Below is my column on Fox.com on Democratic politicians and pundits immediately declaring that the ICE officer in Minneapolis is a murderer. There is a method to this madness for politicians such as Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) who are facing primary challenges from the far left. He and others sit like Madam Defarge, simply knitting the names of expendable officers to fuel the mob.
Here is the column:
“It was an outright murder.” Those words from Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) were echoed by Democratic leaders from coast to coast almost immediately after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, as she sped toward him in a vehicle. Goldman is the Madame Defarge of American politics, the character from Tale of Two Cities who knitted as she gleefully called for the heads of aristocrats and counterrevolutionaries in the French Revolution.
Goldman has made a career of dismissing due process for his political opponents while engaging in willful blindness of the conduct of his allies. He has denied the existence of Antifa as an organization as well as claiming that he has seen no evidence of an increase in attacks on ICE officers.
He apparently needed no further proof to declare this officer a murderer: “It was an outright murder. This officer needs to not only be fired and suspended, but—based on the video—charged.”
The video does not support such a claim. Under the governing case law, the officer is allowed to use lethal force when he is facing an imminent threat to his life or the lives of fellow officers or third parties.
In this case, the officer had a fraction of a second to decide whether to fire his weapon after Good sped toward him. Good appears to have been attempting to flee the officers and flight alone is not a justification for the use of lethal force. However, when you speed toward an officer, he may treat the vehicle as a weapon and discharge his weapon in self-defense.
Goldman is fully aware that past case law supports the officer in this case. However, he is also aware that he is facing a Mamdani-supported socialist, Brad Lander, a popular local politician. Goldman is ramping up his rhetoric to appeal to the radical left from promising impeachments to calling for the prosecution of this officer. This officer is no longer a human being, he is a prop to be used for political gain. If he has to go to jail to secure a third term for Goldman, he is viewed as a small price to pay.
Others have joined the murder mantra, including Mamdani, who declared, “This morning, an ICE agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis—only the latest horror in a year full of cruelty.”
Mamdani insisted that he was going to focus on retaining existing NYPD officers rather than adding more officers. That seems unlikely as he shows that officers cannot expect him to support them if they are involved in such shootings. The mayor immediately joined the mob, dismissed the need for an investigation, and declared the officer a murderer.
In an age of rage, the loudest and angriest is king.
That was evident in the profane, unhinged diatribe of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey who immediately not only declared the officer a murderer but called claims of self-defense “bllsh*t” and told ICE “get the f–k out” of the city.
When many of us denounced his conduct, he mocked his critics by apologizing if his profanity “offended their Disney princess ears.”
Gov. Tim Walz followed suit. As his head of Public Safety insisted that they would not speculate on the outcome of the investigation, Walz stood next to him in declaring that Good was killed for no reason and portrayed ICE as terrorizing the state. Walz previously denounced ICE as “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets … being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons.” Ironically, he then added that these people have “no chance to mount a defense.” That concern apparently does not extend for Walz to members of law enforcement.
Goldman, Mamdani, Frey, and others are traffickers in rage, feeding an addiction in the hope that these mobs will propel them further in power. Law enforcement officers are simply expendable when political advantage is at stake.
Democrats showed the same cynical calculation in condemning border agents falsely accused of whipping migrants at the Texas border. Even though videotape refuted the claims, leading Democrats and the media pushed the false claim. The agents were then subject to over a year of abusive treatment before being cleared of the charge.
There is a method to his madness. As Madame Defarge assured her husband, they must ignore the cost to others because “Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph.”
Democrats may indeed “see triumph” in rage politics. However, history has shown that today’s revolutionaries often become tomorrow’s reactionaries. Goldman is already facing a challenge from the left that he is not radical enough. Feeding a nation of rage addicts can prove a dangerous business when someone offers purer, cheaper highs.
For now, however, no one will out rage Goldman or others. They remain on a political hair-trigger to find triumph in the tragedies of our times.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
What happened to you? The actions of this government are no different from Iran or the Taliban.
This is a blatant lie.
