01/18/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/18cpajNBKK/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The killing of Renee Nicole Good and the unprecedented federal occupation of an American city have brought the country to a crossroads -- a moment that distills into stark clarity two fundamentally incompatible visions of what America is and what it should be.
On one side: accountability, the rule of law, the principle that no one -- not even a federal agent -- is above scrutiny when an American citizen, when any person, lies dead in the street.
On the other: thuggery, impunity, and an administration that declared the killer innocent and the victim guilty before any investigation had even begun.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew this line when asked about Vice President Vance's defense of the ICE agent who shot Renee:
"I understand that Vice President Vance believes that shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not. That is a fundamental difference between Vice President Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street."
This is the choice before us now.
From the moment Renee was killed, the Trump administration wasted no time defaming her. They have called her a "domestic terrorist," a "violent rioter," a "professional agitator." They have claimed she "violently, willfully, and viciously ran over" an officer who is visible on video walking away uninjured moments after shooting her.
And then there is JD Vance, who has been so vile in his attacks on Renee that his fellow Catholics at the National Catholic Reporter denounced them as a "moral stain."
Blaming her for her own killing, Vance called Renee's death "a tragedy of her own making." He claimed she had been "brainwashed" by "left-wing ideology." He described her as a "deranged leftist." And in a moment that revealed the full moral bankruptcy of this administration, Vance declared that her killer -- the man who shot her in the head and called her a "f*cking b*tch" -- "deserves a debt of gratitude."
Let that sink in. Twenty-six seconds before Jonathan Ross fired a bullet into Renee's head, she had spoken to him calmly, even warmly: "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you."
His first words after killing her? "F*cking b*tch."
This is the man Vance says we owe a debt of gratitude to.
Vance then made the administration's intentions explicit: there would be no accountability. He declared that the officer is "protected by absolute immunity" and was "just doing his job" -- effectively announcing that the administration has already decided the outcome of any investigation before it has even begun. He excoriated the media for "prejudging this guy as if he's a murderer" while prejudging the victim as a "deranged leftist."
And as if to remove any remaining doubt about this administration's intentions, the Department of Homeland Security this week amplified a message from Stephen Miller -- Trump's deputy chief of staff and the architect of his immigration agenda -- telling ICE agents they have "federal immunity" to do whatever they want.
"To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties, and anybody who lays a hand on you, or tries to stop you, or tries to obstruct you, is committing a felony," Miller declared. "You have immunity to perform your duties and no one -- no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist -- can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties."
This is a lie. There is no such thing as "federal immunity" for killing American citizens. Michael J.Z. Mannheimer, a constitutional law professor at Northern Kentucky University, told CNN: "The idea that a federal agent has absolute immunity for crimes they commit on the job is absolutely ridiculous." Public defender Eli Northrup was equally blunt: "There is no blanket 'immunity' for criminal behavior. States can and should hold federal officers accountable."
But the point isn't legal accuracy. The point is the message being sent -- to ICE agents and to the American public. Miller and Vance's words amount to a greenlight for abuse, open season on immigrants and citizens alike.
And the administration isn't just lying about the law -- they're actively obstructing justice. The FBI reversed course just hours after agreeing to a joint investigation with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), shutting out state investigators entirely and seizing sole control of all case materials, scene evidence, and witness interviews.
This is a striking departure from standard practice -- including the FBI's own policy, which states that state and local agencies are "not subordinate to the FBI" and that investigative resources are typically "pooled in a common effort."
And it gets worse. This week, six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned in protest over the Justice Department's handling of this case -- including Joe Thompson, the lead prosecutor on Minnesota's fraud investigations, who was hand-picked by Trump himself to serve as acting U.S. Attorney just last year. These are career public servants, not political appointees. And they walked away from their jobs rather than be complicit in what is happening.
The reason? The DOJ is pushing to investigate Rebecca Good -- Renee's widow, the woman who watched her wife die and collapsed in the snow covered in her blood — while simultaneously refusing to investigate the man who killed her. The "investigation" reportedly centers on Rebecca's possible ties to activist groups — which is, of course, protected First Amendment activity.
Doug Kelley, a former assistant U.S. attorney for Minnesota, was blunt: "I've been practicing federal criminal law in this state for 51 years and this is the darkest day in 51 years as far as I can see for the rule of law in Minnesota."
Tom Heffelfinger, a two-time former U.S. attorney for the state who was appointed by both Bush presidents, didn't mince words: "I will tell you that is disgusting to focus an investigation on the widow of somebody who was shot by a federal agent."
Read that again. The administration won't investigate Jonathan Ross. But they're going after the grieving spouse he made a widow.
This is not justice. This is persecution. This is a message to every American who might dare to witness, to record, to hold federal agents accountable: we will come for you and everyone you love.
Minnesota's U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, have sent a joint letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging the DOJ to include the Minnesota BCA in the investigation, writing: "The administration's decision raises serious questions about its objectivity, particularly after administration officials have made statements that conflict with the video and other evidence that has already become public."
If the administration truly believed their self-defense narrative would hold up to scrutiny, they would welcome independent validation. Instead, they are doing everything in their power to prevent it. Innocent people don't block investigations.
