Distance provides clarity, as facts are uncovered and the hot, quick temper of reaction fades to the cool mettle of resolve.

For several days, we weren’t sure if we should write or publish this editorial. After all, Our View on the killing of a man in Minneapolis — 1,000 miles and 16 hours of driving away — isn’t the most relevant thing locally.

But the enduring quality of the fatal encounter and the reaction of people who live here to it convinced us that, in fact, it is something that we have a place to write about.

Add on top of that a letter submitted to us by a Jersey Shore native who now lives in Minneapolis and is experiencing this first hand, and it was time to put pen to page.

Here’s the thing, folks.

We all know people like Alex Pretti.

He was a 30-something nurse who loved the outdoors and worked with veterans. He owned and carried a gun. He cared about his community and seemed to genuinely want the best for people in it.

For God’s sake, look at his picture. You can go to the Walmart in Mill Hall any time of day and see a dozen guys that look just like him.

You can argue that he should have stayed away, or stayed home — although, last we checked, it is legal to exist in public. You could argue that he shouldn’t have brought his gun — although, last we checked, the Second Amendment is still the law of the land.

And on and on and on. Around and around the discourse swirls as people regurgitate whatever talking point they last heard.

But none of that discourse does anything to dissuade us from the raw truth of what we watched, in recorded videos, with our own eyes: a young, white, male American citizen, doing nothing illegal, was assaulted and gunned down by people who are, allegedly, supposed to be protecting him from the specter of dangerous illegal immigrants.

And lest anyone get the wrong opinion, yes, we do, actually, support the stated mission of ICE to remove the dangerous illegal immigrants and gang members — the “worst of the worst.”

You can argue, from a philosophical standpoint, that countries shouldn’t have borders or “no one is illegal on stolen land” or whatever other slogan, but none of that changes that we do, in fact, live in that world, under those laws.

Our stance remains that if the people do not consent to a law, it is the peoples’ perogative to pressure their elected representatives — or to elect someone else, if pressure fails. We have a system: a damn good system that has allowed our nation to survive nearly 250 years, multiple major wars including a civil war between states, and ascend to become one of the greatest powers the world has ever seen.

That does not mean that we are blind to the problems with what ICE has become in the name of their mission.

The “worst of the worst,” when it comes to illegal immigrants, does not include young children who don’t even understand what is happening. It does not include legal immigrants or American citizens, naturalized or native-born.

The simple fact of the matter is that ICE’s purview has expanded explosively. We live in a country where masked, armed and armored agents are going door-to-door. Maybe this is necessary — but it is absolutely having a chilling effect within the affected communities.

Were you upset by Democratic overreach during COVID — when students were home, businesses shuttered and you had to carry and show your vaccination papers to access spaces and events?

Okay — explain how that is different than what is happening now, as students are home, business districts vacant and people, even American citizens, are being required to show their documentation while in public.

What ever happened to Don’t Tread on Me? We are sitting here, watching live on social media as an American city is, in fact, quite Tread On.

Unlike with Renee Good, there is no uncertainty here. There is no vehicle whose movements need to be explained or figured out. There was no threat or perception of threat. There was just a lawful citizen executed on the sidewalk, in America, in 2026.

We won’t speculate on the vagaries of history — of whether we were, in fact, always this country; of whether this ugliness is endemic to the American psyche.

What matters more than who we have been is who we will be.

It is highly doubtful that we will ever see an enforcement action the scale of what is happening in Minneapolis locally. In Pennsylvania…perhaps?

If you go by the numbers — by statistics from the Dept. of Homeland Security, publically available online via a quick search, it is unclear why Minnesota was targeted at this scale in the first place.

Estimated populations of illegal immigrant populations in the United States, as of 2022, show the following states as having the highest suspected populations: California, 2.6 million; Texas, 2.1 million; Florida, 600,000; New Jersey, 500,000; Illinois, 420,000; New York, 410,000; North Carolina, 360,000; Georgia, 340,000; Washington, 340,000; and Arizona, 290,000.

Minnesota is not on that top 10 — a top 10 which sees a drop off of almost 10 times as much from the top to the bottom. Neither is Maine, where ICE activities were on the upswing until Senator Susan Collins interevened. While Pennsylvania is not on the list of states which should, by population, be targeted, that has not been shown to mean much.

By all accounts from the ground, the ICE surge in Minneapolis has been uniting for the populace, as Minnesotans, regardless of party affiliation, have come together to safeguard their communities to the best of their ability.

In today’s polarized society, that type of thing simply does not happen if everything happening is above board. We would argue that it should — but reality rarely functions according to should.

In spite of that, we will close with a should: ICE should return its focus to those illegal immigrants who have been proven to be dangerous. There is a right way to do this, and it does not involve the assaults on the innocent which have plagued the organization recently.

Let’s see what reality says in the weeks to come.