5 Editorials on the Alex Pretti Shooting

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend continues to dominate the headlines. Here's a look at four editorials on the aftermath, and there seems to be a common theme from both the left and right:

• "It's time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President," the editorial from the right-leaning New York Post begins. It ends by asserting that "the American people didn't vote for these scenes, and you can't continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes." The piece faults Pretti for "clumsily interfering" with ICE agents, but it also levels criticism at the "hasty and misleading rhetoric" coming from the administration about him. It goes after Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem in particular on that front, suggesting she "take a break from her self-promoting and combative TV hits."

• In similar fashion, the conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal writes that Trump "would be wise to pause ICE enforcement in the Twin Cities to ease tensions and consider a less provocative strategy." The editors write that Pretti "foolishly" tried to interfere with ICE agents, but say that he should have been arrested, not killed. It also faults Noem and Trump aide Stephen Miller for their rhetoric. "Their social-media and cable-TV strategy is to own the libs, rather than to persuade Americans." That puts the burden on Trump himself.
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune worries that the entire state is at a "dangerous edge" and sees one solution: "What is not open to debate is this: The current ICE surge in Minnesota must be paused. ... An ICE pause would not represent abolition. It is governance. It is an acknowledgment that tactics producing sweeping disruption, mounting injury and now multiple civilian deaths are failing their own stated aims."
• The New York Times is in sync with the above. "The temperature in Minneapolis is dangerously high," the editorial reads. "There is an urgent need for the federal agents deployed to the city to step back and take a breath before more Americans are hurt or killed. Those protesting the Trump administration have an equal obligation to avoid violence."
• The Washington Post, meanwhile, demands an independent investigation into the Pretti shooting, adding that ICE "needs to be bound by laws, oversight and accountability" and that US citizens "need to be secure in exercising their First and Second Amendment rights without worrying they'll get gunned down." Trump tapped into Americans' concerns about immigration in his reelection, but he's now guilty of "overreach," they write. "If Trump won't change course on his own, can Republicans in Congress save him from himself?"