To the editor:

Social media posts and news reports surrounding the tragic shooting and death of Renee Good are puzzlingly confusing, yet profoundly prophetic. A good number of people, including Trump and Noem, began spreading a victim-blaming and shaming narrative at an atomic, disgusting, uninformed, and reckless level, even before examining video facts and eyewitness accounts.

They intended to tell you what you saw, even before you saw it.

Author George Orwell addressed just such a phenomena when at the end of his shockingly real dystopian novel, “1984,” stated, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Those willing to obey their own senses, rather than the “party’s,” will hopefully see the reality of the overwhelming evidence that contradicts the administration’s “command.”

ICE agents are supposed to be well-trained, federal agents whose jurisdiction involves immigrants and “illegal aliens” exclusively. They have no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens or authority to detain or arrest them. They cannot legally make traffic stops or arrests, and citizens are not obligated to “obey them no matter what.”

The fact that they try to do so anyway is mostly because they are intimidating with their masks and guns. In fact, despite it being illegal, ProPublica reported more than 170 incidents occurred during the first nine months of Trump’s presidency in which federal agents held US citizens against their will.

Regarding Ms. Good’s legal protest activity and subsequent death, ICE agent Jonathan Ross’s own camera filmed the events, which along with the other eyewitness accounts and videos, we can see and hear with our own eyes and ears that she was murdered.

We can clearly observe Ross ignoring his jurisdiction restrictions and making a calculated choice to walk all the way around and in front of Ms. Good’s vehicle, using his cell phone to record in one hand while gripping his weapon with the other.

We can clearly see Ms. Good’s tires turned away in an attempt to safely remove herself from a dangerous, threatening situation.
We can clearly see that he made a deliberate choice to shoot at her, hitting the lower left (her view) corner of her windshield after he was clearly out of any perceived danger. He then made another choice to egregiously shoot her two more times. Afterwards, he quickly and illegally fled the scene after discharging his firearm and killing his victim. The acceleration of Ms. Good’s vehicle that so many wish to point out occurred after she was shot and due to her life-ending injuries.

Ms. Good’s death is a warning, indicating a much bigger, systemic problem that many people don’t care to realize because they are too busy listening to the “party” and refusing to see with their eyes and hear with their ears. My hope is that enough people will start to realize just how dangerous these trigger-happy ICE agents are so that our lawmakers will step in and finally hold those responsible accountable. They are guilty as sin, and blaming the victim is just continuing a harmful and hateful narrative.

Renee Good was a mother, a wife, a writer/poet, an activist, a patriot, a citizen, and proud American. She was also gunned down in cold blood by an arrogant agent who knew, at a profound level, that no matter what he did, no matter who he hurt or why, the government would defend him. And, he was right, so far.

In reality, the video evidence from the offending, murderous ICE agent clearly displays what happened -- beyond a reasonable doubt, and I firmly believe that justice will eventually catch up to Agent Jonathan Ross.

Laurie Harmon

Hudson