On Wednesday, an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year old mother. You can watch the video yourself; I'm not going to link it because I don't want to promote someone's hot take. I'll give you mine, though, and I'm just going to describe what I see. Words were exchanged between Good and an ICE officer; he tried to open her vehicle, which was slowly turning away, when another ICE officer pulled out a pistol and shot Good three time, killing her. The vehicle drifts away down the street, its driver dying or dead. If we lay politics aside, all we see is a Federal officer executing an unarmed woman in a vehicle. The ICE officer, who has been identified as Jonathan Ross, was never in any danger from the slow-moving car. Had he wanted to stop the vehicle, he could have shot her tires. Instead, he decided to be judge, jury, and executioner. Because Ross is a Federal agent, any attempts to try him in State court will be moved to Federal jurisdiction, and the FBI has already taken over the investigation. Instead of admitting fault for the reckless actions of ICE, the Trump administration has declared a Good, a single mother of a now orphaned 6 year old, a domestic terrorist.
If the act of simply trying to escape ICE can be considered domestic terrorism, then we are all potential criminals in the eyes of the Trump administration. Good could have been you or me, or your wife, sister, or mother. Trump and his cabinet of sociopaths want you to ignore your eyes and the logical conclusion that any thinking person will reach after watching Ross murder Good: They can kill you if they feel like it and get away with it. Trump wants you to be fine with this conclusion; after all, he's constantly contradicted reality his entire life. Who can forget alternative facts?
In George Orwell's 1984, the Party has to break the novel's protagonist Winston. It's not enough that they've apprehended him and defeated his schemes. Two plus two has to equal five. Winston has to believe in Double-Think, and he has to love Big Brother, even after they've taken everything from him, because they have to destroy his spirit after destroying his conception of reality. That's true fascism--convincing you to disbelieve your eyes and ears and instead to trust Big Brother, no matter what. That's the end goal of the Trump administration--they want to crush your spirit and force you to believe that they're Making American Great Again while ICE terrorizes Blue cities and grocery prices and housing spiral out of control, all while Trump and his cronies become richer and operate the United States like the Mafia.
The next time you turn on the tv, stare at your phone, or take a walk outside, remember that they could kill you at any time and get away with it. We don't live in a free country, and we could all be staring down the barrel of a gun. While this has been true for many people in America at many different times, it's especially true at this moment because Donald Trump is President of the United States. Remember when he said he could shoot a person on Fifth Avenue and get away with it? Renee Good was that person. Any one of us could be the next.
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