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Episode 120 -- The Murder of Alex Pretti (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-03 07:28:13
Imported:
2026-09

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Content

On January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. In this episode, Moira and Adrian delve into the murder and the reaction across media and society. Their conversation focuses on questions of gender, solidarity, whiteness and the role of all of these in the MAGA imagination.

Comments

Ilona

Thanks for all your amazing work - the pace/speed of releasing new episodes is incredible and at the same time they are so thoughtful, insightful and researched. I appreciate the reflection of your own experiences and perspectives.

Betti Steam

For terrible conditions, please add the measles outbreak at the Texas facility Dilley I think

John Sand

St Paulian here. Really REALLY want to echo how Adrian and Moira close here. If there is one thing that seems to be unifying across identity lines in MN, it's that national and corporate institutions are failing to meet the moment. Our community is stepping up and WE are telling the stories. When leaders cannot articulate challenges OR solutions, we are moving them aside to do the work ourselves. Our occupation is exposing how far removed the lived realities of elites are from danger generally. My company with a very large twin cities office had to be publicly pressed many many times to acknowledge this at all. And acknowledgement of the prior acquisition of Minneapolis companies--framed as 'a rich history' and 'deep ties'--seems to be all that's on offer. A wheelbarrow full of hope remains for me, and it's this: We are standing up anyway. True bravery lives in the hearts of our neighbors. The normies have been radicalized, and they're carrying tater tot hotdish. L'Etoile Du Nord! John

kate !

crucial detail that everyone seems to miss: he was not AT a protest. this is just what's happening in the streets of minneapolis rigt now. he didn't bring a gun to a protest because he wasn't at a protest at all.

Susan Olson

Minneapolitan here to clarify that if any of our local politicians are doing anything, it is in fact members of the city council, not the mayor, governor, or local law enforcement. People have been calling for am eviction moratorium from Walz for weeks now, nothing. Frey continues to have a press tour with no action. The county sheriff is arresting peaceful protestors. People are lionizing and thirsting after our police chief, but LEOs are very much not seen as allies by those on the ground afaik. Also, Ilhan is in Washington and seems to have no trouble locating her backbone.

sonorasgirl

I think another way Alex Pretti is the IRL version of these coward’s fantasies is that he was stepping in to defend a woman. I think there’s a lot of incel imagination of being (white) women’s white knight, and Alex was carrying a gun, didn’t need permission to be there, was standing up to bullies, and was doing it for a woman laying on the ground behind him whom other guys had hit. Like, this is every fantasy they have…and him paying for it with his life is a betrayal of that fantasy

Louzie

Yes, this! Also, thank you for making sense of the racial dimensions here! That's something I've missed in all the coverage and analysis elsewhere of these murders, so far.

Heidi Lou

Moira’s critical self reflection on white women’s insecurity after Renee Goode’s murder…👌

Susan Olson

One other thing that I want to mention case anyone is not aware is that, in many cases, mutual aid activities are being operated intentionally under the radar in order to not lead agents to those receiving aid. Rapid response and protesting, by contrast, are intentionally built around visibility.

Thomas Sutton

WRT your discussion of factors that have galvanized resistance to the siege here in MN, one thing that I see being misunderstood by folks outside of the state and certainly something that pundits shocked by the breadth of solidarity here and sheer volume of people resisting locally don't seem to grasp, is that the Twin Cities are simply not that large. It's a metropolitan area, but it's not a dense metropolis like NYC where there are millions of people who share spaces without ever crossing paths and it's not a sprawling metropolis like Dallas or LA where the edges of the city are separated by long distances. You can travel between practically any two points in the metro area here in about 20 minutes. Alex Pretti was murdered in front of one of the most popular donut shop/bakeries in the state, in the middle of a stretch of road that's been the most popular restaurant destination in the cities for decades. In the same way that seeing state violence enacted against people who look very much like you or your loved ones tends to resonate strongest, witnessing the state murder someone on a busy street where you and everyone you know has gone to eat lunch at some point makes it impossible to allow yourself to be convinced that the violence is an abstraction or at enough of a distance that it isn't also a direct threat to you. The scale of this occupation combined with the relatively modest size of the cities has meant that essentially every resident of the metro area has at this point either been directly personally impacted or at the very least has a personal connection to the locations of these acts of violence if not the victims themselves.

