Desperately dissecting the fatal videos, frame by frozen frame, we hope the horrible images will deliver the legal answer we want. Alex Pretti, disarmed and helpless, was murdered in cold blood by a modern-day Gestapo. Or: Alex Pretti assaulted federal officers, resisted arrest, then reached for a firearm before he was justifiably shot in self-defense.
But the videos are not going to give the country the answers it needs. Even fair and thorough investigations, which should follow, won’t do so. Whether the law inculpates or exonerates the U.S. border patrol officers who killed Pretti in a chaotic confrontation on Saturday—and I’ll walk through the arguments below—at this point that’s not what matters.
The administration is running headlong toward a Kent State moment.
