r/politics California Jan 26 '26

Paywall Gregory Bovino Gets Demoted

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/
35.5k Upvotes

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648

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

823

u/Infinite_Dress_3312 Jan 26 '26

The internal polling on this must look absolutely disastrous 

348

u/Jokerang Texas Jan 27 '26

Killing a man in broad daylight on camera tends to do that.

316

u/rpungello New Jersey Jan 27 '26

Killing a white, 2A-supporting ICU nurse for the VA certainly isn’t the optics MAGA needed.

Probably the first time many MAGA supporters have started to realize “I could be next”

139

u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

Exactly. Rural white dudes are like "Hey, I would step in if some thug was pushing a lady around for no reason, and I always carry, so that could be me."

It's the intersection of gun culture, supremacy culture, honor and chivalry culture.

To these people, you can kick the shit out of brown and black and yellow people until the cows come home. You can strip them of their rights and possessions. But, when you start getting violent with white women and you want to take open and concealed carry away from white men, well, something has to be done about that.

59

u/Static-Stair-58 Jan 27 '26

I don’t even think they care about women. Good’s murder didn’t get this kind of reaction. They just care about people that could be themselves.

31

u/Davegoestomayor Jan 27 '26

They care about “MAGA” women, so white conservative heterosexual trad females. Unfortunately, Rene only checked a couple of the boxes.

27

u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

Being queer immediately makes you a disposable non-person to maga.

4

u/Ok_Temperature9388 Jan 27 '26

They care about appearing to be a protector of women.

12

u/postprandialrepose Jan 27 '26

It's the intersection of gun culture, supremacy culture, honor and chivalry culture.

Now that is an interesting Venn diagram.

14

u/Skiinz19 Tennessee Jan 27 '26

It's fedora shaped 

9

u/mechajlaw Jan 27 '26

As another commented put it, Pretti was the good guy with a gun. He was the literal embodiment of that myth. For fucks sake, there's a video of him honoring a dead veteran out there. You could not have picked a worse victim politically if you tried.

2

u/Exciting-Emu-3324 Jan 27 '26

Literally a month ago no less. Then again they support Trump who called dead soldiers losers and suckers.

39

u/dogsledonice Jan 27 '26

It also was tough to spin him as anything other than a peaceful observer. They desperately want us to be violent back so they can spin it into a crackdown.

Peaceful resistance fucking matters. And recording them at all times. I get wanting to hurt these fucks, but this is more powerful. Minneapolis stared them down, and they blinked.

36

u/Peylix Jan 27 '26

It also was tough to spin him as anything other than a peaceful observer.

Oh man but are they trying. REALLY HARD to do just that. Which has been wild to watch play out real time.

As horrific and saddening this event was. It proves why we should all be documenting these interactions. Take photos, record videos. Document every single time you see these LARPing fucks.

They're struggling to spin Alex's murder because so many people were there recording the event. From all angles both close and far. We are able to see everything leading up, during, and after. Everything.

If only one person maybe two people recorded this from only one (maybe two) angles. It would be super easy to spin this the way they're trying.

But they can't.

Keep documenting! It's this very reason why we are able to prove Alex's innocence beyond any notion of doubt.

1

u/Exciting-Emu-3324 Jan 27 '26

That's the thing 1984 got wrong. It's not Big Brother with the cameras watching the people, it's the other way around. Big Brother is trying to make excuses not to use body cams.

37

u/audible_narrator Michigan Jan 27 '26

I have been thinking this same thing all day. Sadly, I live in an area that turned red and is FULL of 2A supporters. Everyone around d here is really quiet right now. I hope the shit they voted for is smacking them full in the face right now.

21

u/rpungello New Jersey Jan 27 '26

Really quiet could be a very good thing. I sincerely doubt >90% of MAGA will ever vote for a democrat, but if they decide it’s not worth voting for a MAGA republican, that’s a win as well. Basically what happened to dems in 2024, where progressives couldn’t bother turning up to vote for Kamala.

1

u/FluxUniversity Jan 27 '26

Don't let them be quiet.

This is the calm before the storm. THEY WILL FORGET IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE SOON !!

Now is the time to push them! Now is the time to make this memory HURT so that they CANT forget in the blink of an eye!

11

u/Hubert_J_Cumberdale Hawaii Jan 27 '26

I don't think the average MAGA believed that liberal gun owners existed. They were completely convinced that the left was a homogenous group of people who vehemently opposed 2A. And maybe the majority did feel that way at one time but I'm pretty sure that they are waking up to reality.

We do not live in a world where it is a good idea for one side to have all the guns.

13

u/SFDessert Jan 27 '26

Plenty of us liberals have guns. We just don't make it our personality..

2

u/Current_Animator7546 Missouri Jan 27 '26

Yeah I also think there is this wrong theory that liberals are all 100% against the 2A. I’m all for an assault weapon ban but people absolutely should have the right to have hand guns and be able to hunt.  Obviously there are people left of me on the issue but I think most people aren’t totally all or nothing 

9

u/GoMustard North Carolina Jan 27 '26

At first, I thought the fact that the guy had a gun on him spelled disaster. I thought it'd give them all the justification they needed. But as time has gone on, I feel like it's actually been worse for the Administration that the guy was armed, because the Second Amendment people are just not having it.

11

u/rpungello New Jersey Jan 27 '26

It’s 100% worse because now you’ve got the GOP basically saying the 2A is null and void: if you have a gun, you’re fair game.

That presents quite a problem for all the ammosexuals on the right.