Human rights are not optional

Statement from Joseph Robertson, founder of Climate Civics

The situation unfolding in the Twin Cities, in Minnesota, is shocking, shameful, and tragic.

No person should be subjected to arbitrary acts of violence or intidimidation, or to summary detention or other denials of due process. No person should be menaced, assaulted, or killed, simply for existing or for bearing witness.

All nations have both an explicit and broadly implicit legal duties to honor the human rights and dignity of their people. This principle is foundational to international law and to the legitimacy of any system of government. Governments serve their people; it is the humanity of their people that confers legitimacy.

The United States has a particular responsibility to this standard, as it was the first nation to be founded on the principle that all people enjoy unalienable rights. The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights clearly enshrine those founding principles as foundational law. All other laws, and therefore all actions of government, must adhere to these universal guarantees.

Freedom of speech, the press, or to gather and protest peacefully, must never be violated.
All people have a right to redress, which can never be abridged, which means no act of witness can be outlawed or punished.
According to the First Amendment, Congress may not act to support breaches of these standards.
The military occupation of American communities is outlawed by the Bill of Rights.
Forcible entry into people’s homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, and places of worship, without a judicial warrant, is illegal.
“No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…”
Summary sentencing and extrajudicial detention are illegal; transferring someone out of the jurisdiction without due process is illegal; cruelty is illegal.
The Ninth Amendment safeguards all human rights, even when they are not written into law. Rights are paramount.

The nation was founded on the principle that the people are sovereign, that when the people do not accept executive overreach, or when their ability to govern their communities locally and inclusively has been impeded, they must be able to steer the ship of state and not be ruled in ways that undermine fundamental rights.

Renee Good violated no law and threatened no one. She should not have been killed, and all public authorities have a duty to treat her life as being of value. “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” There is no lawful authority by which any agent of government can do to anyone what was done to her.

That prohibition, that recognition of the rights of all human beings, is what makes America great. More precisely, it is what has allowed the people of the United States to use their rights and freedoms to correct injustice and set an example, to show that self-government works and to make human rights the universal standard.

There must be a full and unbiased investigation into the shooting. State and local authorities need to have full access to all evidence and be allowed to file charges under state and local laws. The United States does not have an authoritarian system; the federal government is one layer of jurisdiction, in service of the public good—not the central controlling authority of all aspects of life.

Constructive civics is necessary to save ourselves from the horrors created by corruption or uninformed, incompetent, or bad-faith decision-making. We call on all leaders to recognize that human rights are not optional.

UPDATE—January 26, 2026

Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after Renee Good was killed a few blocks away.

He was shot 10 times, while prone and unarmed, posing no threat to anyone, without ever having made a threatening gesture of any kind.

The events leading up to his shooting, which transpired over less than 2 minutes, appear to involve multiple acts of aggression by people charged with federal law enforcement responsibilities.

Local law enforcement officials obtained a warrant to process the crime scene and were physically blocked from doing so by federal agents linked to those who killed Alex Pretti.

It is not only Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti, and their families, who have been harmed and deserve justice. The children fearing for their friends and families, and for what they might suffer themselves, the families whose vehicles have been rammed or broken into or bombed with stun grenades and chemical weapons, the people facing life-threatening illnesses forced to forego urgently needed medical attention… all of these people are seeing their fundamental rights violated; all of them matter.

Minneapolis is a city of lakes and parks, where people are outdoors year-round. Along the path that rings Bde Maka Ska, people of all cultures and backgrounds walk, jog, cycle, and orgahize charitable and sporting events, in a spirit of welcoming all. It is not winter that has people hiding; it is violence and fear. Some bear witness selflessly, as service to their neighbors. We call on all leaders to recognize and uphold universal human rights, in Minnesota, across the U.S., and everywhere.

Minneapolis is a place well-known and dear to several of our team members over the years. We know these streets, and we know the remarkably open-hearted nature of the people who live and work there. It is a place that celebrates and embodies honorable civic engagement.

To restore the public trust, every person in public office must uphold basic human rights by working for a comprehensive demobilization of paramilitary forces in American communities, and requiring full, proper, and politically independent investigations to secure justice for Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and others who have been harmed.

Human rights are not optional. That is the founding purpose of the United States. We believe the American people will peacefully, and resolutely, require that purpose be upheld.

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