Renee Nicole Good an unarmed American citizen was murdered by evil ICE agents when she driving away from the shooter!

Echo opinion letters to The New York Times: Dateline Minneapolis


Re “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying,”* 🤥by Jacob Frey (Opinion guest essay, January 10)- (see story lead below):

At some point, we have to ask ourselves as Americans whether we are willing to accept a country with no shared moral base line, no principle that rises above political affiliation.

Are we comfortable living in an America where a 37-year-old mother can be shot dead in the street and, almost immediately, have powerful figures justify it or attempt to construct an alternate reality that contradicts what we all plainly witnessed?

Are we comfortable living in an America where an insurrection that threatened our democracy on January 6th is minimized; where foreign and domestic policymakers increasingly act as judge; jury and executioner; and where blatant misinformation is delivered from behind the White House logo from 3D Barbie Karoline Leavitt❓

These are not abstract concerns. They cut to the heart 💔😟of whether we still agree on right and wrong, truth and falsehood, restraint and accountability.

We should be asking ourselves where the line is, and at what point we decide we simply will not tolerate the disregard for the democratic norms and human dignity that generations before us worked to preserve.

Red, purple or blue, the question is not about ideology. It’s about whether we can still come together to defend something as fundamental as basic decency.

From Seth Schlussel in San Francisco, California

To the Editor:  The killing of unarmed American citizen Renee Good by an ICE agent raises an urgent question: If the federal government won’t protect its citizens, when will the states step up? New York has ample but unused leverage to rein in ICE’s increasingly violent operations. It must act immediately to prevent escalating unrest.

Under the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, a constitutional principle articulated in the Tenth Amendment, states cannot be compelled to assist federal law enforcement. This principle affords New York lawful tools not to abolish ICE but to refuse to enable conduct that endangers citizens.

The state could, for example, prohibit rental companies from renting cars to ICE without a judicial warrant, restrict hotels and short-term rentals from staging federal operations without oversight, bar New York-regulated companies from sharing sensitive data with ICE without a criminal warrant or deny state contracts to entities that do business with ICE. These measures would not conflict with federal criminal law, but would ensure New York would not facilitate dangerous and unaccountable (evil❗) ICE operations.

From Alexander Thomson in Ithaca, New York

To the Editor: The recent killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old unarmed American woman, by a federal officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota demands careful legal scrutiny, not political slogans or emotional reactions.

Under well-established constitutional principles and longstanding federal case law, the use of deadly force by a government agent is justified only when there exists an immediate, objective and unavoidable threat to the life of the officer or others. That determination must rest on observable facts at the precise moment of force is used, not on subjective fear or speculative danger.

In cases where an officer stands only a few feet from a vehicle that is stationary or just beginning to move, basic physics, human reaction time and standard police training all indicate that reasonable avenues of evasion are typically available.

Federal courts have repeatedly held that an officer may not voluntarily place himself in the path of a vehicle and then rely on that self-created risk to justify lethal force. The threat must be truly imminent and not reasonably avoidable by other means. This is not an ideological issue; it is a legal one. Whether the constitutional limits on the use of deadly force were respected or violated public trust depends on those limits being applied rigorously, transparently and without exception.

When the state exercises its ultimate power, the burden of justification must be equally exacting.

From Juan Carden in St. Louis, Missouri

To the Editor: Re “Early Comments Cast Doubts Over ICE Inquiry” (news analysis, front page, Jan. 11):

JD Vance’s false claim that ICE agents have “absolute immunity” not only suggests agents have something to hide; it also reveals an ignorance of federal law.

Civil rights crimes perpetrated by ICE agents and their bosses are addressed specifically in Federal Statute 242, “Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.”

In the Justice Department’s own language: Section 242 makes it a federal crime for a person “acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. If those acts lead to the death of that person, the statue says, punishment could include imprisonment or a death sentence. It offers no immunity.

