All’s fair if protest is politically convenient
Valhalla, N.Y.: Iranian citizens protesting and fighting against the oppressive, stifling rule of an ultra-conservative theocracy are to be lauded by freedom-loving people everywhere. President Trump is correct to encourage and support their actions, violent though they may be.
Then why is it that similar actions by American citizens are treated as criminal by the same president? Hypocritical though it may be, Trump’s response to Americans who protest his policies and actions they see as oppressive, repressive, un-American and often unconstitutional is usually extreme, hateful and violent. Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem et al. were contorting themselves into a pretzel of lies to justify the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent. Good, who committed no crime and over whom ICE had no authority, was exercising her right to peacefully protest the actions of ICE in her neighborhood. Afterward, they called her a criminal and terrorist and generally maligned her. They also lied about the condition of the ICE agent, saying he was “clinging to life.” He walked away unscathed. Her children are motherless now. This ill-trained, unhinged agent shot her four times! Perhaps he didn’t think she was dead enough after the first bullet went through her skull.
I see Iranian citizens setting property ablaze, gathering en masse in a scene that made the “riots” that followed George Floyd’s murder look tame. There’s our president praising their actions. Is the irony and outright hypocrisy lost on all of MAGA? Good, an American citizen, is a criminal and terrorist for her peaceful participation in a protest against ICE while Iranian citizens setting cars and businesses on fire are freedom fighters? Frank J. Cifali
OK then but not now?
Seaford, L.I.: When Barack Obama was president, he used ICE to go into neighborhoods and arrest illegal aliens. There were no riots in the streets and no one attacked ICE agents. During that time, 56 people were killed and no one said a word. The anti-ICE riots in Minnesota and across the country are all about the left’s hatred of Trump and not about deportations. Tom Ascher
Action, reaction
Manhattan: Sending out love and support to the friends and family of Alex Pretti and the people of Minneapolis. In watching the different unbelievable videos, one thing stands out to me. I don’t see what looks like any kind of protest going on. It seems that people are going about their lives when suddenly ICE shows up, which changes the atmosphere and tenor in the community. After ICE arrives, people seem to be alerting others that they’re about, but nothing seems like planned protest. If this is the case, then this killing is even more horrific, if possible. Don Cerrone
A gun for what?
Manhattan: Who goes to a peaceful demonstration wearing a gun? A male nurse who’s been teased for being in a woman’s profession and wants to look tough. But he had a permit for the gun! So it’s OK to rob a bank if you’re packing legally? Diane Moriarty
Leading with lies
Northport, L.I.: Your Jan. 27 editorial (“The rule of law in Minneapolis”) about Pretti’s fatal shooting by Border Patrol agents while he wielded a cell phone camera summed up perfectly the dire stakes facing our nation in this dark age of Trump, particularly when Homeland Security honcho Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller have the power to lie to the American people about what we all saw. Are we going to remain a democracy with the rule of law? The answer’s still up in the air as long as Republicans in Congress let them get away with murder. New York Gov. Al Smith said more than a century ago, “The safety of this government and its institutions rests upon the reasoned and devoted loyalty of its people. It does not need for its defense a system of intellectual tyranny which, in the endeavor to choke error by force, must of necessity crush truth as well.” Spencer Rumsey
Proven effective
Staten Island: Ain’t this a kick in the butt. After all these years, we finally found something the federal government is really good at. That thing turns out to be murdering its own citizens. Oh well. Victor R. Stanwick
Warped reality
Astoria: Trumpistan is in full swing. How can anyone believe that the killings of Good and Pretti by ill-trained federal agents are justified or making America safe and great again?! We’ve entered a house of horrors where all the mirrors are distorted, reflecting skewed images of what’s in front of each. Trump proclaims law and order and the mirror shows citizens exercising their First Amendment rights being tear gassed, beaten or shot. A tyrant declares loudly how he’s been cheated out of a Nobel Peace Prize while the mirror shows him invading Venezuela and threatening to take over Greenland, as well as alienating and angering countries long our allies. Where are the voices of reason? Politicians take an oath to the Constitution and the people. I believe we must remind them all who they serve and what their positions entail before it’s too late for us all! Karen N. Pearlman
Will Chuck buckle?
Manhattan: It took not one killing in the Twin Cities by federal agents, but two to move Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to finally act. He and the united Democrats have pledged to block the Department of Homeland Security funding bill without a serious crackdown on enforcement behavior. No more targeted arrests based on skin color, paramilitary disruption of daily life or breaking down doors in violation of the Fourth Amendment. That would be a start. Immigration enforcement is only a front for the DHS multi-billion-dollar invasion of America. Trump wants control, eternal kingship and no more fair elections, hence U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand for Minnesota’s voter rolls in exchange for lightening up the federal siege. Schumer caved twice on securing us health insurance. Can he be as brave as the Minnesotans protesting and observing peacefully in sub-zero weather day after day? Laurie Aron
Corrupted thinking
Bronx: When a woman is driving away and an ICE agent shoots her dead, that is murder. When a group of Border Patrol agents attack a man, seize a gun that he did not draw and shoot him dead, that is murder. When masked ICE agents seize and detain people without cause and get away with it, we don’t have freedom. When a president tries to stay in power by overturning an election he lost, that’s treason. When 77 million people vote him back into office, we’re in trouble. When Voicer Vince Ferraccioli can cite mostly lies to justify supporting him, the Voicer is mentally and/or morally lacking. When polls show 40% of those surveyed support him, this shows a serious defect in human thinking. Before anyone asks how Germans could support Hitler in the 1930s and ’40s, look at America today. Richard Warren
Trump-obsessed
Brooklyn: God help The New York Times if anything happens to Trump. They’ll only have the weather and sports to write about, just like “Saturday Night Live.” No imagination. Please, we’re tired. Find other subjects to explore. Joe Many
Obnoxious illustration
Bayonne: The perpetually unfunny comic “Bottom Liners” that you run in your afternoon edition has hit a new low with its suggestion that departing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz can now run a chain of child care centers. To creators “Eric and Bill”: At last, sirs, have you no decency? Please cease running this disgusting strip or donate it to the N.Y. Post where it belongs! Marty Wolfson
Out to lunch
Brooklyn: To Voicer Yvonne Fitzner: With everything that’s happening all around us, the pronunciation of Gouda is bothering you? I’ll have what you are having, please, with my kaw-fee. Mariann Tepedino
Happy 100th
Staten Island: To Voicer Gina Toussaint: Please extend my sincerest best wishes to your father Edner on his 100th birthday. He sounds like a strong, caring person and a great role model, not only for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but for everyone. Lynn Fodor
