Five Things We Must Demand Now—And the Seven Things We Must Do to Get Them

When Government Crosses the Line, Consent of the Governed Becomes Conditional

by Lawrence Winnerman

I really needed a day off yesterday.

Instead, I found myself glued to my screens—the TV, my phone, my computer—watching video after video of the murder of Alex Pretti, weeping.

I was weeping for the life of that sweet man, for my own recent losses, for the out-of-control government oppressing us, the people, and for this shambolic death of American democracy we are watching in real-time, like an implacable zombie horde.

I’m going to lay this out carefully and honestly—righteous, furious, and unsparing, but grounded in mass nonviolent power. What I am proposing is not chaos-for-chaos’s-sake.

That matters because the moment this crosses into advocating random violence or collapse, the moral high ground disappears and the regime wins.

My starting premise is simple: There are lines a government must not cross.

When the federal government kills another civilian U.S. citizen inside the United States—not in a war zone, not in a foreign country, not during a firefight—but during an “immigration enforcement” operation carried out in our own cities, that line has been crossed.

The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis was not a “tragic incident” or an “unfortunate outcome”. It was not a “mistake.”

This is a pattern now, with Renee Nicole Good and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and countless others; this is state-sanctioned violence.

It is state violence against the people it claims the right to govern.

And when the state kills one of us, the response cannot be symbolic, polite, or slow-walked through press releases and sternly worded letters. The response must be collective, escalating, disciplined, and unmistakable.

Here is the concept that must guide everything that comes next: Legitimacy is conditional.

Governments that kill their own people forfeit consent—and consent is the only thing that makes power legitimate.

What follows is not anger without direction; it is rage with structure. First, I’m going to list our demands. Then I’ll outline seven escalating actions, ordered by seriousness and cost to those in power.

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Our Non-Negotiable Demands

Before tactics, before marches, before strikes, before boycotts, we must be crystal clear about what we are demanding. If any of these demands are not met, then We the People must begin and extend the series of coordinated and escalating actions in response.

This list is not just “for Republicans.” Any elected Democrat who enables this regime is equally culpable and has declared their seat and their re-election to be forfeit.

1. An independent investigation with prosecutorial authority
   Not internal reviews. Not DOJ “oversight.” A truly independent investigation with subpoena power and the authority to bring criminal charges against any federal agent or official involved.

2. Immediate suspension of the enforcement operation responsible for this killing
   No more raids. No more “surges.” No more tactical deployments until the investigation is complete and publicly reported. During demobilization, all ICE and CBP agents are forbidden from carrying weapons and must wear their bodycams at all times.

3. Public disclosure of rules of engagement, command structure, and authorization
   Who ordered this? Who approved it? Who signed off? A democracy does not tolerate secret, military-style domestic operations.

4. Civil liability and restitution
   The family of Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis deserve restitution, not as charity, but as acknowledgment of state wrongdoing. State and city governments that had to spend precious taxpayer dollars to deal with this ICE-inflicted crisis must be compensated. Every person whose life has been ruined by these ICE actions has a claim.

5. Congressional hearings with sworn testimony — televised
   Every official involved must testify under oath. Silence is not neutrality. Silence is complicity.

These demands are the line. Everything that follows exists to force them to be met.

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The Seven Things We Must Do Next
(In Escalating Order)

1. Flood Minnesota With Resources — Immediately
   Before marches. Before boycotts. Before strikes. We stabilize the ground first.
   
   Movements fail when people are asked to resist without support. Minneapolis is carrying the weight of this moment right now—emotionally, legally, financially, logistically. If we mean what we say about solidarity, the first response is not commentary. It’s material aid.

   
   That means money for legal defense, bail funds, trauma care, mutual aid, organizing infrastructure, and community protection. It means making sure the people closest to this violence are not left to absorb it alone while the rest of the country debates tactics.

