The Trump administration described Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old intensive care nurse killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis on Saturday, as a “terrorist.” The reality, as seen on multiple videos taken of the incident, shows the opposite. It was the federal officers who acted as agents of state terror, while Pretti demonstrated extraordinary bravery in the final moments of his life as he tried to protect the most vulnerable in his community. Although the American right is obsessed with reviving “masculinity,” its vilification of Pretti demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of its meaning. It was Pretti, in fact, who served as a model of the courageous male “protector.”
Pretti was speaking to and video-recording Border Patrol officers as they conducted an immigration detention, and he intervened when an officer shoved a woman to the ground. But he did not intervene by acting violently; rather, he appeared to attempt to shield the woman with his body. He was immediately pepper-sprayed, then several agents grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground. Video footage shows an agent striking Pretti repeatedly with a tear gas canister and an agent removing a firearm from his belt before Pretti was shot several times.
Pretti’s final act in life was to try to intervene on behalf of a woman who appeared to be in danger. He, of course, knew that immigration agents in the city had at times acted viciously, and had recently killed a protester, but he stepped in anyway. That took guts. And he paid with his life.
Pretti’s notions of what it means to be a protector stand in stark contrast to ideas on the right about what it means to be one.
This was just the tip of the iceberg in Pretti’s commitment to acting as a guardian.
Pretti was part of a Minneapolis community action in which citizens monitor and record immigration officers to try to document arrests and hold agents accountable for their actions — which had regularly veered into violence against detainees and protesters in his city. As sociologist Nicole Bedera wrote for MS NOW, this practice is based on de-escalation tactics and helps reduce violence by signaling disapproval and disrupting the atmosphere in which group violence thrives.
Pretti, a white man and U.S.citizen, was not the target for roaming bands of immigration agents who are reportedly racially profiling residents of Minneapolis. He instead acted out of solidarity and tried to help vulnerable minorities and immigrants in his community. Pretti’s mother said in a statement, “He loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.” More importantly, he was acting on that belief.
Ruth Anway, one of Pretti’s fellow nurses at a Veterans Affairs hospital, told The New York Times that he “thrived” in a hospital environment and that he “wanted to be helpful, to help humanity and have a career that was a force of good in the world.”
A nursing student of Pretti’s wrote on Facebook:
He trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse. He taught me how to care for arterial and central lines, the intricacies of managing multiple IVs filled with lifesaving solutions, and how to watch over every heartbeat, every breath, and every flicker of life, ready to act the moment they wavered. Techniques intended to heal. Alex carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him. Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera. Pretti’s notions of what it means to be a protector stand in stark contrast to ideas on the right about what it means to be one. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has faced allegations of sexual assault (which he has denied), holds pull-up contests and obsesses over waging war. Manosphere influencer Andrew Tate, who faces criminal charges in multiple countries for human trafficking and rape, advises boys and young men to look at women as property and to beat them. White supremacist Nick Fuentes, who is becoming remarkably influential on the mainstream right, says women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. And the Trump administration tries to tap into traditionalist notions of manhood as fundamentally warlike in its recruitment drive for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The common thread is that being a “tough” man means aggression and dominance, not providing true safety or using strength with integrity. What reasonable person thinks that bands of roving, unprofessional immigration officers who detain 5-year-olds, violate people’s rights to privacy and free expression, and often act like violent thugs should be seen as tough? Bullying is a province of the weak, not the strong. Compare Pretti to the men he faced off against. He acted with calm determination to protect the vulnerable. The people who killed him ganged up on him, beat him and shot him while several men held him to the ground. We’re still learning about who Pretti was in the wake of his death. But from what we can see on video, and what we’ve learned from family and friends, he demonstrated an admirable model of masculinity. In his career and activism, he used his strength and power to help, heal, serve and protect the most vulnerable among us. If more men were like him, the world would be a better place.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer for MS NOW. 
