets to protest the ICE presence in Minnesota. Sure enough. DS sent a report of their experience. See my Facebook for that post.
Has it come to this?
My friend Niles lives just a few blocks from the site of Saturday’s killing. I asked him to send me his sense of the current mood of the city. You’ll find his entire statement at my Facebook site, but here is what I regard as the most important single paragraph:
Many people on the Right want to bring this down to politics, but this doesn’t feel political. One might find activists “annoying” or strident, but I think something the majority of people — especially in the “flyover country” of Minnesota — dislike exponentially more is the callousness of a bully. That’s what people see in these ICE killings. Witness another video, where an agent patrolling Good’s vigil site kicks over a candle. He’s met with the apoplectic anger of a protestor, but sneers with self-satisfaction at his authority. I think what most people see in Minneapolis right now are deliberate choices being made, the adherence to an amoral quasi-Nietzschean sensibility of Might-Makes-Right and Ends-Justifying-Means, the flagrant disregard of not just constitutional norms but of human empathy. This might not apply to the specific quintessence of each ICE agent’s character, but it is what’s generated by the optics in these images.
Thomas Jefferson listed 27 indictments of King George III and the Parliament of Great Britain in his Declaration of Independence. These were the grievances that forced us to declare independence on July 4, 1776, 250 years ago. I strongly urge you to read them through. Here are a few of the 27, the ones that seem to apply to our immediate situation. “He” is George III.
“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
“For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.”
“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”
“For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
My friends, you do the math. I ask again:
Is this who we now are?