By Louise Mathews
Friends I have talked with in the last few days all express similar sentiments. “I don’t recognize this country,” and “what is the world coming to?” To quote a phrase used at the time of the American Revolution, it seems we are living in a world turned upside down. To me, the recent tragedy in Minneapolis and the response to it are wrong way up.
When did Americans decide that it is acceptable and even laudatory to block the police from conducting their often-dangerous operations? Some would not consider ICE to be police, but their mission is to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.
People might consider those laws to be unfair and wrong. We have mechanisms for changing that: vote for people who will change those laws. Complain to your Congress people loudly and often. Deciding that you will get together with like-minded mothers you meet at your child’s progressive school in “ICE Watch” to “document and resist” is not a prescription for a healthy life.
Several northern and western cities have declared themselves sanctuaries for immigrants who did not come here legally. The porous border of the Biden administration allowed thousands of truly wicked criminals, gang members, and ne’er do wells to infiltrate the country along with millions of others who came looking for opportunity or safety.
ICE seeks to remove the child molesters, rapists, murderers and lately, alleged crooks who swindle massive sums from federal programs. Perhaps Renee Nicole Good’s ICE Watch wanted to keep people around who might introduce her six-year-old son to child rape. Perhaps she felt that Somali immigrants have a right to steal billions of dollars. We can only guess that she thought she was right in staging a protest that got her killed.
Many have claimed Renee Good was an observer. Her SUV was perpendicular to the curb, halfway across the road. As Megyn Kelly said, “If you place your vehicle perpendicular to oncoming traffic, ten out of ten times, you will get arrested.”
The partner, Rebecca Good, was videotaping from the curb as Renee sat in her idling car waiting for what — a confrontation? One commentator thought they were creating content, a video to show how dastardly ICE agents are. Whatever their motives, it all went wrong when Renee disobeyed a lawful order to get out of her car.
Obviously, Renee never watched cop shows. When the police – and ICE are police whether the Antifreeze wants to admit it or not – tell you to get out of the car, turn off the engine, and get out of the car. The job of the police is to investigate and stop crimes. Obstructing police operations and disobeying their orders are crimes.
Clear facts of the actual shooting will come to light. Long ago, the Basic Law Enforcement Training director at one of the colleges where I worked explained that the police are trained to shoot until the threat stops. I question which bullet hit Ms. Good. Could the agent have stopped after one shot? Was the first shot the one that killed her? That the agent who shot her had been dragged by an illegal man in a car six months before resulting in significant injuries to the agent’s arms and legs certainly played into his response to an SUV suddenly coming in his direction.
Now, even the Minneapolis Teacher’s Union is calling for ICE to leave the city. This union and the city’s mayor seem to forget that there is an ongoing investigation into what appears to be fraud of huge proportions. It seems that the state of Minnesota has not done anything about warnings of fraud for years. As the Somalis are immigrants – some legal, probably some not – it appears that an appropriate federal agency to pursue them is ICE.
One could conclude, the mayor, the teachers’ union and the wishy-washy governor would prefer the status quo of massive fraud. Possibly there is much more to this story which the shooting in Minneapolis now conveniently obscures. Too many questions could be asked, such as how did Rep. Ilhan Omar go from a net worth of $400,000 when she entered Congress in 2019 to a current net worth of $30 million?
Following the death of Ms. Good, and the wounding in Portland, it is certain that attacks on ICE – or any other police force – will result in bad things happening to those who see themselves as social justice warriors. It is also certain that most media outlets will report inaccurate stories about ICE. For example, media recently reported that ICE had raided a daycare center. ICE agents were pursuing two illegals who had criminal histories. The illegals drove into a shopping center and ran into a daycare, thus endangering children by trying to use them as shields.
This brings me back to my initial question. Do folks think they are justified in any action because they consider the current, duly elected President of the United States, to be at best a dictator and at worst Adolf Hitler? They have certainly heard politicians and celebrities malign the President with such vitriolic language. Do they think they are justified in their version of vigilante justice because they believe Orange Man bad?
Maybe I watched too many westerns as a kid where I learned it isn’t a good idea to take the law into your own hands. “I think, therefore I’m right” can get you killed.
Louise Mathews retired from a career in community colleges and before that, theater. A 13-year come-here in Beaufort, she has been a dingbatter in North Carolina and an upstater from New York.
