What does it mean to be an American? Is it as simple as being born within our pencil-drawn borders, growing up pledging allegiance to an indivisible nation, and eating hot dogs every year when we celebrate our separation from a power hungry tyrant? Or, rather, is it existing within those borders, fighting for the rights that give us liberty, and actively protesting against the very actions that forced the almost 300-year-old separation?
On Wednesday, January 7th, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot in cold blood by a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agent. Whatever being an American means to you, Renee no longer gets to exercise any of her rights as an American. When she attempted to drive away from the scene of an ICE raid, an agent we now know to be Jonathan Ross found it fitting to shoot her in the head three times.
As seen in videos circling the internet, Renee was driving in Minneapolis during an ICE raid. She was attempting a three-point turn while officers were idling in the street close by. In the middle of her turn, as officers were driving by, she waved the officers past to let them through. It was at this point, two officers rushed her van, one officer approaching from the driver-side door, and the other, Ross, approaching from the front-left headlight. The officer near the door attempted to reach inside the car to open the door. Renee then reversed and turned her wheels to the right in an attempt to escape. At this point, Ross side-stepped and reached for his gun. As Renee starts driving away, Ross pulls his gun and shoots three times, once through the windshield and twice through the driver side window, slaughtering Renee.
Onlookers could do nothing but watch in horror. One onlooker, announcing himself as a physician, pleaded with the officers to allow him to assess the body, to which the officer barked back “No!” After telling the officer he was a physician, the officer responded, “I don’t care.” Ross got in his vehicle and drove away from the active crime scene, leaving Good to die.
Shortly following this murder, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem immediately denied any wrongdoing on the part of the officer. She called Renee a domestic terrorist and said Ross was simply “following his training.” It should be noted that Department of Justice (“DOJ”) law enforcement regulation specifically condemns the use of a weapon on a moving vehicle if an officer can simply step out of the way; Officer Ross could and did before firing his weapon. Noem claimed Renee was blocking officers with her vehicle before weaponizing it, writing off Ross’s reckless disregard for human life as simple self-defense.
President Trump labeled Renee as “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer.” Both of these aggressive responses directly conflict with investigations from Minnesota and federal officials.
Minnesota officials responded quickly and succinctly. Mayor Jacob Frey addressed ICE with the short and succinct “Get the f— out of Minneapolis.” He shared the concerns many citizens have, stating, “They’re ripping families apart, sowing chaos in our streets.” Governor Tim Walz, set on justice for Ms. Good, said, “It feels very difficult that we will get a fair outcome. And I say that because people in positions of power have already passed judgement, from the president, vice president, to Kristi Noem, who have told you things that are verifiably inaccurate.”
The constituents are just as angry as the representatives. Minneapolis resident and political science major Charlie Schmit comments, “The unjustified murder was a horrific example of what these agents are doing in our city; they are roaming our streets, hurting as many people as possible to try to make us live in fear.”
I spoke with a Minnesotan tradesman, Connor Warren, who said, “A large portion of my coworkers have refrained from going home due to fears of not being able to return, despite being naturalized citizens or possessing valid work visas.” In the opinion of one University of Minnesota student, Michelle Sieberg, “ICE is not for the American people. They are bringing down a democracy and creating a militaristic, oligarchic regime.”
Citizens around the nation are outraged if not terrified. In a nation where citizens were already getting black-bagged for exercising the right to protest, or simply for the crime of being a person of color, the administration has now advanced further to killing people they disagree with. Trump, to his credit, directly said he would do this years ago. In 2016, Trump said he could “shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” At the time, Republicans laughed this off as another hyperbolic Trump joke. Well now his policies are directly responsible for shooting somebody, and Republicans, like lemmings, are lining up to defend him once again. This is the act of a dictator. Anything he says can no longer be taken as a joke, but rather, a promise. The question is, how do we stop this? The answer is unity, courage, and most importantly, action.
For years, the Democratic establishment has told voters to commit to compromise and a middle-ground policy system. At the same time, Republicans have been pushing the needle on what counts as middle-ground policy. Anything other than tolerance and silence was seen as a losing strategy. Before Mamdani’s win in New York City, Mamdani was seen as a giveaway loss for the Democrats with massive doubt coming from the establishment.
New Yorkers, however, united against establishment forces and elected him, a voice of the people, and it’s already proving to be a massive success. In a span of two weeks, Mamdani has already improved infrastructure, strengthened tenants’ rights, and improved communications between citizens and government. Mamdani’s bold moves display an important point: Democrats can and must stop playing the middle ground. The Democrats must run more people like Mamdani; people who fight for their beliefs unabashedly. In the United States, as in New York, these people will win, and slowly, but surely, we will be able to reclaim the America we once knew.
We can’t live in silence. We can’t sit back and let Republicans chip away at the remaining liberties we have left. They will continue to do so until there is nothing left but an authoritarian ethno-state. “A society does not topple when people scream or take to the streets — it falls when we learn to live with the unthinkable,” Minnesotan Max Crowe writes. The best time for action was 10 years ago; the next best time is now. We must stand and unify for our republic, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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