We've Always Been This Way

The Expansion of America's Killing Fields

I will never forget my outrage at the injustice of the cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 12, 2012, at the hands of killer George Zimmerman. The young teen had Skittles in one hand and an Arizona tea in the other when Zimmerman mercilessly gunned him down on his way home, where his father was visiting his fiancée in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman claimed he shot him in self-defense after he began stalking the teen. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. The right-wing ecosphere immediately went into overdrive, blaming Martin for his own death. Eventually, Zimmerman got off for the killing, thanks to the laws on self-defense in Florida. Martin should not be dead. After Zimmerman murdered him, protests erupted. I knew back then that he was killed simply for being a Black kid. It was plain as day to me.

Travyon Martin at Aviation Camp in 2009.

Then 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was shot and murdered by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, on August 9, 2014. Brown was with his friend, Dorian Johnson, when trouble started. Wilson claimed that Brown tried to grab his gun while he was in his patrol car. But Johnson said that was untrue, arguing that Wilson grabbed Brown’s neck, starting the fray first. At that point, Wilson drove off. He then returned, and that’s when Wilson shot him in the back with Brown’s hands up in the air. He then fired a total of 10 rounds, with 6 hitting Brown in his torso.

A Facebook image of Michael Brown, two days before Darren Wilson murdered him.

Protests, again, erupted in Ferguson, and the rallying call became “Hands up, Don’t shoot!” to denounce the brutality of Brown’s murder. Brown’s body was left in the street for hours after his death, and some witnesses say the police tampered with it. A grand jury ultimately decided not to indict Wilson. Once the grand jury announced its decision, protests spread from Ferguson across the country, and the Black Lives Matter movement gained steam. (The movement started right after Trayvon Martin was murdered.)

And yet another Black man was murdered at the hands of police in Baltimore on April 12, 2015. This time, it was 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who was arrested by six police officers and died from injuries to his spinal cord. Videos by two bystanders captured Gray’s arrest and showed him screaming and being forced into a police van by officers. One bystander said the officers were “folding” Gray. They bent his legs backward while another one pressed a knee into his neck. Other witnesses noted that Gray “can’t use his legs,” and that he “could’t walk.” Another witness said Gray was beaten with police batons. There were also claims that the officers went on a “joy ride” with Gray, who was not wearing a seatbelt in the back of the van.

All these witnesses were watching a murder unfold. From the police timeline, after 11 minutes of his arrest, and within 30 minutes, paramedics were called to take Gray to the hospital. The parademics first treated Gray, who was in shackles, for 21 minutes. He was then taken to a hospital in a coma. Gray died a week later on April 19, 2015.

Undated picture of Freddie Gray.

Protests erupted in Baltimore in response to the death of Gray. After the National Guard was called in, I ventured up to Baltimore. The Guard is never called in to protect the people. Let’s be real here. It’s called in to protect private property.

More Black murders at the hands of the State followed after Brown and Gray. While a citizen committed Martin’s murder, the system allowed him to get away with it. The system continually enables the erasure of Black lives, whether it carries it out or citizens like Zimmerman do, more often than not, they’ve gotten away with murder.

And all this brings us to now. Since January 1, three people have been murdered by the State. One of them was a Black man named Keith Porter. 43-year-old Porter was celebrating the beginning of New Year’s Eve by firing off a gun in the air at his apartment complex in Los Angeles, California. Hearing the gunfire, an off-duty ICE agent grabbed his weapon. A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson claimed the officer was “forced to defensively use his weapon” in response to an “active shooter.” Knowing how often they lie, I’ll take that claim as bullshit. The attorney for Porter’s family, Jamal Tooson, called it “a death sentence.”

A picture of Keith Porter.

Shortly after Porter was murdered, on January 7, 2026, 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her murder was caught on film. The officer was not in danger, despite the claims from the regime. It was an outright lie. This murder sent shockwaves through many white communities. Suddenly, white people, who had ignored the murders of Black people like the ones I listed above, are paying attention. Many of them decrying, “This isn’t us! This isn’t America. We aren’t this way!” Well, it is America, and we’ve always been this way. And now, they’re coming after all of us. Just as the State placed blame on Black victims, they used the same playbook with Good, and the right-wing ecosphere, being the fascist bootlickers that they are, did the same thing against her as well, running with these salacious claims. “She wasn’t complying!” they said. “She should have been home with her children!” others crowed. Before her body had even been removed from the street, the State had gone into damage control, calling her a “domestic terrorist.” As if things weren’t bad enough, the federal government has refused to work with local officials on the investigation. Jonathan Ross, the murderer, remains at large.

Renée Nicole Good.

And another extrajudicial execution has happened again. This time, it was a 37-year-old white man named Alex Pretti of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 24, 2026. Pretti, an ICU nurse for the VA, was a legal observer at a protest when he saw a woman get attacked by armed agents. He intervened to help the woman and was pepper-sprayed shortly thereafter. That’s when the agents swarmed him and began attacking him. After one of the agents yelled “He’s got a gun!”, they disarmed him immediately, continued to beat him, and then proceeded to shoot him ten times.

The videos are clear, plus he lawfully owned the gun. He never pulled the gun on any agents. He was disarmed, beaten, and then shot ten times. This event was another execution by the State.

Alex Pretti.

As to be expected, the State went on the defensive, blaming the victim, lying, and gaslighting the public. Contrary to what we saw with our own eyes, they claimed that he brandished his gun—a pathetic lie. The only thing that Pretti held was his phone. We all saw it. They proceeded to call him a “domestic terrorist,” just as they did with Good. (It reminds me of the countless times they called Martin and Brown “thugs” after they had been murdered. I suppose Breonna Taylor was “uppity” while she slept, too?) Interestingly, some on the right have broken from the narrative, but most of them are repeating the lies, and even justifying his death because he had a gun on him. Yes, you read that right. These Second Amendment fanatics are now using the fact that he legally owned a gun as justification for the State murdering him. The “Don’t Tread On Me” Tough Guys are using that logic. Meanwhile, Democrats are defending the Second Amendment, which they should. Just because someone has a holstered gun on their person does not give the State grounds to execute them. Period.

Again, this is who we are, and this is who we’ve always been. But now, Trump’s mafia State is coming after anyone who dares to defy it.

The line has been drawn, so it’s pretty clear which to choose. You have two choices here: (A) a sadistic mafia regime that mercilessly executes people in broad daylight, expanding America’s killing fields, and robbing the country blind, or (B) the good people of the United States standing up to them.

Further Reading