On Jan. 7, in broad daylight, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good in Minneapolis.
Good was on her way home with her partner after dropping her son off at school. She stopped her car in the middle of Portland Avenue South, a Minneapolis street, motioning for unmarked government vehicles to drive by. In the video footage, one agent is seen approaching the car and demanding Good to exit the vehicle. Good is seen reversing before advancing her car slightly, clearly turning her car away from the agent, an action which the agent, Jonathan Ross, responded to by drawing his gun and shooting Good through her window.
In another video, a physician is seen pleading with the agents to allow them to approach Good and provide medical help. ICE agents refused, insisting they had medics on scene.
President Donald Trump’s administration responded to the incident by claiming that the ICE agent made “defensive shots,” saying that the woman otherwise would’ve run the agent over with her car. However, multiple video angles show that the woman was not attempting to nor accidentally running over the agent.
Trump was quick to blame the left for the actions that unfolded.
“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” Trump said.
On the other hand, Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz urged for peaceful protest and relayed the message that the shooting was totally avoidable. Walz stressed that he is enraged by the actions that occurred and that the people have the right to be angry.
After the shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made a statement.
“To ICE, get the **** out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart…” Frey said.
An incident like this transcends party lines. An ICE agent executed a U.S. citizen, and the administration is trying to rewrite the narrative. This goes beyond politics. It is shameful and sickening to see that this is the state of our country.
“It’s really scary to know that people in our community, not just people in Minneapolis, people that are just like us could be susceptible to something that was so extremely wrong,” Kylie Davis (9, HSU) said.
ICE is not here for your safety, for my safety or the safety of anyone in this country. They are wreaking havoc in our country, hurting and ending innocent lives and they have no place to be roaming the city streets heavily armed.
“Regardless of who you are or what agency you work for, if you shoot or kill people in Minneapolis you need to be arrested immediately and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Full stop,” said the Minneapolis City Council’s president, Elliott Payne.
Renee Nicole Macklin Good was unarmed. She was not only a citizen. She was a mother, a poet and a wife. Good is not the only person to meet this fate at the hands of ICE agents or while in ICE custody. There is no democracy in which a woman can be shot on the street, the administration rewrites the narratives and Ross, the man who committed the crime, walks away clean.
Democrats’ social media accounts posted a George Orwell quote with the headlines regarding the Minneapolis shooting. The quote reads, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ear. It was their final, most essential command.”
This quote comes from the Orwell novel “1984” in which Orwell writes about a dystopian, totalitarian society, and unfortunately it embodies the situation eerily perfectly.
“It was terrifying to know that me or someone I’m so close with could just be so susceptible to something awful happening, literally dying in the street. It’s terrifying, and I’m not only scared for myself, but we think of the people around us and the people that are being torn away from their families. We should have empathy for all of them,” Davis said.
It is clear that the Trump administration doesn’t want us to know what really happened. Minneapolis officials are being barred from investigating further into the matter by federal agencies.
Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, said the switch in investigators was a mere matter of jurisdiction. However, Walz claimed that Minneapolis has to be involved in the investigation and that some government statements thus far have been “verifiably false.”
According to Noem, Good “weaponized her vehicle.”
Noem and others wish to essentially gaslight the public into believing that ICE’s shots were anything but an egregious escalation to an easily defusable situation. Unfortunately for them, the footage of the event is out for all to see.
It’s important that we remain vigilant, aware and do not succumb to the misinformation being spread from our leaders. Having ICE agents roaming freely is infinitely more of a danger than it is a safety precaution. This is about restriction and regime, and it is actively bringing harm to the American people. No one is safe when ICE is on our streets.
