A cold-blooded ICE murder in Minneapolis
The Trump goons are already trying to spin it. Do not let them.
I usually don’t write midday posts, but this one feels necessary.
In case you have yet to see this, earlier today a Minneapolis-based ICE agent fired into a moving vehicle and killed the driver. A 37-year-old American woman named Renee Nicole Good.
Wait, I’m going to adjust that sentence—murdered the driver. A 37-year-old American woman named Renee Nicole Good.
Wednesday is Day 2 of a planned monthlong ICE surge in Minneapolis, land of snow and ice and Joe Mauer and, according to the current White House, far too many Brown people. So ICE has arrived to save us, or save white folks, or punish a Democratic city in a Democratic state, and that means bringing in unidentified masked agents to terrorize as many humans as possible. Thanks to this Nazi-like movement … thanks to a street stoppage … thanks to an overzealous triggerman … thanks to a president who cares about a single human life (his) … thanks to a modern GOP that kneels before its God … thanks to a nation more interested in the Kardashians than democracy … thanks to a general unawareness of the poetitive nature of world history … a nation is under authoritarian rule, a lovely city is under siege and Renee Nicole Good’s life has ceased.
And, in normal times, we’d have accountability. Of course we’d have accountability. The president would make a statement bemoaning the loss and promising to fully investigate. He would fly in tomorrow, meet with the governor and mayor, talk things through.
But not now.
No. Not now.
Now, we have Kristi Noem (dressed as Cowgirl Barbi, no less) saying this …
And we have Donald Trump posting this …
And we have Newsmax reporting it this way …
And we have Minnesota’s leading Republican gubernatorial candidate stating this …
And, truly, we have a choice to make. I don’t mean we, everyone. I mean, we—us. What are we going to do? How quiet and pliant will we remain? How willing are we to set aside the TikTok videos, set aside the TV and stand up? And fight?
How comfortable are we with the demise of the dream? Of the ideals of Washington and Jefferson, of FDR and Kennedy, of MLK and Susan B. Anthony, of your parents and your grandparents … how comfortable are we with all of that collapsing?
How comfortable are you?
I literally do not know what to do. ICE is so far removed from any of our realities. But that is the strategy isn't it? Move fast and break things, shock and awe, smash and grab. Those tactics create the perfect storm for what just happened. And it will keep happening. This murderer needs to be arrested by the Minneapolis police and put on trial just like the murderer of George Floyd. Trump would pardon him, but we have to have some recourse. The federal law enforcement entities are lawless from top to bottom. What is our tipping point?
“When they kick out your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands in the air or on the trigger of your gun.”