It's happened again. Federal officers have shot and killed a man in broad daylight on the streets of an American city, and from the multiple videos of the event it is pretty obvious that they had absolutely no justification for using deadly force whatsoever. That argument is playing out right now, in the media and in politics in general, and could spark another government shutdown at the end of the week. But I think there is a big and important subject that is largely absent from most of these conversations, although it is understandable why this is (since the death of a man is so serious). That subject is addressing the underlying wrongdoing that happened before the shots were fired.

Two of the videos which show what happened just before the altercation show what should become a major part of this conversation, at least in my own opinion. The first shows the man who died being physically shoved backwards -- repeatedly -- by one of the federal officers. The slain man is not visibly doing anything wrong at all. He is not attacking the federal officer in any way, he seems to merely be filming what is going on and interacting with the officer verbally. Both are constitutionally-protected rights, it bears pointing out. The slain man offers no real resistance, he allows himself to be pushed backwards, over and over again.

The other video starts where the final altercation really began. A woman is standing on the side of a street in front of a parked car, probably interacting verbally with a group of federal officers. You cannot tell what is being said (at least from the videos I have seen and listened to). But she's not interfering with them or doing anything threatening at all -- she is merely observing them and perhaps filming them, while speaking her mind. Again: these are all constitutionally-protected things to do.

The entire altercation begins because one of the federal officers acts like a thug. There's really no other way to put it. He approaches the woman, shoves her violently, causing her to stagger backwards and fall into a pile of snow on the side of the road, beside the vehicle. The officer then pulls out his tear gas (or pepper spray or mace or whatever it was) and sprays her directly in the face, from a yard or so away.

So let's just stop right here, because this is the point most of the discussions about this event either gloss over, ignore, or don't adequately point out. The wrongdoing that sparked this entire encounter was a federal officer physically shoving a non-threatening woman, and then while she was helplessly lying on the ground spraying her in the face with caustic chemicals.

That right there -- both of these actions by the officer -- is a major violation of her civil rights. It is indefensible behavior from any cop. She was not presenting any threat to the officer, she was not attacking him in any way, shape, or form, and she was not interfering with or impeding his duties in any way. She may have been expressing some negative feelings towards him, which is otherwise known as "exercising her right to free speech." Cops in America are not protected from people giving them a piece of their mind, even if it includes screaming at them, cursing at them, or insulting them. They just aren't. The First Amendment guarantees this, in fact.

But the officer clearly shoves her for what she is saying to him. There's no other way to interpret it. She winds up flat on her back in a snowbank, and then -- even though at this point she is plainly and quite obviously helpless (not posing any sort of threat at all, in other words) -- she gets some tear gas in the face.

This is a common occurrence, and it needs to be addressed. Looking at any videos from altercations with ICE or the Border Patrol agents -- both in Minneapolis and wherever else they have launched such occupying operations -- shows that the officers are way too quick to use such chemical weapons. And the manner in which they use them seems designed for maximum torture, especially when their use is not justifiable in any way whatsoever.

People are sprayed by officers from moving cars. People are sprayed who are doing nothing to justify such an action. People are sprayed indiscriminately, at the drop of a hat. Worst of all, people are sprayed who have already been completely subdued and are being pinned to the ground by multiple officers. These are the most cruel, since the high-powered spray is sent into their eyes at point-blank range, mere inches from their faces, while they are being held motionless and defenseless.

The most-recent slain main in Minneapolis got sprayed only because he tried to intervene in what was going on by helping the woman on the ground to her feet. He made no motion towards the officers, he did not threaten them in any way, he was just trying to help a woman in distress. He did nothing illegal. He did nothing threatening. He was just trying to help a woman the officers were torturing -- spraying her with chemicals while she was lying helpless on the ground.

For showing such humanity, he was first attacked with the same chemical spray, wrestled to the ground by multiple armed agents, and then shot dead in the street. As I said, there are plenty of other people analyzing that whole sequence of events, so I will leave it to others to draw conclusions about that phase of it.

My point, however, is that the federal agents were in the wrong from the beginning. They incited this incident. They set in motion the chain of events which led to a dead man on an American city's streets. And that is the core problem which I hope the politicians will try to address, in the political fallout which is building.

These federal agents are completely out of control. A federal judge had previously issued a ruling which was supposed to prevent them from using pepper spray or tear gas against people who weren't doing anything other than peacefully exercising their constitutional rights. Even with this ruling in place, this event happened. And dozens if not hundreds of similar events have been happening in Minneapolis in the meantime -- events which do not wind up with a dead body in the streets.

Democratic politicians are calling for major changes in how ICE and the Border Patrol is allowed to operate. They're calling for banning the agents from being masked and from wearing full battle gear, as well as plenty of other ideas for reform. But there needs to be a push to restrict their use of pepper spray and tear gas and other chemical weapons as well. Because the agents quite obviously cannot be trusted in any way to have even an ounce of restraint while using them.

I don't care what the woman in the video was yelling at the officers, she in no way deserved to be pushed down and sprayed in the face with a chemical weapon. If she hadn't been, then the slain man wouldn't have had to attempt to intervene. And if he hadn't, then he wouldn't be dead right now. It all stems from the initial violation of the woman's civil and constitutional rights. And that needs to change, in a big way.

The administration has lied and tried to demonize the slain man. But we all have eyes. Take a look at the videos, and ask yourself: what was the possible justification for the initial shove of the woman? There was none. What was the justification for either the woman or the slain man to get chemicals sprayed in their faces? There was none. This entire event did not need to happen. It was the federal officers who escalated the situation, in multiple ways. And that needs to stop.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant