Roshomon
Akira Kurasawa's film "Roshomon" tells four stories of a crime that left a husband dead and his wife possibly raped. The wife, a bandit, a woodcutter who was a witness, and the husband from beyond the grave, each tell a different tale. Each tale puts the teller in his or her best possible light. Like the trial jury, the audience watches and listens. The truth is elusive but the audience is free to choose one story they believe is the truth. The woodcutter's story is my favorite.
Comparing the film to what happened to Renee Good on January 7, 2026 is probably a mistake but I'll continue. Witness videos of the scene were inconclusive but the video from the officer's own camera apparently showed the officer was run over before shooting Ms. Good four times. The administration promptly concluded Ms. Good was a domestic terrorist who weaponized her car to intentionally harm the officer. Other observers declared the shooting to be deliberate murder.
The enemy within
A New York Times' frame-by-frame analysis focused on the officer's video does not show the officer was hit by Good's car. Ms. Good must have thought she had a clear path to drive away or she panicked. The officer did not have to shoot Ms. Good. Looking at it from the outside, my guess is adrenaline fueled rage and fear played a major role. An officer approaching her car said, "get out of the f*cking car." After the officer shot Ms. Good, his reaction was, "f*cking bitch."
Possibly the officer suffered from PTSD. Last June he was dragged fifty yards by a car while attempting to apprehend someone. It's understandable that the dangerous work of arresting undocumented criminals would lead to PTSD, like the harrowing experiences of soldiers in battle. Furthermore, the officer is a member of quasi-military organization that wears masks, wields high-powered weapons, and is charged with rooting out "the enemy within." ICE's "Operation Metro Surge" intentionally evokes the military surges in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More important than useless speculation about psychological states is the law. The legal standard for an officer I believe is reasonable fear of being in mortal danger. This is a difficult standard to apply, when the video footage is ambiguous and an officer's actions are based on evaluating in the moment what is real and what is imagined.
Tyranny of the Majority
"After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? — in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable?"
-- Henry David Thoreau
We all know that Ms. Good should not have attempted to drive away. But before then, she and her wife should not have heckled the ICE agents. They should have been prepared and accepted getting arrested. They probably didn't understand the danger they were in. They didn't know how often police have shot drivers attempting to leave. "Domestic terrorism" is obviously counter-productive and stupid. Though you are non-violent, without a clear idea about is to be achieved and how to go about it, you will probably be branded a domestic terrorist. They should have read Henry David Thoreau's 1849 essay, Civil Disobediance.
Conservatives don't like anyone impeding officers from carrying out the law. Civil disobedience is about doing exactly that. It's about collectively standing in the way, breathing tear gas, getting hit by pepper balls and getting arrested. It's about politely explaining why you're there. ICE will arrest and destroy the entire community to keep it safe. There is a principle: a community has a right to decide for itself what and who they are. In Minneapolis, the community has a right to embrace innocent and hard-working undocumented immigrants as neighbors. If communities in other states, cities, and towns don't agree, that's fine.
What about the undocumented murderers, thiefs, fraudsters, child molesters, rapists, and gang members? Doesn't ICE have a right to arrest them? State and city governments must negotiate with ICE and offer assistance with rounding up undocumented immigrants with felony convictions. In exchange, ICE will not not sweep streets, schools, hospitals, and houses looking for anyone who is undocumented. If ICE doesn't agree, they should let everyone know they tried.
