An officer-involved shooting isn’t a contentious call in an NFL game, with the announcers giving their opinions on the call being made on the field as play plays from different angles for the audience at home and the network’s in-house referee expert weighs in on what he thinks might happen while filling airtime. The referees on the field know that instant replay angles must be studied within a very limited timeline and that the play in question is discussed and debated by millions as they talk to each other. The stakes are not life and death, but they do involve large sums of money and the careers of the referees, players and coaches. Sports officials are grateful for multiple perspectives and input from league headquarters.
NFL camera footage is numerous and accurate. That makes them very different from the collection of iPhone videos, Ring camera recordings and limited body camera footage that circulated online after two officer-involved shootings in the Twin Cities.
Those videos were definitely not made by professionals. They can actually distort actual events. Either way, in this age of AI manipulation and selective editing, they can’t be trusted simply because you saw them in slow motion on your X-feed.
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The two shootings in Minnesota happened within seconds. Neither was planned. Unlike professional sports, the cameras were not pre-positioned. And the public hasn’t seen everything law enforcement investigators have done.
It’s all a tragedy, two tragedies in fact, neither of which comes close to a final verdict under the legal standard of “reasonable force.” The available video is simply not dispositive because it does not contain the sworn testimony of the officers involved or the nearby pedestrians. The legal system will evaluate these actions, as always. It will take some time before a decision is made and we know the decision.
No matter how many angles you’ve studied of one or both of the shootings, no matter how many times you’ve watched them, you don’t know what exactly happened.
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The point of this column is that in a country addicted to instant replay and decisions made within minutes, the patience necessary for serious deliberation and adjudication has eroded. It’s worn out. Almost all of us watch sports. Almost all of us call pass interference when it benefits our team. Most fans believe that “targeting,” to name just one particularly difficult-to-define offense, may or may not have occurred based on their loyalty. And we are passionate about it. Sometimes for decades.
A portrait stands at a memorial for Alex Pretti on January 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA medical center, died on Jan. 24 after being shot multiple times during an altercation with U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Eat Street neighborhood of Minneapolis. Two Border Patrol agents who fired their weapons during the altercation have been placed on administrative leave. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images))
This isn’t that. That’s a habit of judgment that we’ve grown accustomed to and expect, but it’s a habit that doesn’t belong here.
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No matter how many angles you’ve studied of one or both of the shootings, no matter how many times you’ve watched them, you don’t know what exactly happened. If you hold an opinion on either shooting that presupposes declaring one or both illegal or unjustified, you are telling your audience, family and friends, nothing but the reality that your judgment cannot be trusted. Because you’re drawing conclusions based on incomplete evidence.
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., speaks as fellow members of the House Homeland Security Committee look on during a press conference to discuss the murder of Renee Nicole Good outside the U.S. Capitol on January 14, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There are reasons – dozens of them, actually – why our criminal justice system functions methodically. It exists to protect the rights of the suspect. Shootings involving suspected criminals are obviously disturbing to all of us. Snap judgments about the reasonableness of force – including officer-involved shootings – are always irresponsible.
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These are not games to watch, cheer or mourn like sporting events. Two officer-involved shootings that leave behind sadness and grief cannot be made better by online inquisitions or judgments by mobs of the left or right.
Just wait. We will know in due time.
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