They Want Us To Be Afraid

By protecting its murderous ICE agent, the Trump regime is saying nothing can stop the police state’s terror campaign—against immigrants and Americans alike. I say we the people can.

(Art courtesy of Steve Brodner from his newsletter The Greater Quiet)

When Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last week, how did the Trump regime respond? Not to condemn its own foot soldier, nor act responsibly and de-escalate the situation by calling for a thorough investigation of Good’s death. Instead, Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem and others blamed the victim, exploiting this violent and heartbreaking event to ratchet up the conflict and sow more fear.

Yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Fox News that she is sending “hundreds more” federal agents to Minneapolis—in addition to some 2,000 already there. After accusations of fraud among a small group of nonprofits led Donald Trump to demonize the entire Somali community, Noem insisted the deployment was needed “to uncover the true corruption and theft that has happened.” Without offering any examples to justify her lie, she called Minneapolis “the ground zero for stealing of taxpayer dollars and protecting criminals.”

Yesterday Noem also attacked Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for calling Good’s killing what it is: murder. She said they had “extremely politicized” the killing and needed to “tone down the rhetoric,” insisting they have “inflamed the public.”

As if the point-blank shooting in broad daylight of a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen wasn’t the inflammatory act. As if Noem calling Good a domestic terrorist wasn’t inflammatory rhetoric. “I would encourage them to grow up, get some maturity,” she gaslighted on CNN, “act like people who are responsible, who want people to be safe and the right thing to be done.”

It has been heartening to see that many thousands of Americans in Minneapolis and around the country have channeled their outrage by publicly protesting this lawless police state and calling for a real investigation and accountability. The refusal to accept what is happening and speak out against it is critical.

But that means recognizing the scale of the danger, which, while alarming for months, has escalated. The terrible fact is that the people in control of the federal government see most Americans as enemies. Rather than providing safety and protection, they are increasingly a menace, backed up by $75 billion for ICE to build a deadly apparatus that endangers American citizens and immigrants alike.

For example, the regime now is ironically labeling anti-ICE protestors as domestic terrorists and ramping up surveillance and other hostile tactics to deny dissenters their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. As the Brennan Center for Justice reports, Noem has said videotaping ICE operations and revealing masked agents’ identities constitute “violence,” while the unhinged Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino has called all protestors “violent rioters” and told officers to arrest those “who make hyperbolic statements.” This is the climate in which Jonathan Ross felt empowered to shoot and kill Renee Nicole Good, who was trying to escape a dangerous scene, then call her a "f**king bitch” as her car crashed into another vehicle.

This is unacceptable. They want us to be frightened. They want us to think that we should all silently submit to their terrorizing behavior.

The use of deadly force

And the events of recent days make painfully clear the lengths that they will go to justify the gun violence committed by federal agents. The incitement starts with Trump, whose quick response to reporters within hours of Good’s killing was to lie that she was a “professional agitator,” lie that “she ran him over” and blame her for her own death: “She acted horribly.” Trump’s rhetoric represents a green light for agents who have shot and killed four people (including Good) and injured seven others by gunfire, according to The Trace, which investigates gun violence.

Never mind that the Department of Justice’s own policy on the use of deadly force states that “deadly force may not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect” and “officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively gain control of an incident.” Never mind that the video evidence from multiple angles shows that Good was trying to turn her SUV away from Ross when he began shooting.

Neither the truth nor Good’s life mattered to Trump.

He and his vice president are determined to spin a narrative about a “network of left-wing radicals” to justify Good’s murder and their expanding operation of abuse. Listen to JD Vance’s remarks, which provide a chilling expression of the regime’s mentality:

This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people. The way that the media by and large has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day. That woman is part of a broader left-wing network…The president stands with ICE, I stand with ICE and we stand with all of our law-enforcement officers.

In other words, they stand with an ICE agent who shoots a U.S. citizen at point-blank range in the face. “Tone down the rhetoric,” said Kristi Noem, who proved her sociopathic mettle to Trump by killing her own dog—”I hated that dog”—and writing in her memoir that she is ready to do the things that are “difficult, messy and ugly.”

Now she and her colleagues are turning their hatred and bloodlust against the American people—most of whom only want to live decent, peaceful lives—forcing us to contend with their web of lies and the expanding threat of violence they have spawned.

The worst of the worst

In November, the Department of Homeland Security proudly reported that—in addition to more than 20,000 current ICE agents—it had received more than 200,000 applications to join their ranks. These applications are “from patriotic Americans who want to defend the homeland by removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.,” Noem said in the release. “Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country.”

“The worst of the worst.” Uh-huh.

It’s sickening to realize that Noem, Trump and Vance (among others) not only cannot grasp that that label describes them, but also remain convinced that they will get away with their dark plot to destroy America.

There are more of us than there are of them. There is strength in numbers. We must keep standing up and speaking out to thwart these dangerous people who despise our beloved country.

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