Will Stancil is a lawyer and housing policy researcher. He lives in Lowry Hill.
The federal government’s siege of Minneapolis appears to be in its ending phases, but the aftermath is only beginning. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol flooded the city starting in December under Operation Metro Surge, with as many as 3,000 officers patrolling neighborhoods and conducting raids. (Wikipedia)
In hindsight, the operation’s turning point was the murder of Alex Pretti on Nicollet Avenue. The killing, filmed from multiple angles by observers, collapsed the Trump administration’s narrative that Pretti was a threat. (MPR News)
What remained was one of the most shocking law-enforcement killings ever caught on camera: a disarmed man on all fours, shot ten times in the back at point-blank range by masked paramilitary agents in broad daylight.
Following the footage, political support for the operation faltered. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino was removed and reassigned. He was
Continued on next page
