There is a special kind of theater that happens on Sunday morning television in America, a ritual where men in expensive suits explain away hard realities. This past Sunday, during the **Todd Blanche Meet the Press** interview, we witnessed a masterclass in this dark art. The Deputy Attorney General appeared to discuss the controversial **Minneapolis border patrol shooting**—a tragic event resulting in a fatality during a raid. His defense? He claimed the federal agents involved were simply “**acting humanely**.”

You have to pause and let that sink in. "Acting humanely." We are analyzing a **DOJ Minneapolis raid** that ended with a human being losing their life. In the dictionary, “humane” usually means showing compassion or benevolence. In the twisted language of government officials, it apparently means following the rulebook right up until the moment you pull the trigger. It suggests that the process was polite and professional, with the minor unfortunate side effect that someone ended up dead. This is the sophisticated disconnect of the ruling class: as long as the paperwork is in order, the tragedy is just a procedural hiccup.

But Mr. Blanche did not stop at redefining the word “humane.” He moved quickly to the blame game, telling the cameras that this tragedy would have “never happened” if there was more support from **local law enforcement** and Minneapolis officials. It is a breathtaking piece of logic. He is effectively saying, "We would not have had to kill this man if the local police had just been nicer to us."

It is the logic of a schoolyard bully, translated into federal policy. It shifts the burden of the killing away from the person holding the gun and places it squarely on the shoulders of local politicians. It is a perfect, sealed loop of responsibility avoidance. If things go wrong during a **federal agent raid**, it is because the locals didn't help. If things go right, the Feds take the credit. It must be nice to live in a world where you can never truly be wrong, only “unsupported.”

Let’s look at the reality. He claims that if local police had cooperated more fully, the situation would have been safer. Perhaps. Or perhaps adding more armed agents to a volatile situation is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. The idea that safety only comes from total submission to federal authority is a dangerous fairytale. It ignores the messy reality of cities like Minneapolis. To demand total compliance from local officials, and then blame them when a federal raid goes south, is rich with irony.

Blanche is smart; he knows exactly what he is doing. By focusing on the lack of “support,” he turns a story about a fatal shooting into a story about political squabbling and **inter-agency cooperation**. The dead man becomes a footnote. It is a magic trick. Look at this hand over here waving the policy papers, so you don't look at the hand over there holding the smoking gun.

We see this all over the world. Whenever the state hurts someone, the excuse is always that the victim or the community failed to follow the proper procedures. Blanche is just the latest actor to read the lines. So, we are left with a dead resident in Minneapolis and a Deputy Attorney General in Washington washing his hands of the whole affair. The locals are to blame. The agents were humane. The system worked, even though a man is dead.

### References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source:** [NBC News: Todd Blanche says federal agents ‘acting humanely’ amid public outcry: Full interview](https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/todd-blanche-says-federal-agents-acting-humanely-amid-public-outcry-full-interview-256543301816) * **Context:** Discussion regarding the fatal shooting by a border control agent in Minneapolis and subsequent Department of Justice statements on "Meet the Press."