This is not about whether you agreed with Renee's choices that morning. It's not about whether you support ICE's mission or oppose it. It doesn't even matter who you believe was at fault.
It's about something more fundamental: when an American citizen is killed by a federal agent in an American street, there must be a fair, impartial, and transparent investigation. This is the foundation of accountability. This is the rule of law.
What the Trump administration has offered instead is governance through thuggery. Foregone conclusions about guilt and innocence. A rush to smear a dead woman's reputation while celebrating the man who killed her. An assertion that federal agents have "absolute immunity" to kill citizens without consequence.
These are not the actions of an administration committed to justice. These are the actions of an administration committed to impunity -- telling Americans, in plain terms: you cannot question us.
Flooding the streets of Minneapolis with over 2,000 agents. Terrorizing neighborhoods. Harassing immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. Using ICE as a political weapon to punish states and governors Trump doesn't like. These are the actions of authoritarians.
The lines between these two visions of America have never been clearer. And there is no standing on the sidelines.
You either stand with the rule of law, with accountability, with everything that has made America a beacon for 250 years. Or you stand with those who believe a "debt of gratitude" is owed to a man who took a woman's life through a series of reckless decisions and callous indifference to human life.
And the evidence of that recklessness only continues to mount.
This week, The New York Times released a meticulous frame-by-frame video analysis synchronizing all available footage of Renee's killing. Their findings directly contradict the administration's claims: "The visual evidence shows no indication that the agent who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, had been run over."
The footage shows Renee turning her steering wheel to the right -- away from Ross, not toward him. She was trying to go around him. She was trying to get away. The analysis also "establishes how Mr. Ross put himself in a dangerous position near her vehicle in the first place."
And now, a week later, comes yet another unverifiable claim designed to retroactively justify the killing. This week, anonymous "U.S. officials" fed CBS News a story claiming Ross suffered "internal bleeding to the torso" from being struck by Renee's car. The agency provided no medical records, no documentation, no details about the severity -- just an anonymous leak to a willing outlet.
Even CBS's own staff revolted: according to the Guardian, there was "big internal dissension" over the report, with one staffer calling it "a thinly-veiled, anonymous leak by the Trump administration to someone who'd carry it online." CBS News senior vice president David Reiter objected before publication, noting: "A bruise is internal bleeding. But it can also be something serious. We do know that the ICE agent walked away from the incident -- we have that on camera." Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss overrode the concerns and ran it anyway.
We are apparently expected to believe this -- despite the fact that everything this administration has said about this case from day one has been a lie. They called her a "domestic terrorist." They said she "ran him over." They said she "weaponized her vehicle." All of it contradicted by video evidence that millions of people have seen with their own eyes -- including footage showing Ross walking without difficulty after the shooting, glancing at Renee's bloody body, and then quickly fleeing the scene.
As Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey put it: "The ICE agent walked away with a hip injury that he might as well have gotten from closing a refrigerator door with his hips. Give me a break. No, he was not run over. He walked out of there with a hop in his step."
The video evidence is clear.
Ross chose to escalate. He chose to position himself in front of a car. And most damningly, he chose to fire at a woman who was driving away from him.
And even if you believe Renee made the wrong choice by driving away -- even if you think she should have sat there while masked men screamed at her and grabbed at her door -- disobeying an order is not a capital offense. There is no crime in America for which the punishment is summary ex*****on by a federal agent. Not fleeing. Not "impeding." Not failing to comply fast enough with screamed commands.
Failing to comply is not a death sentence in America. It must never become one.
For all Americans who are horrified not only by Renee's death but by the callous, inhumane response to it -- by the administration's immediate efforts to shut down accountability and block genuine investigation -- this is the moment to act.
Call your representatives. Demand that Congress -- particularly Republicans who have spent a year acceding to Trump's every demand -- demonstrate it is still an independent body.
Renee Nicole Good was not an activist by nature. She was a mother who had just dropped her six-year-old son off at school and was on her way home. She stopped to bear witness, to hold accountable the ICE agents operating in her neighborhood -- an action fully protected by the Constitution.
As her wife, Becca Good, wrote in a statement: "On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns."
Renee's voice has been silenced. Yours has not.
Stand up for an America of law, not thuggery. Of accountability, not impunity. Of decency and compassion, not cruelty celebrated as strength.
--> Here's how to take action against the militarization of U.S. cities: Congress must fund the Department of Homeland Security by January 30, and spending bills require 60 votes in the Senate -- meaning Democrats have leverage to demand restrictions on ICE.
Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them: No vote for DHS funding without serious guardrails on how ICE operates and accountability for agents who use excessive force. Demand a fair and impartial investigation into Renee's death.
- There is also an action alert you can use to contact your elected officials on 5 Calls at https://5calls.org/issue/dhs-budget-ice-defund/
- To help those working on the ground in Minnesota to protect the Constitutional rights of immigrants, you can support the critical work of the Immigrant Defense Network at https://immigrantdefensenetwork.org/
- To watch the NYT's new frame-by-frame analysis of the shooting, visit https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010648638/ice-shooting-renee-good-minneapolis-videos-analysis.html?smid=url-share
For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
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