Minnesota Ugly

The underlying problem in Minnesota is very basic – the state is providing sanctuary for immigrants who are in the country illegally (a federal crime) and has stated an intent to obstruct federal officials from enforcing federal immigration law. Of course, any action to obstruct federal law enforcement is itself a federal crime, which compounds the original issue.

The disrespect shown by Minnesota’s government leaders for federal immigration law and federal law enforcement officials has given encouragement and top cover to radical left protesters. Those protestors have been increasing their brazen confrontations with federal officers without any fear of reprisal from state authorities.

This is the general context surrounding the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a federal law enforcement agent in Minneapolis on January 7. However, that general context alone is not specific enough to fully explain what happened. Ms. Good had been using her car to block and obstruct the activities of law enforcement officers for most of that day. Throughout the day, she and her partner were escalating their verbal tirades against the officers as well as their efforts to impede traffic.

Ms. Good very likely knew there was a point where the aggressiveness of her “protesting” would cross a line and the federal officers would be required to act. We believe she and her partner wanted to get as close to that line as they could without going beyond it. After she refused to move her car out of the path of traffic at the request of federal agents, a law enforcement officer ordered Ms. Good to get out of her car. She refused.

Instead, Ms. Good escalated the situation further by attempting to flee. This is where the various descriptions of what happened next diverge wildly, as does speculation of the motives of those involved. We will assume that our readers have seen the many videos of what happened or have at least read some of these accounts.

Here is our take on what occurred – When the officer asked (repeatedly) for Ms. Good to get out of the car, she surely realized that she had crossed the line and was now going to be arrested. In that instant, she decided that she would be better off trying to get away, and her focus shifted to accelerating out of the situation as quickly as possible. While there were no other cars in her way, there was a federal officer standing directly in front of her car towards the side of the driver. Even though she appeared to be turning away from him while making her exit, her car was already so close she couldn’t complete the turn without hitting him. While we don’t believe she intended to kill the officer, it was clear she wasn’t going to allow him to impede her getaway.

The federal officer standing in front of the car had to make a fast decision of his own. Here, a bit more context is critical. This particular federal officer was involved in an immigration arrest in Bloomington, Minnesota this past June. In that incident, the suspect also attempted to flee arrest in his car and dragged the officer over 100 yards resulting in the officer needing 33 stitches. That suspect, Roberto Carlos Munoz, an illegal alien and child sex offender, was ultimately convicted of assaulting a federal officer.

Thus, this officer had first-hand experience with a car being used as a weapon against him and knew how fast the situation could spin out of control. In the case of Ms. Good, he observed an officer ordering her out of the car and her refusing to comply. Then he saw her car begin to accelerate towards him at close range. In that instant, he made the decision to draw his gun and fire, neutralizing an out-of-control threat to himself, the other officers, and other people in the area. His shot went through the windshield, hit Ms. Good in the head and killer her.

Who, if anyone, is to blame for this? Pundits and some government officials on the right are insisting that Ms. Good’s intent was to kill the officer with her car by running him over. Pundits and government officials on the left are insisting that Ms. Good is entirely innocent, was simply trying to move away from the scene, and was murdered by an out-of-control ICE agent. Any truly objective observer can see that neither of these conclusions are close to the truth.

There were multiple times throughout the incident where Ms. Good could have de-escalated and/or quietly extricated herself from the increasingly tense situation. She chose not to. The minute she disobeyed the officer’s command to exit her car and pressed on the accelerator, she immediately transformed the situation into an unpredictable chaotic frenzy where anything could’ve happened. In that instant, the odds of her getting away unscathed were exactly the same as the odds of her being shot and killed by an officer’s bullet. She decided to take a chance and unfortunately lost her life.

Her supporters want to make her a martyr and are repeating the sentiment that the officer who shot her took a mother away from three children and a wife away from a loving partner. This is not true. If she had survived the incident, she would’ve been arrested and charged with at least three offenses, the most grievous being assault of a federal officer resulting in bodily harm – the same exact charge for which Roberto Carlos Munoz (mentioned earlier) was found guilty. That offence carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Tacked on to that would be potentially additional years for obstructing a federal law enforcement operation and resisting arrest. Even if she had lived, Ms. Good would still have been taken away from her children and her partner for a very long time.

Renee Good did not have to die. She was the one in control of the situation as it unfolded and could’ve ended it at any moment. We can speculate endlessly as to why she made the decisions that she did, but no explanation will change the fact that she inserted herself directly into the middle of a highly unstable situation of her own making and rolled the dice that she would survive.