The Eyes Have It

There have been a lot of faux-macho tough statements and tweets coming from members of the administration in their efforts to defend the indefensible shooting death by ICE of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good.  The most blunt of these have come from Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem in her cosplay cowgirl hat, among other things calling the dead woman’s actions to be “domestic terrorism.”
 
This would be so incredibly faux-macho tough if only there wasn’t actual video of the shooting.  Which everyone can see.

Just their bad luck...

And if only that video didn’t show Renee Good's car stopped, then slowly backing up, turning her wheels away from the agents, and trying to leave.  With no ICA agent standing in the way, in any danger.  

Which everyone can see.
 
And if only the murdered victim wasn't a U.S. citizen with no criminal record living in a middle-class neighborhood, the mother of a six-year-old child – and not the “worst of the worst.”
 
The only "domestic terrorism" in their statements is their statements.
 
In Trump’s comments, in which he said he had watched a video of the shooting, he insisted that Renee Good “violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer.”

That's a nifty trick, by the way -- since it was the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good when he was standing.

​Which everyone can see.
 
In the world of reality, there is no way anyone rational with their eyes open and trying to be honest could even conceivably say an ICE officer was run over.  Let alone run over “violently, willfully, and viciously.”  The only way one could realistically say in a sentence that an ICE officer was “ran over" is if the phrase was preceded by the word “not.”  So, for all his lies and total inaccuracies, it’s only fair to surmise that Trump pulled “ran over the ICE officer” out of one of Stephen Miller’s rear orifices, since it's dark in there and difficult to see.

How accurate is Trump’s version of reality?  Well…okay, that’s a question in no need of an answer, but we’ll just note that his tweet also said that the murdered woman was “now recovering in hospital.” 

And we must add a word about Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS mouthpiece whose name is little-known but whose sycophantic presence on social media as the Department's spokesperson to the world is notable for its relentless omission of facts and decency.  She described the murder of Renee Good, who (it must be repeated: as the videos blatantly show and anyone looking can clearly see) was sitting in her stopped car, then slowly backed up, turned her wheels and drove away...before getting shot to death, by writing that "one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them -- an act of domestic terrorism."

By the way, who is this woman who Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Tricia McLaughlin and others a "domestic terrorist"? A quick step into Honest Land shows a mini-bio on Facebook of Renee Good saying that “When she is not writing, reading or talking about writing, she has movie marathons and makes messy art.”  She was awarded Old Dominion University's poetry prize in 2020.  And her mother described her daughter, “Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.  She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”

In his online rant on the murder, the dementia-muddled Trump veered off the beaten path to place blame (as he does) on anyone else but himself and his administration by proclaiming that “the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting” ICE agents.
 
In reality, the reason these incidents are happening is because ICE military agents -- who are not trained for policing in communities (and in many cases of newly-recruited agents who have gotten little training of any kind) -- have been deployed in U.S. cities against all wishes of the communities.  Without the presence of ICE, there would be no resistance to them.  Without the presence of ICE, Renee Good would be alive.

And to clarify Trump -- When Ms. Good was killed by ICE, she was not "threatening, assaulting, and targeting".  She was leaving.

Which everyone can see.

By the way, if for some reason the ICE agent felt he was at risk by the vehicle (the video shows clearly he wasn't), he could have just...stepped aside.  In fact, DHS policy states: "DHS law enforcement officers are prohibited from discharging firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle or other conveyance."

Well, that seems pretty understandable.  Unless you've contorted yourself into trying to defend the indefensible.
 
This neighborhood where the shooting took place yesterday is not "worst of the worst." Renee Good was not an undocumented immigrant. She was not "threatening, assaulting, and targeting" ICE when she was killed.  She was leaving.
 
And again, to be clear:  the only domestic terrorists are those sending armed military into U.S. cities, trying to divide the country by openly lying about something everyone can exactly see which has zero relationship to their words.
 
Not just openly lying, but incredibly foolishly lying – because everyone can see exactly what happened…and that it has zero relationship to their words.

For all that, for all the attempts to rewrite reality, to paint Renee Good as a "domestic terrorist," a "violent rioter," someone who supposedly "willfully and viciously ran over" ICE agents, I'm reminded yet again of the Federal judge in Chicago who, after watching hours of DHS body cam footage, wrote “it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything [DHS] represent[s].” Statements by DHS & gov are "unreliable" & show a “pattern of false testimony” whose “evidence is simply not credible."

But beyond that, I have the sense that there's actually something good to come from all these twisted, inside-out statements from Trump, DHS and those surrounding him, since we all can actually see -- and actually know -- what actually happened.  It's not that Trump, DHS and their enablers are wrong or unkind, but something far worse.  It's that when the cruel statements devoid of reality from the Trump team and those by elected MAGOP officials enabling the ICE shooting are put side-by-side with the clear-cut video of a stopped car that then tries to leave the dangerous scene without putting anyone at risk, there on full display is the pure, utter inhumanity of those in the Trump World.  

Which everyone can see.
 
Or to put it best, as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey bluntly, pointedly, accurately said in just 78 seconds --
​