ICE AGENTS AGAIN
Today the names of the two men who shot Alex Pretti were revealed. Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez. Both have Spanish or Latin sounding names. Somehow I had imagined that the two “federal agents” who killed Alex Pretti were white North Americans which tells more about me than about them. It is easier to project assumptions onto a nameless person than on people with names. The person they were originally seaking was from Ecuador which for me connects them by culture. This turns my assumptions upside down. Without thinking, my natural assumption was that white North Americans were hunting down Latin American immigrants, but this is people with Latin names shooting a North American citizen.
This brings me up short. And suddenly I turn from demonizing these two men to wondering what was going through their minds as they were shooting Alex Pretti and even more than that, since the shooting was so quick that it happened without thought, what are they thinking now. Why were they with Customs and Border Protection in the first place hunting immgrants mainly from Latin America. Were they in it for the money or for conviction? But more than that I wonder what they are thinking now that it has been revealed that Alex didn’t threaten them with a gun and had been disarmed before he was shot. It happened so quickly that they didn’t have time to think. But do they now think they made a terrible mistake or do they feel they did the right thing or are they just afraid that now they will be convicted of a crime when they thought they were doing the right thing. They are human just as Alex Pretti was human and must have strong feelings. But they now have this huge weight of disapproval from millions of people for being murderers balanced against support from the administration for doing their duty. They probably have lawyers and are probably keeping their mouths shut, but are they frightened or defiant or confused? Do they have families and how do the families feel.
Again the huge weight of polarization hangs over them and they, ordinary people who were probably frightened themselves or furious about being badgered by protestors, might at this point feel abandoned and terrified.
Whatever they feel it is unlikely that what I am guessing is very relevant.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 