Solomon Freilich Photography

Still listening but I'm surprised you're not mentioning that Alex Pretti was a man and a nurse. Isn't that a type of non-traditional gender role? When I was a kid, I thought men were doctors and women were nurses. Wouldn't the Right think of him as gay because of his occupation regardless of the actual truth? Although I think regardless of the reason, parts of the Right have no trouble justifying his death.

kathleen

I was thinking about Adrian's comment on eroding trust in institutions vs local organization to resist and how worrying that is. My first thought was MN's political talent bench is pretty deep and we tend to vote and are otherwise politically engaged at high rates for Americans. I was wondering how that engagement would interact with that distrust. Well. It is caucus night in Minnesota. I am hearing from folks in my life around the state and apparently precincts are FULLLLL. Like twice as full as in a general election year full. A friend on bsky posted something to the tune of "well, I'm at my caucus, that's how mad I am." It's an interesting response to the circumstances. This seems like a good year to primary an ineffectual candidate in your area.

kathleen

I've been thinking about this a lot, too, @Thomas. We have Glam Doll Donut mugs in our cabinet, celebrated my stepson's graduation at Wrecktangle Pizza, my brother's groom's dinner was at Rainbow, (it is practically next door to GD). I've donated books to Smitten Kitten's lending library and on and on and on... I'm hardly special in this way. We live in a giant small town. We could all win at Six Degrees Of Glam Doll. I think the familiarity helps folks not only feel invested but makes it easy to find entree into opportunities to help. I'm know others places like NYC and CHI have assets that they activated to push back. Minnesota's provinciality might have made it seem like an easy win for DHS. I am with you in saying it's a feature people are using to operationalize the Fuck Ice, Fascists Go Home energy.

Susan Olson

Mine had 119 people, vs 82 two years ago.

kathleen

!!!!! Go citizens of Susan's precinct!! Is there good precinct T to spill?

Susan Olson

Lol, oh gosh, maybe? For some reason 4 of the 5 volunteers for the county convention were from my specific block.

Susan Olson

As this is IBWTR, I should also mention that the party has gender balance rules for delegates, which means that the person leading the meeting has to yell out "is there anyone who is non-binary and wants to be a delegate?" Also, at least one person's ballot for county convention delegates got thrown out because they voted for the 2 male candidates rather than 1 male, 1 female.

Susan Olson

Actual caucus tea! Apparently Linea Palmisano* was not selected by her precinct (13 1) to be a delegate to the county convention because people didn't like her support for relatively conservative sheriff and attorney candidates 🎉 *one of our least left city councillors, for the non locals

MB

Deeply appreciate this episode! As a 37 year old ICU nurse myself, I have honestly been dreading consuming much analysis regarding Alex Pretti’s murder. Moira and Adrian covered it thoughtfully and compassionately as always! One thing I did miss from the discussion (that Solomon also mentioned above!) is the gender dynamics around Alex being a nurse (a historically feminized profession) and the runway that gives the Right to smear him. Also the massive workforce his murder has mobilized. From the perspective of a person who’s pretty involved in union work- there is much to say about getting nurses across the country to meaningfully “buy in” to working class solidarity/the labor movement. But that could be a whole episode in itself!

Ink

Wonderful episode! One point of disagreement I have is with the ending, where Adrian is worried about the mass distrust of institutions, and how we can recover from that: I don't necessarily see that as a problem. It's actually a source of hope for me, that people are realizing the problems inherent in our institutions, how they reward power and abuse and violence. My worry is rather that people will try to recreate these institutions, without rooting out these hierarchies that allow this violence to happen. So I'm hoping for (and trying to work towards) a world with fewer of these institutions, where we can be more equitable, and where we protect and help each other, rather than relying on "the powers that be" to do it for us.