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/609.066
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/52/#laws.10.8.0
Democrats need to do a better job explaining what “authoritarian” officials means to voters.
Democrats aren’t criticizing police officers or federal agents that try to follow the law and follow their oath of office.
A better term may be “Unconstitutional Authoritarianism”. For example: these type of authoritarian minded officers (not all officers or agents) believe they can violate 4th Amendment search & seizure laws – as long as they never get caught.
If other words authoritarian cops and agents in a premeditated manner “intentionally” violate 4th Amendment federal law (and statutes defining 4th Amendment law). Intentional law breaking by constitutionally oath-sworn public servants. As long as they are criminal enough to not get caught they view it as legal.
Just a guess, it it’s quite possible the majority of ICE arrests violated 4th Amendment law and “Carpenter v. US”. If that happened and if those ICE agents get caught, judges could throw out many or most of the ICE arrests today.
In the computer internet age, it would be quite easy for agency watchdogs (GAO, IGs, etc) to prove this, since there an electronic paper trail when using this technology illegally by ICE agents.
For example: if ICE agents illegally purchased personal information from Verizon, it’s extremely easy to catch those authoritarian officials violating 4th Amendment law.
Democrats don’t want to make a mistake of demonizing and stereotyping real cops and real agents that follow laws and follow their oath of office. Authoritarian officials are just the dirty cops and dirty agents intentionally breaking the laws governing their authority.
The reason the left is so heated about this is they know her blood is on their hands.
Maybe they will stop encouraging their lesser intelligent members to commit crimes now.
Sorry leftys, you are not able to explain away your domestic terrorist.
You tried every stupid excuse for her.
Just parking the car my ass.
Her panic mirrors the entire left’s. Smells like desperation. Every unhinged decision ensures failure.
It’s rather crazy that all the left leaning wokey dopey politicos always stir up feces with these fake narratives. It’s literally like they want another Rodney king inspired burn loot & murder fest…just because they need the distraction from their billions of dollars of fraud kickbacks from fake daycares across 5 blue states. The dems take this BS to the outer limits of credulity …. so fake and so mockable. We see through their charade.
when her front tire starts moving forward it’s spinning on the ice, preventing about a foot of forward movement for a second while the wheels are facing straight ahead and then the car moves straight ahead toward the officer. she is looking at him then. not until the car is moving forward does she start the turn right and at the same moment the gun was raised up. The ice saved him, that foot would have made the difference.
Lionel has a good take on (now mostly dead) mostly peaceful protester:
https://rumble.com/v742mf6-ice-shooting-ignites-national-firestorm-and-nobodys-waiting-for-the-facts-r.html
As soon as the driver started moving slowly in reverse, the ICE officer at that moment (vehicle is in motion), the officer should moved to the side of the vehicle. That is what the DHS guidelines teach officers and most police departments.
Vehicle was in motion but the officer instead stayed near the front of vehicle. He has plenty of time to step back out of the way.
Let’s play a game. stand in front of my car. now i promise i am not planning on hitting you but you will need to move in order to not get run over. Ready? I’m gonna start by backing up a little. Do not slip on that ice because i won’t be able to not hit you if you slip, but i honestly have no intention of hitting you…I am sure you wouldn’t mind playing this little game?
When Trump was running for office, Trump said he would focus only on violent criminal immigrants “the worst of the worst” and he would not do nation building in foreign nations.
95% of the immigrants being arrested are NOT violent criminals – they wake up at 5:00am (or earlier) every day and work 10-12 hour days landscaping, building construction, farm work, poultry plants or any dirty job not many people want to do.
Since 95% are non-violent and no felony record (unlike Trump), why are ICE agents heavily weaponized and wearing masks for non-violent targets?
Witnesses have also claimed that ICE officials were illegally penalizing legal First Amendment activity, apparently to intimidate private citizens exercising legal rights. Any ICE official doing this is violating federal criminal statutes like Title 18 US Code 241, 242 and 245.
Even if Pam Bondi won’t do her duty and enforce the above statutes, these ICE agents won’t be protected from future AGs indicting these ICE officers. ICE officers are not protected from state AGs and Trump can’t pardon state convictions.
