While ICE agents have occupied the streets of Minnesota over the past two months, the right wing and federal government have been spreading misinformation. The invasion itself was kicked off by a right-wing YouTuber’s video, falsely alleging fraud by Somali daycare center owners. And as the behavior of federal agents has gotten more and more egregious, Kristi Noem and other White House representatives have just continued to double down in support of the violence.
An extra layer of lies has been added through the spreading of AI-altered images. One, which went viral on X, is an image of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old VA nurse murdered by ICE on January 24th. The photo shows Pretti being forced to the ground by masked agents, but has been “enhanced” using AI, so that Pretti appears to be holding a gun in his right hand. The original videos that circulated of the shooting of Pretti clearly show him unarmed, his holstered, registered gun being removed from him before he was shot. The misinformation being spread with this image deliberately tries to justify and normalize the killing of a man who was simply documenting federal officers as a defense to his community.
Another image, shared from the official White House account on X and re-posted by JD Vance, shows the arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis pastor and civil rights attorney, who has been charged for protesting inside Cities Church against David Eastergood, a pastor who also acts as the St. Paul ICE Field Office director. The altered image shows Armstrong distraught and in tears, while the original reveals her to be composed and collected. When asked about the alteration, a White House spokesperson called it a meme. In addition to being disrespectful and offensive, the incident demonstrates this government’s willingness to deceive the public in pursuit of discrediting and denigrating its critics.
The “authorities” cannot be trusted to tell the truth even when photographic evidence of reality is widely available. For this reason, it is even more important than ever for those of us out in the streets to be linked to each other, documenting and sharing evidence of the violence and repression we’re facing, and organizing together to fight back!