Statute 242 was intended to protect Renee Good’s civil rights, and the F.B.I. has a responsibility to investigate possible deprivation of those rights. If F.B.I. officials refuse to investigate, wouldn’t they themselves be violating Statute 242, in depriving Ms. Good of the right to due process, as well as of one of her legal protections❓

From Mark Thurmond in Kneeland, California

Jacob Frey the mayor of Minneapolis

*Minneapolis:  On August 1, 2007, the Interstate 35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed into the water during rush hour. Thirteen people died, and dozens more were injured.

In the immediate aftermath, the president, a Republican, showed up in a city full of Democrats ready to help.

Minneapolis leaders were passionate and vocal critics of President George W. Bush’s policies at the time. 

But when the crisis struck, it didn’t matter. We were partners in what mattered most: saving lives, steadying our community and rebuilding infrastructure. 

Cities could count on the administration in a crisis. Politics stopped, quite literally, at the water’s edge.

Blue largely Democratic cities like Minneapolis used to be able to count on good-faith partnerships with the federal government under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Under the Biden administration, our police officers worked with federal agents and the U.S. attorney’s office to bring down shooting rates in North Minneapolis. The effort wasn’t political — it was practical, and it continues to keep people safe.

But such partnerships, in both crisis and ordinary governance, are not the experience of big-city Democratic mayors under the Trump administrations. I learned that the hard way in 2020, during the civil unrest that came in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer. I’ll never forget the shock I felt when Donald Trump not only encouraged violence during the unrest, but denied federal approval for disaster relief.

After I learned that a Minneapolis resident had been shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, I didn’t feel the shock in my gut that I felt over five years ago. Nothing about this was shocking. The chaos caused by ICE and the Trump administration have brought Minneapolis to this sadly preventable, although predictable, tragedy. In mid-December, ICE agents were filmed dragging a pregnant woman through the street. Heavily armed agents have been deployed to arrest lone individuals in public libraries and malls. Even in the aftermath of this week’s shooting, ICE agents continued to spread chaos, apparently deploying chemical agents at a local public high school.

The actions of the ICE agents deployed to my city are dangerous, and now, even deadly. But that danger has been compounded by the administration’s claim that the victim committed an act of domestic terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi "Evil ICEDiva" Noem, baselessly insisted the shooting was an act of self-defense. Mr. Trump falsely claimed that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, “behaved horribly” and “ran him over,” referring to the ICE agent. I’ve watched multiple videos, from multiple perspectives — it seems clear that Ms. Good, a mother of three, was trying to leave the scene, not attack an agent.

Renee Nicole Good killed by an evil ICE agent in Minneapolis

The Trump administration’s false narrative about this week’s shooting, and the demonization of the victim, are only part of a bigger lie. It wants the American public to believe that ICE’s heavily militarized crackdown across this country is an effort to keep cities like Minneapolis safe. It is not. It is about vilifying not just immigrants, but all who welcome them and their contributions to our communities. By defending the lie about this clearly avoidable shooting in Minneapolis and refusing to allow Minnesota officials to investigate the crime, the administration is sending a message to the entire country: If you show up for your immigrant neighbors, or even are simply present when those neighbors are taken, your rights will not be protected by the law and your life will be at risk.

Under both the first and second Trump administrations, the country has learned from watching Minneapolis that the federal government holds no regard for cities or the people who live in them. When coupled with this administration’s open contempt for democratic norms — indeed, our Constitution — this is a threat to the long-term endurance of our Republic.

My hope is for no more of my fellow mayors find their cities in this administration’s cross hairs. 

But, for those who do, here is my advice: The best thing you can do is to build cities that work, and love those streets and those citizens above any ideology. By bringing down violent crime, Minneapolis has been able to successfully push back against those who have tried to portray our city as a postapocalyptic hellscape. By building housing and focusing on affordability, we have made our city a place that immigrants, transplants and native Minneapolitans can all call home. By supporting immigrant-owned small businesses, our city has become living proof that immigrants make our city and our nation stronger.

Cities are on the front lines of this dark hour in our national politics. But after we weather this moment — and we will weather it — it will be on us to light the way forward. The best way to convince the country that welcoming and lifting up immigrants is good for its communities is by proving it in our own cities.