Alex Pretti

Over the weeks as I read more and more news about USA, one state kept popping up and that was Minnesota. 

From the Somali day cares, to the shooting of Renee Good and now Alex Pretti, it's no wonder USA is a complete mess right now. 

As a tax payer, I would be absolutely furious if I found out a bunch of Somali run day care centres were all funded by the government, but having no kids in any of their facilities. Where did all the money go? Nick Shirley, a Youtube content creator did his research to try and find this out. No one from any of the facilities were able to answer why they didn't have kids in these day cares. This exploded overnight and was shared thousands of times over, until Trump ordered no further funding for day cares in Minnesota. Now of course this would affect all the legit run day cares too, and they are the ones that suffer the most. But the bigger question is, where did all the money go? If it's not to maintain the day cares, where did it really go? 

If it is true that a lot of these illegal day care centres are being run by illegal immigrants, then I understand why they want a mass deportation because in Trump's eyes, the "illegal aliens" are just costing more havoc on the nation. Clear the illegals, clear the problem. 

With the ICE that is happening across the nation, and trying to find illegal immigrants to kick out of the country, ok fine, I get that. However, the way that it is currently being run, there must be a better way than asking random people at work or on the street for their citizenship. 

The latest shooting of a US citizen, Alex Pretti, is one that has now exploded all over the news. Videos online show a woman protesting against ICE, who is then knocked down by the agents. Alex, who was video recording on a device, sprung into action to help the woman up. Alex gets pepper sprayed by the ICE and then knocked down, where there seems to be a scuffle going on, and then he is shot multiple times. He was executed in front of everyone.

Alex was not just another US citizen gunned down by ICE. He was an ICU RN, working at the Minnesota hospital's veteran unit. As a nurse, he had promised to serve and advocate for those who are not able to fend or speak for themselves. 

From another viewpoint of videos, it is shown he was trying to help the woman up. During that, he asked the woman if she was ok, while holding up a video camera device, and the other hand being free and held up high for ICE to see he was not holding a weapon. He did have a hand held gun on his waist, which was legally registered to him, but it was never pulled out against the ICE. It wasn't until he got knocked over that an ICE agent saw the weapon, and felt he was in danger, so he took the gun from him, and then opened fire while Alex was still on the ground defenceless. 

To call Alex a terrorist and a threat, when he was shot in the back multiple times, that's a huge lie to all the US citizens, and those who are watching world wide. 

As a nurse, I am saddened to see one of our own be executed. He didn't just die, or pass away peacefully. No, he was murdered. Executed. By the government. All because he tried to help a woman who got knocked down by the agents.

1 in 4 nurses already experience some type of violence in the work place. And now they can't even advocate for those outside of the hospital because they might get executed for helping and protecting others who are injured. 

The American Nurses' Association has already posted on IG about his death, but that's the thing. ANA needs to call out ICE as well for their actions. That this was a murder, and this will not be condoned and will be fully investigated. Those who are responsible for his death will be brought to justice. ANA needs to stand up for the nurses, not just acknowledge his death and give 'thoughts and prayers' to his family.

Lastly, don't f*ck with nurses. Nurses are the backbone to the entire health care system. You mess with one (or execute one), now you get to deal with millions of us.

Change needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.