There are a hundred points to make and a hundred arguments to have about the chaos in Minneapolis, but the most salient question in the national political debate is why armed agents of the federal government killed two protesters.

Yes, Gov. Tim Walz‘s (D-MN) leadership deserves criticism, as does Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s. The prudence of the late Alex Pretti and Renee Good can be discussed, along with the culpability of their companions and collaborators. Former President Joe Biden’s open-borders experiment created the base conditions for this, and Democratic state, county, and city leaders made everything more violent and dangerous by refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they arrested illegal immigrant criminal suspects.