Alex Pretti Shot by ICE Agents in Minnesota: Reflecting on Standard Operating Procedures in the US Criminal Penal System

On January 23rd, 2026, thirty-seven year old Minnesotan man, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse with the Minneapolis VA, was fatally shot by ICE agents while protesting on the streets of Minneapolis. The shooting increased widespread protests and media criticism for ICE'S law enforcement practices. Government officials claim Pretti, who was a legal carry and conceal gun owner, was engaging in domestic terrorism against ICE agents with an intent to massacre them.

Various online videos of the incident show a different story. In the videos one sees ICE agents shove one of Pretti's fellow female protestors to the ground. Afterward, Pretti comes to the woman's aid, confronting ICE officers for their excessive force. The Federal agents then push Pretti, and he is shown to brace his hands up against his chest while more than six ICE agents grab him, throw him to the ground, and start beating him. Moments into the melee, while Pretti is being beaten and restrained on the ground by the officers, a shot is fired by one of the agents, and then multiple other shots by one or more agents. Pretti died immediately on the scene.

Most national media outlets are appalled by the incident, stating that these law enforcement practices are both prohibited and illegal. Many have blamed this use of excessive force on ICE's lack of training in engaging US citizens during operations. However, this type of brutality among law enforcement officers is symptomatic of the United State's broader criminal penal policy. That policy views government officials, from law-makers to judges to prosecutors to enforcement agents and correctional officers as above the strict scrutiny and consequences of the same laws it enforces upon millions of common citizens. These officials operate above the law because the consequences for their illegal and excessive actions are never faced. Lawmakers are never punished or indicted for passing laws that indiscriminately target poor black and brown people. Instead, they are praised for being tough on crime. Judges who excessively sentence millions of black and brown people are never arrested, fired, or even reprimanded. Instead, judges are given legal immunity against their bad rulings, prejudicial decisions, and over-sentencing practices. Prosecutors who excessively charge defendants, withhold exculpatory video evidence, misrepresent forensic evidence, or lie in their summations, are never prosecuted or disbarred. Instead, they get promotions for convictions, no matter how wrongful. Law enforcement agents who kill men and women on their streets or in their homes are seldom charged, and when they are, the sentences that they receive are nowhere near the severity of those who receive life sentences for merely accosting an agent. Instead, the officers are usually praised as heroes while the victim's character is slandered and made to believe that he or she is responsible for their own death. Correctional officers, who beat, rape, and murder incarcerated people are almost never held accountable for their brutality. Instead, their crimes are covered up and squarely blamed on the incarcerated victim.

As an incarcerated individual myself, having done over 20 years for a crime I did not commit, the Pretti scene with multiple officers beating and restraining him, instantly reminded me of the tragic death of Robert Brooks on December 10th, 2024. Videos of Mr. Brooks being mercilessly beaten in a prison infirmary at Wende Correctional Facility in New York are a sneak peak into the normally opaque practices that our criminal penal system inflicts upon its incarcerated victims. 

Those who wield the "legal" power to execute judgement and force, no matter how brutal, have almost no accountability for their actions because the criminal penal system has their back. Most government law officials view themselves as morally superior than those who break laws or oppose law enforcement. With such a viewpoint it becomes easy to label these people as criminals, thugs, illegals, animals, super-predators, or domestic terrorists that must be caged or eliminated at all costs.

Democrats have unilaterally condemned ICE operations that have occurred in primarily "blue" sanctuary cities. However, when law enforcement abuses happen within the boundaries of their State, justice for the victims of such abuse of power is found wanting. Take the aforementioned Brooks case. Having a Democrat super majority in the Assembly and the Senate, as well as a Democrat Governor in Kathy Hochul, New York State could have taken a hard look at its prison population and come to the conclusion that prison reform legislation is long overdue. Instead, NY legislators approved a multimillion dollar contract for surveillance camera companies to profit off of installation of new body cams and surveillance cameras. Proposed prison reform legislation such as the Second Look Act, the Fair and Timely Act, and the Merit Time Bill failed to make it to the floor for a vote. As a matter of fact, in the wake of the Brooks case, New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D), and Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D) failed to bring to a vote any kind of prison reform legislation that addresses parole board abuses, expanding work release programs, or earned early release time for incarcerated people who have made ambitious strides toward (re)habilitation.

Instead, these Democrat officials have sided with the same criminal penal system whose brutality has been highlighted by the ICE agents dispatched into Minneapolis by President Trump's administration. As Democrats clamor over the abuses of an authoritarian President and his federal thugs, incarcerated people in Democrat strongholds like New York are painfully aware of their hypocrisy. If Democrats truly want to oppose a tyrannical government, they must stop being enablers. Comprehensive prison reform legislation in States like New York is the only offense against a rapidly expanding police State proliferated largely by Republican machinations.

The Mamdani mayoral campaign was proof that Democrat voters are seeking bold leadership to actually do what their leaders have been promising for decades, which in large part is to eradicate the effects and practices of mass incarceration. Kathy Hochul's 2024 State of the State address claimed that she wanted New York to be the National beacon of light that ended mass incarceration. However, to date, she has only granted a handful of clemency releases, and has failed to pass any prison reform legislation that decreases the number of its incarcerated population. 

We the people must hold our government officials accountable and vote out of office anyone who is unwilling to detach themselves from the inhumane practices of the criminal penal system. In recent days, it has been proven that our very lives are at stake.

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Paul Vincent Cortez is an incarcerated author of two books, "For Treason of Innocence: A Treatise on the Liberation Theology of the Incarcerated, Liberative Justice, and Carceral Abolition" (2023), and "God's Hand Reaches Down: Evangelism in the American Maximum Security Prison System" (2020). His writings have been featured in Federica Coppola's new book, "The Real Pain of Punishment" (2026), and Rev. Dr. Allen D. Ferry's book, "Insights from Inside" (2018). While incarcerated, Paul Cortez earned his Master's degree in professional studies (MPS) of urban ministry through New York Theological Seminary (now merged with Union Theological Seminary). He has won awards for his paintings, including "Prison Profit-Tears", from the Corrections Accountability Project (now Worth Rises). He is the winner of the 2025 Decoda music composer's grant award. His classical music compositions have been performed at Trinity Church Wall Street, The Old Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and Carnegie Hall. Paul Cortez is an alumni of Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program and is currently composing classical music and songwriting at Sing Sing Correctional. In 2025, Paul, along with six other incarcerated individuals was featured in the award-winning documentary, "Beyond". He applied for clemency in 2018 and is still awaiting a decision on his clemency application from Governor Kathy Hochul's office.