Ah illegal aliens by definition are criminals and if you scoop up them along with the criminals so be it as they are here ILLEGALLY DUH !.
You make a lot of statements as if they are fact. You don’t know any of these things. You just have a active imagination.
100% of your statement are in fact, not facts. Is your brain broken? are you from china or russia?
The burden of responsibly and the burden of restraint is always on the police officer or federal agent.
Law enforcement officer receive a taxpayer financed paycheck and retirement pension paid for by citizens like Renee Good. Officers receive training in how to defuse situations and cool down emotions. The burden of responsibility and restraint is on the government servant, not their employers – the American people.
Police-Chiefs and federal agency heads (Kristi Noem) make a promise to GOD to follow the U.S. Constitution and follow constitutional due process by voluntarily taking the Oath of Office.
Prior to the shooting, ICE officers violated the constitutional rights of their employer Renee Good. Without warrant, they reached inside her car. ICE didn’t defer authority to the local police.
The latest video also proves Ms. Good was trying to avoid the officers. Video recorded by the ICE agent, shows Good’s car was in “reverse” slowing backing up to change her tires trajectory. Then the officer’s own video shows Ms. Good turning the steering wheel sharp right away from the officer. Apparently one ICE officer told her to drive away and another ICE officer told her to get out of the car.
Then very quickly, the ICE officer illegally reached into her car. If Ms. Good’s car was in “drive” and she panicked from the ICE officer’s illegal actions that created the entire event.
After she was shot, ICE officers walked away not giving medical aid and even prevented a doctor from helping her. That violates the policy of every police department in the nation.
A Minnesota jury will decide all of this!
There is no crime and there will be no jury. It is legally justified just as much as if you drove your car at me and i shot you. justified. If I drove my car at you and you shot me. justified….it’s called equal. justice. under. the. law.
This is one of the reasons cops carry guns: to defend their lives while defeating unpredictable criminals.
The Minnesota ‘justice’ system will be forced to swallow.
No comment in the MSM about Walz’s casual reference to deploying the MN National Guard against the federal ICE agents? Then coupling it with a Civil War reference. I guess this is what happens when a Marxist takes hold of your state. Can you imagine the fallout if a red-state governor made a similar comment during a press conference? I guess we can laugh it off because Walz is a lunatic but I find it odd that that thought was running through his mind. But not even a follow up question after the comment. Was this a hand picked press pool?
In the “Banana Republic” model of government, the “ends” justify the “means”. If the dictator wants to do something, he just does it without any type of legal or constitutional due process.
In this system written laws are meaningless, the dictator himself makes up the law on a whim. The Oath of Office in this system is usually to a single person (ie: Hitler in Nazi Germany) or to a single political party (ie: Communist Party during the Cold War). In this system there are no gun rights, women’s rights or property rights unless the current dictator says so. The next dictator could choose a different set of secret rules.
The entire concept of Law & Order is a nation has a publicly advertised “rule-book” (constitution & circumscribing laws). This rule-book is public (not secret). Citizens that want to be law-abiding can’t comply with secret laws or a shadow legal system. That alone prevents anarchy with the citizenry, everyone knows the laws and attempts to comply with the laws creating civilized society. For example: imagine a posted (advertised) speed limit of 70 MPH on a sign, but the police officer tickets you for driving 65 MPH. That particular day the dictator set the speed limit lower without informing citizens of the law. You can comply with laws if you don’t know what they are – it would create confusion and anarchy.
In the USA, there is a publicly advertised “contract” between citizens and their government that prevents anarchy:
Americans are required to follow the publicly posted laws by Congress, state legislatures and town councils. But government officials are required to follow the U.S. Constitution (and laws defining those constitutional restraints). That’s the deal between citizens and government, starting with the Founding Fathers and constitutional-amendments over the years.
