A lot of people are upset over Alex Pretti being shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis. While I’m not going to comment specifically on that case–we’ve talked about it already–I will say that there are things people should probably avoid doing if they want to minimize their own chances of being shot while protesting ICE.
None of this is overly radical, nor should it be particularly controversial.
Yes, you can bring guns to protests so long as your state has no law against it–and I oppose such laws anyway–and you can exercise your right to protest as loudly as you want.
What you can’t do, and what’s a good way to end up getting shot and killed yourself, is pointing guns at people who walk by, among other acts of aggression.
Ellettsville resident Ryan Hughes, 42, was arrested Friday afternoon following a Bloomington protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the city’s use of Flock Safety surveillance cameras. He was accused of pointing a firearm at and pepper spraying people passing the protest.
After gathering at City Hall, walking to Sample Gates and marching down Kirkwood Avenue, about 100 protesters gathered outside the Monroe County Courthouse, chanting and holding signs that called for ICE to be abolished and condemned Bloomington’s contract with Flock.
Hughes was arrested on four charges that allegedly occurred near the protest. The charges included intimidation and pointing a firearm, level 5 and 6 felonies, as well as two battery charges, class A misdemeanors, Bloomington Police Department Captain Ryan Pedigo said in an email.
At about 2:15 p.m., officers responded to a complaint near the Walnut Street and Kirkwood Avenue intersection next to the courthouse. A 47-year-old man claimed he was trying to turn onto Walnut Street, but a protester, later identified as Hughes, had blocked the vehicle in front of him by standing in the middle of the street, Pedigo wrote. The man said he tried to drive around the vehicle, but the protester stepped in front of him.
The man reported Hughes pointed a shotgun at him and said, “I’ll f**k you up,” causing the driver to “fear for his life,” according to the email. The man also alleged other protesters hit his vehicle and caused damage.
Hughes was described as wearing dark clothing and a black mask, carrying a red and white megaphone, a shotgun with a pistol grip and a handgun strapped to his chest. Another person who called BPD reported witnessing Hughes point a gun at passing vehicles.
Yeah, he got arrested.
Hughes is (allegedly) lucky he was still alive so he could be arrested.
If you point a gun at me while I’m driving and claim you’ll “f**k [me] up,” then I’m not inclined to issue threats myself. I’m inclined to defend myself and, if they’re with me, my family.
It’s bad enough when these clowns decide they can block lawful traffic in order to make whatever inane point they want to make, but to take it to this degree is a good way for someone to get killed.
Plus, it’s just a terrible way to convince people you’re in the right.
In the past, I’ve criticized people for openly carrying guns at protests that have nothing to do with the Second Amendment, particularly during the pandemic. Why? It deflects from the message. No one talked about the lockdowns after a group of armed citizens protested the lockdowns in Michigan, which were particularly egregious; they talked about the guns. It wasn’t because they didn’t have the right to do so, just that it shifted the conversation the wrong way.
Here, this is taken in some ways into a darker direction.
The presence of the guns was criticized heavily as an act of attempted intimidation, but they were never pointed at a soul. Here, it’s just one gun, but it sounds like no one on the anti-ICE side had an issue pointing guns at innocent people just trying to go about their lives. Do they think that now, suddenly, these people are thinking, “Oh, well, they’re so passionate about their cause that they threatened my life, so I should totally side with them,” or are they thinking the exact opposite?
How in the hell were these people claiming that the presence of guns pointed in a safe direction a little over five years ago was an act of intimidation, now turning a blind eye to one of their own literally threatening people with a firearm?
Again, unlike the protest in Michigan back in the day, this is a good way for someone to get shot.
Hughes is lucky he wasn’t.
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