This Must Stop

I haven’t posted in a while. Life has been loud. Between surgeries, family crises, and getting my latest book ready, the days have been coming in sideways. But that isn’t why I’m writing today.

I’m writing because I have lost faith in our republic.

When I was growing up and even as recently as six years ago, I believed this was the best country on earth. I worked hard. I raised a family. I built a life. I believed, imperfect as it was, that the system bent toward accountability.

Today, that belief is gone.

What we are watching now is a federal government hollowed out by cronyism and incompetence, wielding power without restraint. Minnesota has been flooded with ICE agents under the banner of immigration enforcement. What we are seeing on the ground looks less like lawful policing and more like panic, poor training, and zero accountability.

Today, video from multiple angles circulated showing the shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a VA ICU nurse, while he was prone. Based on the footage available at the time of this writing, he did not appear to pose an immediate threat. What it shows instead is an armed agent who panicked. That should chill everyone, regardless of party.

This isn’t abstract to me. I spent years working alongside law enforcement as a digital forensic investigator. I understand how use-of-force standards are supposed to work. I also understand what happens when agencies are rushed, politicized, and insulated from consequences.

Whether you are Republican or Democrat, this should alarm you.

This will not stop with Minnesota. Any state that shows backbone against the sitting president can be next. The pattern is not subtle: provoke unrest, escalate federal presence, then claim justification for invoking extraordinary powers. That road ends with the Insurrection Act and the normalization of military force against civilians.

Congress has failed in its duty to restrain the executive branch. That failure is costing us our democracy in real time.

As the wife of an ICU nurse, my heart is with Mr. Pretti’s family. The grief, the rage, the senselessness of it all is overwhelming. No family should have to bury someone because an agent with a badge was afraid and unaccountable.

The only way we pull back from this edge is together.

Please. Write your senator. Write your representative. Email if you must, but better yet, send a letter. Physical mail gets read because it takes effort. Demand oversight. Demand accountability. Demand that federal power have limits again.

This must stop.