   
   The fastest, cleanest way to do this right now is to flood resources into Minnesota through a single, vetted clearinghouse: standwithminnesota.com

2. National, Sustained Mass Mobilization

   We need more than a weekend protest or a single march that burns itself out by Monday.
   

   We need coordinated, rolling demonstrations in every major city—federal buildings, courthouses, DHS and ICE offices—with trained marshals, legal observers, and a clear nonviolent code.

   
   The message must be simple and relentless:
   This government is killing us. Accountability is not optional.

   
   Visibility matters. Persistence matters more.
   

3. Forced Political Presence

   Every Democrat in national leadership should be physically present in Minneapolis. Not tweets. Not statements. Bodies on the ground, standing with families and the community.
   
   I don’t care how cold it is—I don’t care if it’s scary. You ran for office to lead us? LEAD US FROM THE FRONT LINES.
   
   If leadership claims to represent the people, then leadership must share the risk, the grief, and the consequences. Absence is a choice—and it should be treated as one, with cowards in leadership named and shamed.
   

4. Civil Disobedience With Teeth

   Peaceful. Disciplined. Unignorable. Sit-ins at federal buildings. Nonviolent blockades. Refusal to comply with business-as-usual.
   

   Civil disobedience works when it imposes moral and logistical costs without alienating the public. This requires preparation, training, and clarity of purpose—not improvisation and chaos.
   

   The goal is disruption that exposes illegitimacy, not disruption for its own sake.
   

5. Targeted Economic and Cultural Boycotts

   This is where pressure becomes expensive.
   

   Cities that host global prestige events such as the FIFA World Cup while federal agents kill civilians, cannot have it both ways. International image is leverage—and leverage should be used.
   

   At the same time, corporations that profit from federal enforcement contracts, surveillance, detention, or logistics should face sustained, public pressure campaigns: consumer boycotts, shareholder actions, and reputational exposure.
   

   Power understands money. Use that language.
   

6. Coordinated Labor Action

   A general strike is not just a slogan—it’s an outcome of organization.

   
   What if we start with sectoral strikes? Coordinated walkouts? Sick-outs? Work stoppages tied explicitly to demands for accountability? Those are possible—and terrifying to people in power.
   

   When healthcare workers, educators, transit workers, and service workers stop, the illusion of “normal” collapses. That collapse forces negotiation faster than any speech ever could.
   

   If labor sector strikes don’t work, we progress to a GENERAL STRIKE.
   

7. Strategic Withdrawal of Financial Consent

   This is the most serious step — and the most disciplined. It is not nihilism, but it will deeply impact the national economy, and therefore the lives of millions of people.
   
   At this stage, we seek not reckless economic collapse, but targeted divestment. Mass movement of funds away from institutions that finance or insure (as in insurance) enforcement infrastructure. Public campaigns for local and state banking alternatives. Refusal to bankroll repression.
   
   If this does not achieve our goals, we must consider withdrawing money from every major American financial institution en masse.
   
   Yes, this will create an economic crisis. But it is better to use the levers of power we still have than to live our lives on our knees to an authoritarian slavemaster.
   
   This is about denying legitimacy and resources simultaneously—reminding the system that it only functions because we participate.

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The Principles That Must Govern All of This

If we abandon these, we lose.

• Nonviolence is not weakness. It is a strategic discipline.

• Clarity beats outrage alone. Everyone should know what we want and why.

• Coalitions matter. Labor, immigrants, civil rights groups, faith communities— together or not at all.

• Narrative is power. Alex Pretti must never become a footnote.

• Escalation must be deliberate. Each step signals seriousness, not desperation.

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This Is a Test of the Emergency Response System

History will not ask whether we were angry; it will ask whether we were equal to the moment.

A government that kills its own people and faces no consequence will do it again.
A public that absorbs that violence without response teaches the state it can continue.

This is not about immigration alone.
This is about whether consent still means anything in America.

Legitimacy is conditional. And right now, the Trump Administration is failing the test.

The question is whether we will.

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