The people of Minneapolis stand shoulder to shoulder to redeem the ‘soul of our country’

This is an adapted excerpt from the Jan. 27 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”

On Tuesday, I visited Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, where 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, was brutally killed by his own government.

In the aftermath of his shooting, it has become clear that something is shifting. When the record of this era is written down, what has happened over the past few weeks is likely to play a decisive role in what kind of country we have on the other side of all this. History is being made in Minneapolis.

These are not just protests — this is a standoff, and, improbably, it seems to be working. 

On Jan. 7, a masked man took the life of a 37-year-old mother of three and poet, Renee Nicole Good. She was shot to death at point-blank range by an agent of her own government.

Then, on Jan. 24, the government took the life of Pretti. The ICU nurse was shot repeatedly in the back as he was prone on the ground.

Good and Pretti knew there was risk in what they were doing, but they did it anyway. They died protecting their neighbors. Their names are in the ledger of this country’s most elemental struggles. Decades from now, they will be known and celebrated. There will be memorials to them. They will rightly be remembered as martyrs to our union.

But what’s most remarkable is that they’re just two out of hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of ordinary people who have mobilized in this moment — clear-eyed about the risks to stand shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors and protect them against the predations of their own government.

These are not just protests — this is a standoff. And, improbably, it seems to be working.

The Trump administration is backpedaling, as the backlash against all this grows far beyond this city and the cable news channels.

Border Patrol’s “commander in charge,” Greg Bovino, is now out and heading home to California, along with many of his agents. Border czar Tom Homan has been sent to Minneapolis to, according to Donald Trump, “de-escalate” the situation.

That’s a start, but there is more to go. Democrats — and even Republicans — on Capitol Hill are calling for investigations into Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and into the shooting of Pretti.

As Democrats consider a partial government shutdown to block ICE funding, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem needs to be fired or impeached.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis appears to agree. “I think what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying; she should be out of a job,” he told reporters Tuesday.

All of this is happening because ordinary people have chosen to do something extraordinary — and ordinary people doing the extraordinary is the alchemy of democracy. The fate of the nation truly depends on it, and they are still standing up in the face of continuing danger.

All of this is happening because ordinary people have chosen to do something extraordinary — and ordinary people doing the extraordinary is the alchemy of democracy.

On Tuesday, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is also the senior pastor at the Atlanta church once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., joined local faith leaders for a vigil at the site where Pretti was killed.

“We did not only witness the killing of a man,” Warnock told MS NOW in an exclusive interview. “We are witnessing the spiraling spiritual death of a nation, and it is the people who have to stand up and redeem the soul of our country.”

He added: “I said to the faith leaders gathered earlier today that the Scripture reminds us that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness overcometh it not. There is no question it’s dark in America right now. Donald Trump has unleashed evil on our streets, but the light penetrates the darkness, and it falls on all of us to be that way.”

Allison Detzel contributed.