When the State Becomes the Mob: The Killing of Alex Pretti

By Joseph Carvalko | 27 January 2026
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

It is a bitter moment in our history when this nation—founded on liberty and the rule of law—has descended into collective brutality, dishonor, and the heavy fist of government deployed against the defenseless. All of it carried out under the banner of “removing immigrants,” many of whom are here lawfully and peacefully.

What I witnessed yesterday was the unprovoked killing of Alex Pretti: a veteran, a bystander, a witness to human rights violations. He was beaten and then shot. Watching that video, I was pulled back to a federal case I once tried involving American POWs abandoned in North Korea after the armistice. I spoke with former prisoners who described being surrounded by their North Korean or Chinese captors—struck from several directions, punished in coordinated assaults meant to break their will. The violence was ritualized, designed to humiliate and enforce ideological obedience. We called those acts war crimes. What are we to call what is happening now, here, on American soil?

On that video, ICE and CBP did not look like officers enforcing law. They looked like a pack descending on a citizen. And that pack, acting under color of authority, embodied everything veterans like Pretti fought against:

• Tyranny
• Mob rule
• Political persecution
• The strong preying on the weak
• The collapse of lawful order
• Predatory governance
• Collective cruelty

And let us be clear: from another angle, we are witnessing the insatiable ambition and corrosive power of the man in the White House. The machinery of the state is being bent toward fear, domination, and political gain.

We cannot remain silent while human beings are torn down by federal forces unleashed in acts of political violence that betray every principle we claim to honor. Silence now is complicity. And complicity is how democracies fall.

Joseph Carvalko is an American lawyer, who for over four decades has represented numerous organizations and individuals, from billionaires to indigents. He has been actively engaged in organizations such as Amnesty International, as its Legislative Coordinator for the State of New Mexico; the Sioux City American Indian Center, board member/activist; and Chairman, Technology and Ethics Working Research Group, Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Yale University, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University, School of Law, teaching Law, Science and Technology. He has also worked as a technologist, where he’s been awarded 18 patents in various fields. Carvalko has authored over twelve books which include novels, poetry, law, science and the humanities. His articles appear regularly in a variety of publications and blogs. He lives on the U.S. east coast and in the New Mexico mountains.

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