RFC Statement on Death of Alex Pretti
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them—and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”
— Frederick Douglass
This is the moment Frederick Douglass—freedom fighter, formerly enslaved American, and statesman—warned us about.
The question before the American people is no longer abstract or theoretical. It is immediate and stark: Will we be a people who demand that power change—or a people who bend to its tyrannical will?
The killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota was not a tragic misunderstanding. It was a test of our tolerance, our courage, and our commitment to constitutional freedom.
Alex Pretti was lawfully present.
He was lawfully filming federal officers as they used force against a woman.
He was lawfully carrying a concealed firearm, as permitted under Minnesota law.
He never drew it. Never wielded it. Never threatened anyone.
Video evidence shows that Mr. Pretti was disarmed, restrained, and on the ground. And yet he was shot up to five times.
This is not law enforcement.
This is not self-defense.
This is the execution of a citizen for exercising his rights.
For years, Americans have been told—often by the loudest voices in our politics—that the Second Amendment must be protected at all costs. That firearms rights outweigh even the lives of children in schools. That “law-abiding gun owners” are the constitutional gold standard. That the mere presence of a legally carried weapon is not justification for state violence.
And now, when a law-abiding American does exactly what the law allows—carry, not wield—he is killed by the state.
This is the hypocrisy at the heart of our current moment.
You cannot claim to cherish the Second Amendment while endorsing the killing of a man who honored it.
You cannot revere the Constitution while applauding its selective enforcement.
You cannot invoke “law and order” when order is imposed through fear, force, and death.
Coming so soon after the killing of Renee Good, this shooting signals something far more dangerous than a single abuse of power. It marks a pattern—the normalization of overwhelming federal force against civilians engaged in lawful conduct. This is how tyranny takes root: not overnight, but gradually, as the public is conditioned to accept what once would have been unthinkable.
Douglass understood this truth: power watches. Power measures. Power advances when people submit quietly.
The Redefining Freedom Center refuses to submit. We demand, along with many other national organizations and civil rights group the following:
A full, independent, civilian-led investigation
The immediate release of all body-camera and operational footage
Accountability for every officer involved
Congressional oversight into federal use-of-force practices against civilians
Freedom is not proven by what we say we believe. It is proven by what we defend when it is tested. And by what we refuse to tolerate—now.
