Death in Minneapolis: a shooting dividing the US

How America has changed, said Molly Olmstead on Slate. When George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020, the country was united in horror. Republican commentators expressed their shock at the killing; President Trump called it “sickening” and “revolting”. Compare that with the response to the killing last week of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officer just a mile from where Floyd died.

Shocking lies

Within hours, the administration was slandering her. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed that she’d “weaponised her vehicle” in an attempt to kill Ice officers, in “an act of domestic terrorism”. A Fox News pundit accused Democrat leaders of emboldening “thugs” to attack law enforcers. Vice President J.D. Vance called Good a “deranged Leftist”. All this despite an abundance of video evidence suggesting that Good’s killing was unjustified.

The lies were shocking, said Adam Serwer in The Atlantic. Officials could have pleaded patience while the full facts were established, yet they chose instead to spout falsehoods, such as that there were riots at the scene. “The federal government now speaks with the voice of the right-wing smear machine: partisan, dishonest and devoted to vilifying Trump’s perceived enemies rather than informing the public.”

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Trump was the worst offender, said Eric Levitz on Vox. He condemned Good on social media as a “professional agitator” who had “violently, wilfully, and viciously” run over the Ice officer who shot her. “Based on the attached clip,” he said, “it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in hospital.” Anyone who has seen footage of the event knows that’s nonsense. While the officer might have been clipped by the bumper of Good’s SUV as she turned to drive off, he clearly wasn’t run over. After firing through the windshield and open driver window, he calmly reholstered his gun and walked away. It’s frightening. “If Ice agents know that they can kill US citizens on video – and still count on the president to lie in support of their freedom – Americans’ most basic liberties will be imperilled.”

Useful distraction

Let’s keep things in perspective, said Charles C.W. Cooke in National Review. To listen to some people, you’d think Ice agents were wandering around randomly executing people. While Good certainly didn’t deserve to die, she did appear to disobey police orders. The agent who fired at her, Jonathan Ross, may well have feared for his life, said The Wall Street Journal. He reportedly received dozens of stitches last year after a fleeing car dragged him about 300 feet.

Both sides need to lower the temperature. It’s not helpful for Mayor Jacob Frey to demand that federal immigration officials “get the f**k out of Minneapolis”. Trump should also tone down his rhetoric and reconsider his aggressive deployment of Ice agents. “His mass deportation policy is already unpopular and will become more so if there are more such violent incidents.”

On the contrary, the row over Ice may serve as a useful distraction for Trump, said Ed Kilgore in New York Magazine. At a time when his ratings have slumped and the Democrats are making headway by relentlessly highlighting cost-of-living issues, shifting the battleground towards immigration, crime and policing puts the Republicans in “more familiar and comfortable” territory. Hence why they were so eager to misrepresent the circumstances of Good’s death. Beyond the desire to show deference to Trump, they recognised that, facts aside, “support for the shooter is good politics for the GOP”.