Commentary: Fatal ICE shooting exposes how badly fractured America has become
- noemieviterale
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
Renee Good’s death could be a rallying point against President Donald Trump or a turning point towards a more authoritarian government, says US politics expert Steven Okun.
SINGAPORE: The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis last week has become tragedy and political flashpoint. Her death exposed just how badly the US has fractured.
For one side, the killing of the unarmed 37-year-old mother of three, as she tried to drive away from federal agents, exemplifies the dangers of an unchecked Trump regime. On the other side are those claiming it was self-defence against a woman who tried to run a law enforcement officer over.
The government appears to be doubling down on the side of the system as ICE has been so central to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security called Good a “violent rioter” who committed an “act of domestic terrorism”. Vice President JD Vance declared her death “a tragedy of her own making”.
“The obvious hypocrisy in this tragedy is that Team Trump is all too quick to condemn Good while identifying Ashli Babbitt … as a patriot and hero,” former Democratic campaign operative Peter Goelz told me, referring to the protestor who was fatally shot on Jan 6, 2021 while attacking the US Capitol in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“This tragic death will be one more area in which Americans will see the same exact thing differently,” Mike McCurry, former White House Press Secretary under President Bill Clinton, noted to me.
