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Murder in Cold Blood

The killing of Good is as bad as it gets

Dan Rather and Team Steady Jan 9

Credit: Getty Images

This is not right. Not justifiable. Not who we are as Americans. Full stop.

The act of violence by a federal officer that killed an unarmed American is an unimaginable horror and a national atrocity.

Renee Good was murdered by an ICE agent on her way home from dropping off her first grader at school. Video from three different angles shows Good driving onto a street full of protesters and agents near her Minneapolis home. One can then see Good maneuvering her car at the command of several agents.

According to eyewitnesses, two agents were yelling at her simultaneously and at cross purposes to turn around, back up, stop, and get out of the car. She rolled down her window to hear and speak with them.

Moments before the shooting, she was inching her car forward. An agent, who was standing on the left side of the car, raised his gun and shot Good at point-blank range. A doctor in the crowd offered to help Good. The agent would not let him, saying, “I don’t care.”

Good was a poet and stay-at-home mom who was born and raised in Colorado. She has been described as a devoted Christian who was not politically active, according to her ex-husband’s father. Her social media accounts appear to bear this out.

Once again, the president and his lackeys are asking Americans not to believe what they see with their own eyes.

Rather than console the family or condemn the violence, he orchestrated a fiction to cover up ICE’s criminality, abuse of power, and the failures of his draconian deportation policies.

Trump claims the ICE agent acted in self-defense and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a domestic terrorist who weaponized her car to target the agents. While die-hard Trumpsters might gobble that up like it’s Thanksgiving dinner, the real story can be seen on the video taken by multiple bystanders.

ICE stokes fear and heightens tensions rather than de-escalating them. Since Trump took office last January, four people have been killed and five injured by ICE agents in 15 shootings. Though there is clear evidence that the agent who killed Good did not act in self-defense, it is unlikely even he will see the inside of a courtroom, never mind a prison cell.

The agent who killed Good was identified by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He is an Iraq War veteran who has been with ICE since at least 2016. The agent was previously injured in a traffic incident while seizing an undocumented man who was later convicted of dragging the agent with his car. This doesn’t justify what happened. At all.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration guru, who is not a lawyer, maintains ICE agents are untouchable. “You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop or obstruct you is committing a felony,” he said on Fox. This is patently false in America — always has been and always should be.

Though Minneapolis’s mayor and Minnesota’s governor vowed to seek justice for Good, Trump & Co. made sure they were unable to. The FBI announced on Thursday morning that it would be handling the investigation alone, boxing out the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Historically, the agencies work together.

The BCA said in a statement that the U.S. attorney’s office “had reversed course: the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.”

With no independent investigation and a Justice Department in the president’s pocket, the agent who killed Good may not even get a slap on the wrist.

Unless we demand it.

Renee Good’s death will not be in vain. It has already drawn needed attention to a rogue president and agency acting with impunity. She could be any mother, in any city, at any time. She could be any one of us. It is time to draw the line in the sand. And to say her name while doing it.

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Stay Steady,
Dan