ICE MURDERERS

 

A MINOR ISSUE - EPSTEIN

 

PEDO KING

 

 

Don’t Be the Useful Idiot They’re Praying For A hard look at why calls for violence feel righteous, fail historically, and get innocent people crushed Jack Hopkins Jan 25 Don’t Be the Useful Idiot They’re Praying For A hard look at why calls for violence feel righteous, fail historically, and get innocent people crushed The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #750: Saturday, January 24th, 2026. A man is dead in Minneapolis today…shot and killed by a federal immigration officer during an enforcement operation. And right on schedule…the internet filled up with the dumbest advice on Earth: “Hit back.” “Get violent.” “Only way to stop a bully is to punch him.” Let me say this so plainly nobody can pretend they misunderstood me: If you’re promoting violence as the answer…you’re not resisting. You’re volunteering to become their excuse. You’re handing them the headline. You’re handing them the pretext. You’re handing them the “emergency” they’ve been trying to manufacture. That isn’t bravery. That’s amateur hour. Yes, your emotions are real Anger? Real. Hate? Real. Fear? Real. Outrage? Real. Those reactions are biological. Your nervous system is built to surge when it detects threat. Your body dumps chemicals into your bloodstream that scream: DO SOMETHING. NOW. That’s not weakness. That’s wiring. But here’s the part the keyboard-warriors never say out loud: Those chemicals are not a strategy. They’re an alarm system. And…if you let an alarm system drive the car…you don’t get “justice.” You get a crash. What the pros understand (and the amateurs don’t) The amateurs think “action” means theatrics. The pros know action means leverage. Because there are only two kinds of “pushback” in the real world: The kind that makes you feel powerful for 30 seconds The kind that makes them pay for 30 years Violence belongs to category #1…and it usually ends with you in cuffs…somebody else in a hospital…and the machine you hate getting more money…more authority…and more sympathy. And don’t miss the cruelest part: The people screaming for violence online are almost never the ones who pay the price. Other people do. Communities do. Families do. The vulnerable do. So…if you’re serious…if you actually want to stop what’s happening…then stop taking your cues from ignorant amateurs who confuse adrenaline for leadership. Quick in-app check If you’re reading in the Substack app, comment one word: DISCIPLINE. Not because it’s cute. Because it’s the dividing line between serious people…and useful idiots. “But what are we supposed to do?” Good. Now we’re talking like adults. Here’s what you do when you refuse to be baited into helping them: You demand receipts. And you attach consequences. In Minneapolis today, officials said the fatal shots were fired by a U.S. Border Patrol officer during a targeted operation…and the incident sparked major protests. That means…right now…before the narrative hardens into whatever PR script they want…the only winning move is: force facts into the light. Not vibes. Not “trust me bro.” Facts. Receipts look like: Body camera policy + footage status (what exists, what doesn’t, who controls it) Use-of-force reports Names and chain-of-command Timeline from dispatch to shots fired Independent investigation with real subpoena power Because here’s the ugly truth about power: Power doesn’t fear your anger. Power fears documentation. Documentation is what gets lawsuits filed. It’s what gets budgets questioned. It’s what gets agencies dragged into hearings. It’s what gets careers ended. Violence makes them bigger. Receipts make them fragile. The “bully” analogy is childish People love to say, “The only way to stop a bully is to hit back.” That’s something you say in a school hallway when you’re 14. We’re not in a hallway. We’re in a country where the state has: Badges Budgets Prosecutors Prisons Friendly media pipelines And the power to label anything “insurrection” when it’s convenient If you give them a violent image…you give them the easiest propaganda win in history. And…then you’ll watch the same people who dared you to “hit back” vanish into the ether…while you and your community deal with the aftermath. Here’s the real flex: controlled, relentless pressure You want to know what toughness looks like? Toughness is watching something horrifying happen…and refusing to hand your opponent the one thing they’re begging for: a justification. Toughness is staying calm enough to build a case…keep your coalition…and apply pressure where it actually hurts. Because “hit back” is emotional candy. It tastes good. Then…it rots your teeth. A disciplined strategy is vegetables. Not sexy. But…it keeps you alive long enough to win .This is how serious people think If you’re reading this, I’m going to make an assumption about you: You’re not one of the amateurs. You’re not here to perform rage for strangers. You’re here to protect people and force accountability. That means you don’t mistake feelings for instructions. You treat your anger like fuel…not a steering wheel. And…you understand the difference between “making noise” and “making them pay.” Because if the question is: What stops a bully? The answer isn’t “swing wildly.” The answer is: Remove the bully’s power. Legally. Financially. Politically. Culturally. That takes discipline. And discipline…is exactly what separates the people who win…from the people who become a footnote in someone else’s press release.

