SACRAMENTO — We relearned something from the killings of two law-abiding citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis: There’s a limit to how many government lies the public will tolerate.

When government officials arrogantly persist in blatantly lying, the public just might turn angrily against the prevaricators.

Or maybe they’re not lying technically. They simply might not care whether they’re telling the truth, or what it is. Their only intent is to spew a tale that fits a political agenda. Regardless, the citizenry can stomach only so much.

Another thing we relearned is that when a government keeps acting against the public’s wishes, the public tends to rise up and smack its leader, altering the leader’s direction.

That’s the sign of a functional democracy when enough people get riled up and elbow their way into leading the government themselves.

In the process, they’re very likely to prod various other governments — state and local — into acting on their behalf.

We’ve been seeing this play out in the aftermath of the Minneapolis killings.

But, in fact, the public rebellion has been building during a yearlong nightmare of unjustified, inhumane, un-American violence by federal immigration agents. Their targets have been people with brown skin suspected of living in the country illegally. Never mind that many not only are documented, they’re U.S. citizens.

Such has been the slipshod and authoritarian way President Trump’s promised mass deportation program has been carried out.

Polls have consistently shown that voters strongly support the president’s goals of protecting the border and also deporting the “worst of the worst” undocumented criminals. But people have increasingly objected to his roughhouse methods, including masked federal agents slapping around and pepper-spraying legal protesters.

It’s not clear whether the two Minnesota citizens victimized by quick-draw federal agents were protesting. You can’t believe the Trump administration.

And that’s the danger in habitually lying: People can become so cynical that most disregard whatever they’re told by their so-called leaders. And that cripples what’s necessary for an ongoing healthy democracy: a cooperative relationship based on trust between citizens and those they’ve chosen to govern.

Some things we do know about the slain Minnesota citizens.

Alex Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse in a VA hospital. He was shooting video with his cellphone of agents and protesters when he was pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground by several agents as his legally carried handgun was removed. Then he was shot in the back several times.

He was not a “domestic terrorist” and “assassin” who wanted to “massacre law enforcement,” as Trump sycophants immediately lied on TV before backing off, after most of America saw videos of the killing and the president got nervous.

Renee Good, 37, was a mother and poet who appeared merely to be trying to drive through protest chaos when an agent shot her three times through the windshield. She did not try to run down the agent, as the administration claimed.

Good was not “obviously a professional agitator” who “violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer,” as Trump wrote on social media.

Public outrage at the lying and the brutish immigration enforcement has pressured elected officials into action all around the country.

Sure, you can call it political grandstanding and, of course, much of it is. But good politics and sound democracy involve listening to the public and acting on its desires.

In Sacramento, the state Senate held an emotional two-hour debate over a bill aimed at permitting people to sue federal law enforcement when their constitutional rights are violated. Rights such as the ability to peacefully protest and to be protected against excessive force. Lawsuits already are allowed against state and local officers. But federal agents are practically untouchable.

Senate Bill 747 by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) passed on a 30-10 party-line vote — Democrats for and Republicans against. The measure moved to the Assembly.

The vote was yet another sorry sign of today’s unhealthy political polarization. Not one Republican could break out of the Trump web and vote to hold illegally operating federal agents accountable in civil courts. But neither could one Democrat detect enough fault in the bill to vote against it.

Some law enforcement groups oppose the legislation because they fear it would spur additional suing against local cops. Look for an amendment in the Assembly.

The heated Senate debate reflected Democratic lawmakers’ frustration with Trump — and many of their constituents’ fears.

“The level of anxiety and anger is higher than I’ve ever seen in my 13 years in the Legislature,” Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) told me.

“People are coming into our offices fearful for relatives or friends who are hiding out, afraid to go to doctors’ appointments and their kids are staying away from schools.”

During the debate, several senators mentioned two young protesters who were each permanently blinded in one eye by rubber bullets shot by Homeland Security officers in Santa Ana. Lawmakers also railed against “kidnappings” off the street of people simply because of their skin colors, accents and dress.

“California is not going to let these thugs get away with it,” Wiener vowed.

“There’s a lot of hyperbole on this floor,” Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach) asserted. He called for repeal of California’s “sanctuary” laws that greatly restrict cooperation by state and local officers with federal immigration agents.

Easing those laws is probably a good idea. But more important, we’ve got to restrain undisciplined federal agents from shooting unarmed people in the back.

Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who revealed that she has been packing a firearm for 30 years, said that Pretti should never have brought his gun to a protest even if it was legal — which it isn’t in California.

And she’s right. But he never brandished the weapon and shouldn’t have paid with his life.

Neither should Pretti have been immediately attacked as a bad guy by lying federal officials. They’re now paying a political price.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Planned Parenthood, reproductive healthcare could receive $90 million in new state funding
The TK: Healthcare experts warn “people will die” unless state steps up amid federal cuts
The L.A. Times Special: Meet the un-Gavin. Kentucky’s governor sees a different way to the White House

Until next week,
George Skelton

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Detroit — Members of the nation’s largest federal government employee union, elected officials, religious leaders and others held a vigil Sunday to honor an intensive care nurse who was killed by federal immigration agents during a Jan. 24 protest in Minneapolis.

About 50 people gathered for the vigil outside the John D. Dingell Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center on John R. Similar events were held at VA hospitals across the country to honor Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old member of the American Federation of Government Employees union who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In an incident that is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation, Pretti was shot multiple times by federal agents during a protest in Minneapolis against President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration deportation surge and the tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to witnesses and video of the incident, Pretti was recording the agents with his phone and directing traffic before intervening in a woman’s arrest. After he approached agents who were struggling with a woman they were taking into custody, Pretti was pepper-sprayed and tackled before an agent removed a handgun from his waistband. Someone yelled “Gun, gun” before at least two agents fired shots at Pretti, killing him.

The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal authorities in Minneapolis last month have drawn condemnation from politicians, influencers and celebrities — and increasingly from athletes who will soon be representing the U.S. at the Olympics.

Emotions have been running high in Minnesota, where the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has permeated nearly every aspect of daily life amid weeks of protest and confrontations with federal authorities, and they were on display last Sunday during a Professional Women’s Hockey League game in St. Paul as fans chanted “ICE out now.”

At a postgame press conference, Minnesota Frost stars Kelly Pannek and Taylor Heise, both members of the U.S. Olympic squad, said it was important to acknowledge what was happening in their own community.

“It’s obviously really heavy,” said Pannek, who appeared to be overcome with emotion. “I think people have been asking a lot of us what it’s like to represent our state and our country. I think what I’m most proud to represent is the thousands — tens of thousands — of people who show up on some of the coldest days of the year to stand and fight for what they believe in.”

Heise added that the team has done a good job of making everyone feel welcome and safe during its games, “even though you can’t feel safe, I feel like, in this time and place here in Minnesota.”

Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins also acknowledged the situation last week after her final competition before the 2026 Winter Olympics. Diggins, who won gold in 2018, wrote in an Instagram post that she hoped she was able to bring some joy to people watching and honor all those back home protecting their neighbors.

“Honestly, this week was mentally and emotionally stressful for me for many different reasons, all of which were outside of sport,” Diggins wrote on Jan. 25, the day after Pretti’s killing. “Primarily, it’s been devastating following the news of what has been happening in Minnesota right now and it’s really hard feeling like I can do nothing about it.”