They want violence
This column was first published by The Washington Examiner.
Before Minneapolis became the epicenter of seemingly countless Somali scams, it was the epicenter of perhaps the most shameless and irresponsible demonstration of partisan opportunism and cynical violence in modern American history when—in May of 2020, during both the first Trump administration and the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic—George Floyd was killed during his arrest, with Democrats and the media sparking nationwide riots, billions of dollars in damage, and dozens of deaths in the aftermath.
And now, it seems, it is happening again, and by “it,” I mean the deliberate stoking of violence by the upper echelons of the Democratic Party and their media comrades in order to score political points against Donald Trump and his crusade against illegal immigration.
From all available evidence, we know that after obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations with her vehicle, 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by one or more ICE agents after appearing to quickly and erratically drive her SUV directly at the federal officers, ignoring their instructions to exit her vehicle.
In a sane world, political leaders and the media establishment would present these facts, mourn her death, wait for the results of an investigation, and—no matter what—calm public tensions to protect both the public and federal law enforcement officers from further harm.
But we don’t live in a sane world. Instead, we live in a world where the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, is fomenting violence by comparing protests against ICE to the Battle of Gettysburg while threatening to deploy the National Guard to protect Minnesotans from federal officers, and where the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, called for ICE to “get the f*** out” of the city and that any claim of self-defense is “bullshit.”
All while Minneapolis schools preemptively closed, as if to free up everyone’s schedules for a good ol’ fashioned riot.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the legacy media added fuel to this mostly-peaceful fire by—in a stunningly similar way to George Floyd—presenting Good as the victim. The Washington Post claimed that video evidence showed Good’s vehicle “veer[ing] past” the ICE agent, one re-branded MSNBC reporter described Good as an “ICE verifier,” and The New York Times even used victim in their headline: “Victim in ICE Shooting Is Remembered for Her Kindness.”
And as the wolves of online-experts descended on the handful of blurry (and often slowed-down) clips of the deadly incident, three New York Times reporters released their own analysis, declaring that “Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis,” and that “three camera angles show that the vehicle appears to be turning away from a federal officer as he opened fire,” while arguing that the driver was simply “attempting to leave.”
It is truly astounding that our society now embraces all forms of illegal left-wing vigilantism while simultaneously turning such action into something that is both applauded by politicians and presented as a childish game, free of danger or consequences. When law-abiding right-wing vigilantes put themselves in harm’s way—Kyle Rittenhouse, for example—they apparently had it coming, but law-ignoring left-wing vigilantes are supposedly untouchable? Sorry, that’s not how any of this works.
Obstructing federal law enforcement from legally carrying out their duty — let alone driving your vehicle in their direction at pace — is inherently dangerous, and for the Democratic Party and the media to pretend otherwise is dooming more of their naive, stupid, or arrogant followers to the same tragic fate.
If any of these people give a damn about safety, then they must turn the temperature down. Yes, this also applies to the Trump administration who are all-too-happy to use war-like rhetoric—including accusations of domestic terrorism—that only stoke the flames from the opposite direction.
But if—God forbid—riots return to the streets of Minneapolis, it won’t be Trump’s fault. It’ll be the people tasked with keeping Minnesotans safe, Minneapolis safe, and the public informed.