Minneapolis is grieving once again because a member of its community has been killed through unnecessary violence by someone acting under color of law. A U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, is dead after being shot by a federal immigration enforcement officer. The most surprising aspect of it is that it took this long for federal actions to be so visibly lethal.
What compounds this tragedy is not only the loss of life, but the speed with which familiar and dangerous narratives have emerged to excuse it before any investigations have even begun. We are already hearing that this is a lesson in why people should not “provoke,” should not “obstruct,” should not assert their rights in moments of fear. This logic is not merely wrong; it is deadly. It suggests that exercising constitutionally protected rights, or reacting with fear to armed state agents—who the Vice President of the United States recently said can kill with impunity—somehow earns a person their own death sentence. That reasoning has followed nearly every fatal encounter between law enforcement and vulnerable communities in this country’s history, and it has always served the same purpose: to justify the unjustifiable.
Having worked with dozens of law enforcement agencies at the Center for Policing Equity, I have observed that a first principle for their training in the use of force is the sanctity of life —at all costs—to avoid creating the dangers that produce violence. The policies of this federal administration are a slap in the face to both the safety of officers and the public that counts on law enforcement for their safety. When the government creates conditions of terror by deploying masked, unidentified, and armed agents into communities with the explicit aim of intimidation, and then claims fear as justification for killing someone who tries to flee that terror, the killing was part of the calculation. It is the reason that so many police chiefs report that they are offended by federal immigration wearing masks and failing to wear identifying uniforms. It erodes public trust and risks escalating violence. In that context, one cannot reasonably shift responsibility onto the person who was shot. In that context, to do so is murderous propaganda and should be named as such.
Reports now indicate that after this woman was shot, ICE agents threatened lethal force against a medical professional who was attempting to render aid. If confirmed, this detail is as alarming as it is revealing. Just as the decision to deploy immigration enforcement to Minneapolis was not a split-second decision, the decision to lethally threaten a healthcare professional is not a “split-second” decision. These are not moments of unavoidable confusion. These are the foreseeable outcomes of intentional planning. Again, to say otherwise is untethered to the world in which we have lived for the past year and dangerous for those who bear the consequences of these policies.
The Center for Policing Equity condemns the federal government’s abdication of moral leadership in the strongest possible terms. What we are witnessing is not immigration enforcement. It is the deliberate terrorizing of communities deemed disposable. Ms. Good should be alive today. Her children should be able to hug their mother. And Minneapolis, still putting itself together after the lynching of George Floyd not six years ago, should be focused on caring for its neighbors. None of that is happening because fear, dehumanization, and unchecked power were allowed to override restraint, accountability, and basic humanity.
If we accept any framing of this incident that blames the person who feared for her life rather than the agents and policies that created that fear, we are complicit in ensuring this happens again. We will not look away. We need truth-tellers willing to say plainly what this moment demands: the wrong people are being entrusted with the machinery of public safety, and their misuse of that power will continue to cost lives unless their system of lawlessness is stopped.
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The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit that uses data science to empower vulnerable communities—particularly Black communities—to partner with leaders on redesigning public safety systems that facilitate bold, innovative, and lasting change.