US Vice - President JD Vance claimed the woman shot and killed by an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis was responsible for her own death.
The VP suggested Renee Nicole Good, 37, was at fault for the shooting. She was killed on Wednesday during a confrontation with a federal agent taking part in an immigration raid, who fired his weapon through the windscreen of her SUV. The death has sparked the usual outrage in the US and as usual in the culture war as in any other war, truth has been the main casualty.
In a post on X, Mr Vance said the death was a “tragedy” but one “that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with”. He might have added that radicals and leftists need to understand that immigrants are not above the law. As Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote around 2000 years ago, 'In a civilised society there can only be one law and it must be applied equally to all.'
On Thursday, protesters clashed with immigration officers after the killing of Ms. Good as she and other protestors tried to prevent officers from carrying out their duty. Federal agents fired pepper balls to try to push back crowds and deployed a gas-like substance, according to CNN.
Let’s take the ideology and emotion out of this. This woman did help escalate a situation by blocking the street with her car, reportedly as part of a protest aimed at preventing Immigration officers from raiding a property believed to be occupied by illegal immigrants. She should clearly not have tried to drive away, but the officers had approached her car in an agressive manner. However she is clearly heard refusing to comply with an order to get out of her car and then as one officer tried to grab the ignion key she decides to use her car as a weapon and drives forward, towards another officer who is standing in front of her car.
As the car was moving slowly we cannot say if the officer who fired had time to move out of the way or not, but there was no reason to shoot to kill. What is apparent is a distinct lck of common sense on the part of both the deceased and the officers. This is the United States of America where law enforcement officers are known to be trigger happy. Refusing to comply with an order given by an armed cop or Federal Agent is sheer insanity as well as unlawful. On the other hand the police approach was never likely to lead to a peaceful resolution.
Police could have let her drive away, blocked to road ahead and surrrounded the driver.
The reality is her actions were unlawful, unjustified and so were ICE's. She did not deserve to die but the ICE officers didn't deserved to be hit by her car either, even though the contact was minimal.
But as usual in these situations, the incident is being politicised.
When an unarmed protester was shot dead for interfering with the law a few years ago, Democrats and progressives celebrated, justified it and believed it to be the right course of action so they clearly do tolerate unarmed activists being shot dead when they are Republican o supporting right wing causes. Thus this clearly isn't about a protestor against some government policy being needlessly killed but instead the outrage is because a Democrat or progressive rather than a Republican or conservative is dead.
We are clearly failing as a society when we decide whether a death is justified or not just because of someone's politics. So I find it hypocritical that the left in the USA are outraged when recently they have enthusiasitically celebrated the deaths of multiple people, including the murder of Charlie Kirk. It's also hypocritical of the political right to claim shooting someone unarmed is justified when they were outraged about the republican protestor being shot dead.
The reality is this woman broke the law, she used her car to obstruct, then when she hit the officer with it, which she did in the full videos not the selectivly edited ones in which the officr in question is not clearly visible, she then was doing a hit and run. If she had just stopped her vehicle and got out when requested none of this would have happened and if she didn't use her car to unlawfully block ice agents she'd be alive. She chose her actions, she should not have been there and she was shot dead whilst breaking multiple laws and exacerbating that by refsing to comply with an order to leave her car..
Was the shooting justified? No absolutely not, however when there are tutorial videos online teaching activists to not only block but to purposely hurt agents with those cars, you can understand why police and federal agents are quick to shoot: they fear for their lives.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
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