References
-
Deed - Attribution 4.0 International
-
We have met the enemy and he is us
Toni Mendez Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, The Ohio State University -
Joel Villasenor-ruiz `Rashomon' Is Truly Classic, Even If Truth Is Unknowable
The Harvard Crimson, December 2, 1993
"At the end of the film, we are no closer to knowing the truth, and that is in great measure the movie's theme, the very unknowability of truth." -
Rorschach.Org
"Established in 1996, as "The Original Rorschach Website," Rorschach.org was founded by Mark W. Matthews, PhD and aims to continue providing an online resource for information about the ethical and professional use of Rorschach Inkblot Test. To this end, we have collected a variety of resources and products to help the student and professional administer, score, and interpret the Rorschach Inkblot Test in an ethical, reliable, and valid manner." -
Past Poll Results
SMERCONISH January 10, 2026:
Do you have an open or closed mind as to the guilt or innocence of the Minnesota ICE agent? (Percentage of 62,084 votes)
53.43% - Open
46.57% - Closed
-
The New York Times Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments
The New York Times, January 15, 2026
"Newly available videos and existing footage synchronized and assessed by The Times provide a frame-by-frame look at how an ICE officer ended up shooting and killing a motorist in Minneapolis.
...
In a video analysis, The Times focuses on some of the key contested moments of the agent’s cellphone video alongside other footage. More videos are likely to emerge, but the visual evidence shows no indication that the agent who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, had been run over. The footage provides visibility into the positioning between the agent and Ms. Good’s S.U.V., and the key moments of escalation. It also establishes how Mr. Ross put himself in a dangerous position near her vehicle in the first place." -
Rachel Wolf ICE officer who shot Minnesota woman was dragged by car of illegal alien sex offender months earlier
Fox News, January 10, 2026
"ICE officer who shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis was dragged 50 yards by criminal illegal alien's vehicle months earlier" -
TRAC Immigration
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse -
Deportation Data Project
"The Deportation Data Project collects and posts public, anonymized U.S. government immigration enforcement datasets. We expect these datasets to be used by journalists, researchers, lawyers, and policymakers." -
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Statistics
"The following dashboards present for the first time information and trends in arrests, detentions, removals and alternatives to detention as of December 31, 2024.
The dashboards will be updated quarterly." -
Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE has arrested members of some of the world’s most dangerous criminal gangs in Sanctuary Minnesota
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, January 14, 2026
"WASHINGTON — ICE has arrested several gang members — many convicted of violent crimes — in Minnesota. These are the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens that ICE is targeting and who rioters, agitators, and sanctuary politicians like Tim Walz and Jacob Frey are trying to protect. Several of these dangerous criminal illegal alien gang members have been arrested during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis."
"We’ve arrested over 2,500 criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota since starting this operation with DHS,” said ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. “We’re picking up the worst of the worst offenders, and as these cases come in, we’re finding that a significant number of the aliens we arrest — in addition to having serious criminal histories in the U.S. and abroad — are part of dangerous gangs that terrorize communities all over the nation."" -
Mariana Alfaro Native Americans are being swept up by ICE in Minneapolis, tribes say
The Washington Post, updated January 16, 2026
"Tribal leaders say Indigenous people have been stopped, questioned, harassed and, in some cases, detained solely on the basis of their skin color or names."
-
Immigration Raids Statistics in US 2026 | Recent ICE Raids
The World Data - The Insight Hub, January 13, 2026
"The statistics paint a stark picture of the current state of immigration enforcement in 2026. With 68,990 individuals held in 212 detention facilities as of early January 2026, the United States is operating the world’s largest immigration detention system at unprecedented capacity levels. What stands out most dramatically is that 73.6% of detainees—nearly three-quarters of the detained population—have no criminal convictions whatsoever, contradicting administration claims that enforcement focuses primarily on dangerous criminals.
...
The nationwide death toll from ICE agents and their raids since Trump took office in January 2025 has reached 32 people, according to United We Dream, including individuals killed while fleeing raids such as California farmworker Jaime Alanís Garcia, who fell from a greenhouse roof, and Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, struck by a car while running across a freeway as agents raided a Home Depot." -
Jacob Sullum A Texas Cop Endangered Himself by Jumping Onto a Moving Car. Then He Shot the Driver.
