After another fatal shooting, Kentuckians and Americans deserve the truth | Opinion

The world has seen the most recent video from Minneapolis.

A man holding a phone. Federal agents moving in. A struggle. Gunfire. Silence.

Soon after, federal officials offered a sharply different account. They claimed that the victim intended to “massacre” law enforcement, and labeled him a domestic terrorist.

Americans are capable of seeing what is in front of them. The killing of Alex Pretti is a tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call.

In a matter of weeks, two U.S. citizens, Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, have been killed during federal immigration operations in the same city. Video evidence raises serious questions about the official accounts offered in both cases. Instead of full transparency, the public has received an array of excuses, accusations and shifting explanations.

That is not how public trust is built.

A democracy depends on confidence that power will be exercised honestly and that when mistakes are made, or worse, they will be acknowledged and examined without delay. When visible evidence and official accounts diverge and full records are not released, that confidence begins to erode.

This is bigger than one incident. It is about whether federal power will be restrained by law, whether truth will matter more than narrative, and whether Americans will be treated as citizens capable of seeing and judging for themselves.

As Kentucky lawmakers, we understand that the balance between federal authority and local responsibility is essential to public safety and public trust. When that balance is strained in one state, confidence is strained in every state, including here in our Commonwealth.

The people we represent are heartbroken and angry. They are also asking a deeper question: Do the rules still apply?

They must.

A democracy can survive disagreement. It can survive protest. It can survive even serious mistakes.

What it cannot withstand is a growing belief that truth no longer governs public power.

We are not going to surrender that principle. We have a Constitution. We have the rule of law. And we have a long history of insisting that government answer to both.

The federal government owes the American people a full, transparent, and independent accounting of what happened in Minneapolis. It owes the country a renewed commitment to working with, not against, the communities it serves.

At moments like this, it is up to citizens, in Kentucky and across the nation, to demand accountability, to support peaceful protest, and to insist that our government live up to its highest values.

The future of this country cannot be determined by those who seek to control the people through false narratives. It must be shaped by those who insist on the truth

This piece was authored by House Democratic Floor Leader Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, House Democratic Caucus Chair Lindsey Burke, D-Lexington, and House Democratic Whip Joshua Watkins, D-Louisville.