CBS News has made great strides under Bari Weiss, but clearly there remains work to be done. On Monday’s “CBS Evening News,” CBS News Homeland Security and Justice Correspondent Nicole Sganga declared that the video released by DHS shows “the minutes leading up to the murder of Renee Good.” It is an all-too-familiar pattern in which the mainstream media aligns its reporting with the advocacy of groups on the left. As I have written, one can certainly disagree with the necessity of using lethal force in this instance, but it fell well within the established guidelines for the use of such force set by the Supreme Court and lower courts.
Spanga added, “Trump administration officials have claimed she intended to ram ICE agents before she was shot.”
In the end, it does not matter what her intentions were. Her actions, not her intentions, drive the analysis. She refused orders to get out of the car after obstructing the federal agents and then struck the officer.
The protests and the reporting seem entirely detached from the legal standard. It is much like the media mantra that the January 6th riot was an “insurrection.” It did not matter that no such charge was brought against Trump or others. (Only a handful were charged with sedition, which some of us opposed).
Democrats, particularly in Minnesota, where the fraud scandal is consuming the coverage, have leaped to the front of the mob to call for the arrest of this officer. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Monday again described the incident as “a clearly thought out murder.”
Omar explained:
“I mean, it is, the most BS statement again, that the administration, can put out. You see this officer clearly go in front of, the car as she reverses. You see his hands, on the car, you see, his feet is very far away from the wheels of the car. So there was no possibility, that he might have been afraid, of getting, hit by the car. And so it is a clear PR, it’s a defense, of a clear murder, that we see on TV, by the administration. And it is shameful, and it should not be acceptable is unconscionable. And I stand by everything that I’ve said.
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“I am very comfortable with the word murder. There is no conscience way in which you watch the video that the administration itself has produced. And you do not see this person, this officer, Jonathan Ross, clearly murdering this woman. Not only does he shoot her in the face, but you see two more shots being fired on the side of the driver’s window. There is no way to explain this outside of it being a clearly thought out murder, an execution of this woman.”
A “clearly thought out murder”? The video shows a split-second response from an officer who was struck by the car.
The Supreme Court has stressed that the reasonableness standard is addressed “from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” As the Court stressed in Graham v. Connor, “police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments—in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving[.]”
Notably, even officers who were able to evade or dodge an approaching car have been found to have lawfully used lethal force. No actual contact is required.
Given the strong arguments that can be made for this officer, one would think that CBS and other news organizations would avoid a declaration of murder. Even if you disagree with the use of force, it is not true that this can be reported as murder. There has not been a completion of the investigation, let alone an adjudication.
She was receiving conflicting orders. One cop 2as screaming at her to get her car out of there. She followed that one. The footage from the cop was from hhis cell phone held in his left hand out in front of her car. The kill shots were shots 2&3, after he screamed profanities at her., through her side window, not t he front.
Why is thecFBI suddenly trustworthy?
Can you apply the same to Babbitt? Ashli should not have been there. She was literally breaking in, climbing through a window. Her actions kept the legal remedy over the 2020 election from happening. She should have just followed orders.
Once had a Press Information Officer who taught me to look at the message, and simplify the response – or even better, just don’t reply if there’s no value. So let’s look at this message:
“I am very comfortable with the word murder.” — Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
In this case (very similar to the condensed messages of Kimmel, Kouric, . . .) victims contribute to a culture where violence can be justified or even celebrated.
Since we now know the use of a vehicle caused internal damage and bleeding of the original victim, that causal violence can be justified or even celebrated. The net result of that violence to a deserved murder victim resulted in “murder” of a hero. We should expect a Presidential Medal of Freedom from the next progressive President to glorify the justified, celebrated violence and the martyrdom of the person who performed it.
It seems that the same people now outraged by the death of a woman arguably threatening someone with her automobile, were indifferent to – if not hostile to – the woman who was killed as she unlawfully entered the Congress building on January 6? Was anyone ever disciplined in any way for that?
Dems are screaming about this terrible incident to provide cover for Walz and Ellison. Had the demonstrators been discouraged from engaging in interference activities from the start, things wouldn’t have escalated to the level of deadly force.
But yelling murder at the top of ones lungs has the effect of getting attention. So attention on tragic but legal shooting distracts from fraud and gross mismanagement.
Spanga (a “reporter”):
“. . . the murder of Renee Good.”
Versus:
“Trump administration officials *have claimed* . . .” (Emphasis added)
If her second statement followed the presumed-guilt form of her first statement, it would read: “Good attempted to kill a Federal law enforcement officer with a 4,000 pound weapon.”
But it doesn’t read that way. I wonder why.
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