Protests have erupted during the weekend following the fatal shooting of Renée Nicole Good, 37, in an ICE operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Minneapolis Saturday, with reports of similar protests in other cities such as Philadelphia and Manhattan, with calls for ICE Out For Good rallies across the country.
What the protesters are calling for is the same thing every time: a transparent investigation, the release of the evidence, and accountability if wrongdoing has occurred. Organizers of the “ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action” were expecting more than 1,000 events to be held across the country, with demands to remove ICE.
However, the federal government has been promoting a completely different narrative. “It was domestic terrorism, and the officer shot in self-defense,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. President Donald Trump, in turn, wrote in Truth Social, “Just heard law enforcement shot the driver after he ran over an ICE officer.” This was labeled false by Reuters Fact Check because videos verified by Reuters showed otherwise.
However, the conflict is currently manifesting in another form, which is that of control over the evidence. According to Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, it withdrew from an investigation after being told that the FBI alone would handle it, denying the state access to important evidence. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, in collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office in Minnesota, launched a platform where video evidence can be submitted and preserved.
The video has become the focal point of the fight. Videos of bystanders are all over the internet, and there’s another video of the encounter posted by Alpha News, claimed to have been taken from the point of view of the agent in question.
This is the moment to be careful with what you say and to be honest about what you know. A competent inquiry cannot be based on immediate political conclusions or selective data. If the federal government wants the public to trust it again, it needs to make working with state prosecutors the norm and standard, not the exception. The things that transpired on the street in Minneapolis should be shown by the evidences, not the rhetoric.
