Flash Freeze, Long Thaw

My name is Alex Payne. I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am 32 years old. I am a Roman Catholic. I am a Boy Scout. I am a field medic. I believe in volunteering to help my neighbors. I believe in liberty. I live in Madison, Wisconsin.

His name was Alex Pretti. He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was 37 years old. He was a Roman Catholic. He was a Boy Scout. He was a nurse. He believed in volunteering to help his neighbors. He believed in liberty. He lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

On 2026 January 24 at 09:05, Alex was responding to a federal invasion of his neighborhood. Federal thugs assaulted two women with chemical weapons. He was filming the thugs – a clearly-established first amendment right – and carrying a pistol secured in a holster – a clearly-established second amendment right – which he never drew.

When the thugs assaulted the women on the sidewalk, he ran over to help them. He did not stop recording. He did not reach for his gun. He asked the women if they were okay, and the thugs tackled him to the street. One of them found his holster, removed the pistol, and tossed it to the side.

Then they shot him ten times in the back, murdering him.

I’m not a journalist. This isn’t a report of his murder. I’d tell you to go read the news about it, but I would expect there are more lies about him than not. I will not lie to you, so this is as much as I want to say about the event itself.

I’ve written here before about my beliefs in my society and in my nation. I’ve written about what I believe from my own experience and what I carry as a child of an immigrant from Germany, from my ancestors who lived through and after the war.

In case it is not obvious, I profoundly hate what the federal government is doing. I revile the kidnapping, brutalization, torture, and murder of people by our government. I despise that they pretend this is about immigration “enforcement”. I detest that they are inflicting pain and destruction for their racist, evil, domineering ideas. I reject their false and bullshit notion that they have a right or a mandate for this cruelty, I abjure their bigotry and tyranny, and I refuse to allow them to subject me or anyone else to this.

• I believe this because I am the child of an immigrant who came to America for a better life.
• I believe this because I am a Roman Catholic and the teaching of my Church is that all persons are equally the children of God.
• I believe this because I am an American and the American ideals are of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• I believe this because I am a Scout and we all swear that we will do our duty to our fellow people and to ourselves.
• I believe this because I hold the rank of Eagle Scout and we take a vow to make our training and influence count strongly for the betterment of our community.
• I believe this because I am a field medic and I have a duty of care to all those in the field with me, that I know how to take care of them, to get them home, to keep them safe.
• I believe this because I am a communist and I know that my own interest is best served by serving all those around me.
• I believe this because I am a socialist and I know that we are not subjects of a foreign king.
• I believe this because I am a democrat and I know that we the people are the best governors of ourselves, not these petty tyrants we suffer.

I believe this because YESTERDAY THEY KILLED ME!

My home of Minneapolis has been actively resisting this invasion since it began. They have been chasing the federal gangs, they have been harassing them where they sleep and gather, they have been hiding the people they target, they have been forcing them to flee from kidnapping attempts and to abandon their victims and to cower in fear away from the ever-present eyes and shrieks and whistle-blasts of a populace that is united in absolute hatred and rejection of their brutality. They wish to operate in secret, to cause fear in a select few they target, but they cannot bear to be seen.

My home of Minneapolis has gone out en masse every single day of this winter, in air temperatures dropping down to -35°F, in ice and sleet and tear gas and mace and “less” lethal munitions.

My home of Minneapolis has been beaten and kidnapped and arrested. They have stolen children, they have killed mothers and nurses, they impugn us to our faces and tell us they will continue to kidnap and beat and kill until they get their way, and my home of Minneapolis has responded by putting A HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE in the streets to repudiate them!

My home of Minneapolis has steadfastly refused to materially harm these thugs, has not once inflicted on them the pain and loss they bring to us. They have not been beaten or kidnapped or gassed or hit by cars or shot and killed, and yet they cower in fear from our righteous refusal to comply! They kill us because we refuse them. They shot Alex to retaliate for the general strike on Friday. They murdered him in impotence and cowardice to try to make us back down, go home, relent, let them have their evil way.

My home of Minneapolis refuses.

The federal gangs will leave Minneapolis. They will claim success, that they did what they came to do, and then they will descend on a smaller city to try it again. They started in Los Angeles, then Chicago, then Minneapolis, now Lewiston, Maine. They choose a smaller target each time because their ranks are not growing, and we keep beating them.

They continue to exist because we refuse to destroy them. The people they attack do not kill them or destroy their equipment, and our federal representatives keep shoveling money at them, so the plague continues. They steal countless people each day, citizens and non-citizens alike. The difference is immaterial to them as it should be to us.

We don’t know where they’ll come next.

I live in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison, like Minneapolis, has a large Hmong population. We have a large Hispanic population. Lewiston, like Minneapolis, has a large Somali population. We can only do auguries on which of their racisms will move the planchette.

I don’t care if they plan to come for my city or not. My neighbors and I choose to act as though they have already announced it. We will show them another Minneapolis. We will show them a city that cannot be bent. We will chase them and hide our most vulnerable and like Minneapolis we will put our Germans and Nordics on the front lines; we will make them see that their dreams of white supremacy have no purchase here; we will make them attack the people they claim they represent. We will defeat their lies and bigotries.

We will suffer. We will be beaten and killed and arrested. They will defame us and charge us. They will attempt to ruin our lives for our incompliance. We will not simply hold hands and inspire them into walking away.

When they come for my neighbors, they will come through me. I will not be a “good American” like my ancestors were “good Germans”. I will not abet and allow them to demolish my neighbors out of my own fear or jealousy. I will be there. I will be chasing them. I will be helping us. I will be wearing my bright red hi-viz with a white cross. I will be wearing my white hard-hat with a red cross. I will be carrying my bright red first-aid kit.

I will not be wearing a mask. I will not be wearing “camouflage” – though, desert fatigues in a Great Lakes winter? we gotta call that something else. I will not be assaulting and kidnapping people.

I will be rejecting Satan and all his works. In my thoughts and in my deeds, in what I do and what I fail to do, I will be serving Christ who lives in each of us. I will be helping my neighbor.

I will not be turned away by fear. I will not choose to comply with them. If they want me to stop acting on my principles, they will have to stop me with force. When they arrest me, I will help my fellow prisoners. When they release me, I will go right back to work.

And when they kill me, you will take my place.

They will never, ever, win.

• Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
• He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
• He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword
• His truth is marching on.

• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• His truth is marching on.

• I have seen Him in the tires of a hundred chasing crews
• We are building Him an altar yet unmentioned in the news
• I can hear His trumpet calling past the broken empty pews
• His fury marches on.

• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• His fury marches on.

• He shelters with the children and He freezes with the scout
• He is leading in the chorus as we thunder slavers out
• He gathers up His angels as we rid ourselves of doubt
• His banner marches on.

• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• His banner marches on.

• We shall find the lost and stolen, we shall bring them all back home
• We shall bring the guilty justice, be it theirs or of our own
• We shall make ourselves be righteous, we shall make our courage known
• Our hope is marching on.

• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Glory, glory, hallelujah!
• Our hope is marching on.

• In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea
• With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me
• As He died to make us holy let us die to set us free
• While God is marching on!