To the editor,

As someone who believes that words matter and have consequences, I’m sickened by the Trump administration’s attempts to label and criminalize peaceful protest as “terrorism.”

Department of Human Services Secretary Kristi Noem has in the past month branded the two Minneapolis citizens murdered by ICE, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as “domestic terrorists.” This is a self-serving lie used to justify the brutal killing of two peaceful protesters.

At the time they were executed, Good and Pretti were exercising their First Amendment rights, along with thousands of concerned fellow Americans, to monitor and protest a hostile invasion of their city. Witnessing and recording the abuses of an ill-trained and undisciplined occupying force, Good, Pretti, and others admirably banded together to establish a measure of safety for their terrorized and threatened neighbors of color, the main victims of ICE’s discriminatory attacks.

A terrorist is defined in the online Oxford dictionary as “a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against citizens, in pursuit of political gain.”

The next time Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller want to slap the label of “domestic terrorist” on someone, they should look in the mirror. They are the ones intimidating and using violence against the civilian population, not brave citizens like Rene Good and Alex Pretti, who gave their lives to confront ICE’s guns and chemical weapons with whistles and phones. 

Thomas R. Smith

River Falls