The Project of Gaslighting Us About the Renee Good Execution Video Has Been Years in the Making |
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Last week, the fruits of the Department of Homeland Security’s burgeoning gestapo tactics came into full view. On Wednesday in Minneapolis, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in her car. On Thursday in Portland, Oregon, a federal Border Patrol agent shot and wounded Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras in their pickup truck. Three unarmed people shot by federal officers within the span of 36 hours.
The administration claims that in both Minneapolis and Portland, the drivers were “domestic terrorists” who “weaponized” their vehicles, that the officers acted in self-defense, that they fired their guns to save their lives. In the first case, we have video to disprove it. In the second, unless a video surfaces, it will be the agent’s word against the victims’.
We should no longer be surprised by the Trump administration’s lies. But it remains surprising that its members continue to stick doggedly to their story in the face of unambiguous video evidence contradicting it. Donald Trump has said that Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer,” that he was injured, and that “it is hard to believe he is alive.” But in the clearest of the videos, Good inches forward, then waits for other vehicles to pass. Two officers march toward the driver’s side of her SUV. “Get out of the fucking car,” one says. As Good slowly reverses, one officer yanks at the driver’s-side door handle and reaches through the window. Good points her wheels to the right and begins to pull forward away from the agents. Ross crosses in front of the car, grabs his gun, points it directly at her, and fires through the windshield. Stepping back, he keeps firing as the car moves on. The........