I saw the video while I was waiting for the snow.

Sitting at home Saturday, I was scrolling through social media. There, in Minneapolis, masked immigration agents were caught on phone video pinning a protester to the ground.

The man, identified as Alex Pretti, was in a fetal position. The agents were kneeling on his arms and legs.

The video shows one agent repeatedly smashing a pepper spray canister into Pretti’s head.

There’s a pop, and the agents jump off the man and step back. Pretti arches and falls face forward on the sidewalk. There are nine more pops, shots fired into his unmoving body.

The agents move away quickly. One runs in front of a witness capturing the violence on video. The agent adjusts his mask, ensuring his face is covered, and ducks out of the frame.

You’ve seen this. I can’t stop seeing it.

America has always been a place of division. Haves, have-nots. Black, white, brown. Left and right. Women and men. Up or down.

Now here’s one more. Are you on the side of the phone video or the side of the mask?

You can’t go to Minneapolis to fight for what you believe there. You can’t convince President Donald Trump to stop this.

You can take action here.

Maryland Sen. Malcolm Augustine has proposed a bill that would prohibit on-duty local, state and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks. It allows exceptions for undercover work, religious garments and safety gear but bans masking as routine police procedure.

“The examples are chilling, and we are all fully aware of them,” Augustine told a committee on Thursday, days before the latest tragedy. “For me, this is about basic human dignity and our collective pursuit of a better life.”

Contact your state legislator to tell them you want this bill or its companion in the House enacted into law.

California passed its “No Secret Police Act” in September. The federal government is challenging it in court, arguing it violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has joined 19 states in telling the courts it supports the California law.

“Why are we debating this now? Because, in our nation’s recent history, no law enforcement agency has used masks to routinely disguise their identity and hide from the public until now,” Naureen Shah of the American Civil Liberties Union testified at Thursday’s hearing. “And this is a crisis for professional policing.”

Two days later, Alex Pretti was dead.

You cannot experience the video of his death without recognizing who the villains are.

Credible news sources examined the images second by second, making clear the federal explanation that Pretti posed a threat is a farce.

Federal agents in masks killed the 37-year-old intensive care nurse while he was monitoring them with a cellphone. Pretti stepped between them and another protester after agents pepper-sprayed her, videos show, and then died screaming that agents were going to kill him.

We know this because of phone videos. They aren’t deep fakes. They haven’t been distorted by political editing.

Cellphone or the mask? Which side are you on?

Maryland carefully examines state and local police use of violence. When federal agents kill someone, it is the most extreme exercise of political power because the government is truly accountable only to the people.

Pretti was legally armed. But the videos show he had his cellphone in his hand and federal agents took his holstered weapon before shooting him.

Even the gun nuts can see what’s wrong with this picture.

When a federal prosecutor in California said agents can be legally justified in shooting anyone approaching them with a gun, the National Rifle Association broke from its constant hammering of Democratic leaders in Minnesota to call the idea “dangerous and wrong.”

“Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

Yet there are opponents of a mask ban in Maryland.

“This legislation demonizes law enforcement officers who are simply trying to protect their identities and keep them and their families safe,” said Shari Rendall, a state spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for lower immigration levels.

Rendall has put herself on the side of the mask.

Tell your state lawmakers you reject the mask, so that if the courts uphold California’s ban, Maryland doesn’t have to wait until the next General Assembly session to protect its residents from this violence.

The immigration agents who grabbed people off the streets of Annapolis this month, refusing to release their names or the charges against them, wore masks. More of this violence is coming.

Tell your member of Congress you want accountability. Democrats should use all their leverage to get Homeland Security out of Minneapolis, including shutting down the federal government when funding runs out Friday.

And tell your friends on the side of the mask that they must wake up to the threat to their freedom.

As much as supporters of this violence want there to be, there is no excuse for the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good. The Minnesota mother of three was fatally shot in her vehicle by a masked ICE agent in early January.

The mask is the tool of the oppressor. The phone video is the tool of the oppressed, the power of those documenting abuse.

The video of Alex Pretti’s death forces you to see what is happening.

You have to judge whether it is stronger than the mask.