For example using the Minnesota shooting case:
Mostly good well-meaning ICE officers are legally required to obtain a judicial search warrant from a judge for each and every search (physical, cell-phone, license plate readers, cell-tower dumps, purchasing private 3rd party records, GPS, etc) in order to comply with Fourth Amendment law (supreme law of the United States). The U.S. Supreme Court has recently defined Fourth Amendment law with rulings like “Carpenter v. US” and “US v. Jones”. These are the laws that ICE and every agency are required to follow. Every ICE official swears an Oath of Office to follow this system (as a condition of obtaining and retaining authority).
In the USA, there is also a concept termed “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine” that places an addition burden on oath-sworn government employees. Basically it’s similar to home construction – if the “foundation” is illegal or unconstitutional, anything built upon that unconstitutional foundation may be tainted or not valid. The “foundation” was illegal or unconstitutional, so a judge may literally throw out that evidence altogether. Example: the police officer skipped the judicial search warrant process and searched someone’s house or car. There are some exceptions but cops operating illegally taint the entire case.
ICE officers are required to obtain a judicial warrant to operate cell-trackers, license plate readers or to reach inside someone’s car (unless there is plain view evidence and exigent circumstances). In “Carpenter v. US” the U.S. Supreme Court stated that totalitarian style surveillance of any person couldn’t exceed 2-weeks, without a judicial warrant from a judge. Not the physical search, but the totalitarian style surveillance itself requires a judicial warrant from a judge (the court supervised all longterm surveillance of any person). This was termed the “Personal Mapping” clause of the “Carpenter” ruling.
So it’s highly likely many (maybe most) ICE arrests were performed illegally and a judge could throw out some or all of the evidence in those cases.
In the Minnesota case, if federal officers broke the law first, then they had no legal right to confront Ms. Good in the first place. ICE officers could have had the local Minnesota police there is 5 minutes. Reaching inside Ms. Good’s automobile required a warrant from a judge. If we have a Banaba Republic with a dictator there is “nothing to see here”. In that system you also have no gun rights, women’s rights or property rights.
Stop trying to play lawyer. This isn’t an episode of Suits. “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” doesn’t remotely mean that ICE had no legal right to confront Good while she was blocking the road while they were carrying out their duties. Good was shot because she disobeyed a lawful order, resisted arrest, then attacked a LE officer with her vehicle. This isn’t a tough case.
Even if these guys were on their way to breakfast, it would still have been a justifiable use of force. Sometimes people make very bad decisions, Good made one that day.
Cars were driving around her. Traffic was not being blocked.
Yeah, they don’t have to do that. They can order her out of her vehicle. She isn’t there to direct traffic.
She was obstructing them all day. Don’t you read? If you block my passage, I certainly would confront you. Who is anyone to dictate the flow of others traffic? wannabe dictators that’s who. and you support that? what’s wrong with you? That right there is your authoritarian showing; not respecting the rights of others. shame!
Eventually a Minnesota jury will study the tapes and evidence.
One factoid: Inside Ms. Good’s car was her private property. Under the 4th Amendment, ICE officers were legally required to obtain a judicial-warrant to reach inside her car.
ICE officers have absolutely no police powers over American citizens. They are required to contact local police. Seizing a car requires a warrant from a judge.
A Minnesota jury will likely spend weeks combing through the details and reach a proper verdict.
In your commie fantasy there’s a jury and they always take your side, but here in the real world, there won’t be any juries except for little wifey egg-her-on
That whacko leftist lesbian paid agitprop had no right to interfere with federal officers. She FAFO. Period. She is to blame for this because of her actions.
Leftist comments like this are comically absurd:
“There’s no good reason the Feds can’t work with [*Minnesota*] state and local investigators.”
There are in fact scads of good reasons:
That ICE officer is a murderer. Now let’s have an investigation and trial. ICE is Gestapo. Get the ____ out of our city and state. No, we will not work with the Feds to apprehend illegal immigrants. No, we will not come to the aid of Federal law enforcement. Though we will use the NG to threaten Federal law enforcement. We won’t even provide security when the Secretary of Commerce visits MN. Etc., ad nauseam.
None of this is going to happen. The NG will not be your weapon of civil war, you’ll have to get off your couch and start wars yourself slacker.