 

The ICE killing of Alex Pretti, the second in Minneapolis, prompts quick legal action After ICE agents killed Alex Pretti on Saturday, lawyers responded quickly — leading to one TRO issued before the night's end aimed at preserving evidence of the killing. Chris Geidner Jan 25 Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, was killed by ICE agents who shot him repeatedly on Saturday morning. The outcry to the Trump administration’s increasingly deadly immigration enforcement plans in the Twin Cities and across the country was immediate and sharp — including the news from Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that Democrats would not provide the votes needed to keep the government open if the funding measure that comes to them includes the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill passed by the House this past week. The statement from Pretti’s parents — who found out that their son had been killed when a reporter called them for comment — is righteous and does not hold back about “[t]he sickening lies told about our son by the administration.” Of their “kindhearted” son, they said, “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.” In the litigation pending in Minnesota that challenges the Trump administration’s extreme immigration efforts, and from a new lawsuit filed on Saturday evening challenging the federal government’s refusal to cooperate with state and local officials investigating a crime scene, it was clear that the lawyers were, despite the horror of the morning, ready to respond if something like Pretti’s killing happened. In less than 12 hours, a clear picture had emerged: A nurse, Alex Pretti, was trying to help members of his community — directing traffic amidst an immigration enforcement action — before being confronted by a federal agent, surrounded by several agents, taken to the ground, and shot multiple times — including in the back. A person who had received help from Pretti minutes earlier was feet away from him, recording as the federal agents killed him. A doctor who saw the shooting from their apartment and rushed out in the cold to provide help found the federal agents not attempting to provide any medical help to Pretti. Instead, the federal agents worked to prevent state and local law enforcement from doing their jobs, taking witnesses away from the scene and refusing state and local law enforcement with access to the crime scene. Before the day’s end, U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, had taken the first step toward addressing that final aspect, granting a temporary restraining order in the new case barring the federal government from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the killing of Pretti. It is an astounding order that reflects the Trump administration’s complete failure of governing for the people, a horrifying reality. In the case challenging Operation Metro Surge’s actions on First and Fourth Amendment grounds, lawyers quickly submitted new information before the district court judge and the appeals court. After U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, a Biden appointee, had issued a preliminary injunction — covered previously at Law Dork — the Justice Department appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an administrative stay on January 21. At 7:00 p.m. CT, the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case filed a motion at the Eighth Circuit asking it to “immediately lift the administrative stay.” Along with that filing, the lawyers filed a declaration from one of the named plaintiffs in the case, Lucia Webb, and from a witness to Saturday’s killing of Pretti who had been recording the interaction — and, eventually, shooting — with her phone. From the witness: The witness, who was recording, then saw the situation escalate due to the ICE agents’ actions: This is how their declaration ended: Before that, they lawyers had filed both of those declarations at the district court in front of Menendez, along with a declaration from a doctor who lives near the location of Pretti’s shooting and notice that they are filing the video recorded by the first witness. From the doctor, a 29-year-old resident, upon witnessing the shooting from their apartment: Then, outside, a similar moment to that faced when a doctor sought to help Renee Good. Luckily, this doctor eventually got through — after being patted down: Then, the doctor tried to do their job: After returning home and being distraught, the doctor left their home once “tear gas began seeping into [their] apartment.“ This is how their declaration ended: The new lawsuit challenging the refusal to allow state and local investigation of the crime scene — filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty — was paired with the motion for a temporary restraining order, memorandum of law supporting it, and another damning declaration — this one from Drew Evans, the Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). After detailing how BCA agents “were blocked by federal agents with the DHS from accessing the scene“ — even after obtaining a search warrant — Evans concluded, “In my 20-plus years at the BCA, prior to 2026, I had never encountered a situation in which federal authorities blocked BCA access to an incident where there is concurrent federal and state jurisdiction.“ Before 9:00 p.m. CT, the lawyers for Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul also returned to court in their pre-existing case, broadly challenging Operation Metro Surge. In their filing, and in advance of a previously scheduled hearing on Monday, Minnesota Solicitor General Liz Kramer, Minneapolis City Attorney Kristyn Anderson, and Saint Paul City Attorney Irene Kao asked for “an immediate stop – in a Temporary Restraining Order that by its terms is limited in length – of Operation Metro Surge.” In the filing, they warned, “If unchecked, Operation Metro Surge will only continue to inflict irreparable harms and wreak havoc on Plaintiffs and their residents,” concluding, “Emergency relief is not only warranted, it is essential.“