Yahoo News, April 6, 2012
"The officer, Roberto Felix Jr., stopped Barnes because the license plate of the rental car had been linked to toll violations by another driver. About three minutes into the stop, Barnes began to drive away. Felix reacted by jumping onto the door sill of the car with his gun drawn. Within two seconds, perceiving a threat to himself as the car accelerated, Felix fatally shot Barnes." -
Joe Lancaster Renee Good Was a Casualty of Trump's Order Against Political Violence'
Reason - Free Minds and Free Markets, January 15, 2026
"The administration's written policies make it likely that more people like Renee Good will be targets, and victims, of ICE."
"Assaulting law enforcement deserves little leeway, but "impeding" could be completely nonviolent, and it certainly doesn't rise to the level of terrorism. And yet within hours of Good's death at the hands of a government agent, federal officials—including Vice President J.D. Vance and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—jumped to the conclusion that Good was a terrorist, seemingly based on nothing more concrete than that she was impeding an ICE operation." -
Jacob Sullum A Texas Cop Endangered Himself by Jumping Onto a Moving Car. Then He Shot the Driver
Reason - Free Minds and Free Markets, October 7, 2024
-
Eric Tucker, Associated Press When can police use lethal force against a fleeing suspect?
PBS News, April 8, 2015
-
Carlos Miller ‘Get Up!’: Michigan Police Shot Black Man In the Back Nine Times and ‘Kicked His Lifeless’ Body While Yelling Commands In Ill-Fated Traffic Stop. Now Sheriff Won’t Release Video, Lawsuit Claims
Atlanta Black Star, January 22, 2025 Updated on January 31, 2025
"A Michigan sheriff’s office is refusing to release details about shooting an unarmed Black man nine times in the back as he ran away from a questionable traffic stop, including evidence like body and dash camera footage which captured the shooting.
But the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office assures the public has nothing to worry about because not only did they investigate themselves and found no wrongdoing, another Michigan sheriff’s office from a nearby county also investigated the shooting and found no wrongdoing." -
Tiarra Braddock ‘Sheriff corrects record: No gun found in deadly deputy shooting in Ypsilanti
WXYZ Detroit, January 14, 2026
"Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer reveals deputies initially reported suspect had shotgun, but Michigan State Police investigation found no firearm in vehicle
On Jan. 6, Washtenaw County deputies shot and killed a 34-year-old man from St. Clair County after a traffic stop turned into a chase that ended with a crash near Towner and Prospect streets in Ypsilanti.
Initially, the sheriff's office reported that the suspect was armed with a shotgun. However, Sheriff Dyer now confirms no gun was ever found inside the van." -
Casey McNerthney
Family: Man shot by police was deaf in left ear
Seattle PI, August 31, 2010
"The man fatally shot in confrontation with a police officer Monday afternoon after he refused to follow police orders was deaf in his left ear, the man's brothers said Wednesday.
John T. Williams, 50, was shot about 4:15 p.m. at Howell Street and Boren Avenue after police say Officer Ian D. Birk' yelled three times for him to drop a knife and Williams did not."
-
The Associated Press North Carolina Deputy Shot And Killed Black Man While Serving A Warrant
Oxygen - True Crime, April 22, 2021
"An eyewitness reported that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away from the scene as activists seek the release of body cam footage of the incident." -
Carlos Miller ‘Out of Control’: Indiana Cop Unloads Gun On Black Woman Fleeing Domestic Abuser and Gets Off; Family Sues
Atlanta Black Star, August 13, 2025
"Dachena Warren-Hill, a 20-year-old Black woman, was attempting to drive away from the man who was abusing her when she was shot and killed by an Indiana police officer in 2023.
Officer Mark Guzman of the Fort Wayne police claimed he was in fear for his life when he opened fire, claiming she was driving her car directly toward him.
However, body camera footage released three months later shows Guzman was not directly in the car’s path because she was driving away from him when he opened fire." - Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience
No comments:
Post a Comment