THE GOP IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF THIS

Every morning I look out my kitchen window at the American flag that flies in my neighbor’s yard. And wonder how he can continue to have pride in doing so. This morning I just felt shame when I looked at it. Yesterday an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good as she was driving away from masked agents on a residential street in Minneapolis. Good was a legal observer: a volunteer trained to observe police conduct in case of future legal action. Three videos taken at the scene show a maroon SUV perpendicular on a snowy street. A silver SUV driving up the street stops. Two officers wearing badges that say “police” and body armor get out of the vehicle and walk toward the maroon car. One of them says, “Get out of the f*cking car,” and the other reaches through the open driver’s side window while trying to open the door. The driver backs up the vehicle, and straightens the wheel as if making a three-point turn. Then she starts slowly to accelerate along the street. A third officer who has been standing on the side of the road pulls out a gun as the car is turning away. He shoots three times. The maroon car does not hit anyone as it rolls up the street, hitting another vehicle and then a utility pole. The shooter walks briskly away, apparently uninjured. Seen in slow motion, a video shows the wheels of the maroon vehicle were fully turned away from the shooting officer, who made no effort to jump away, clearly suggesting he did not feel as if he were in danger. His first shot went through the windshield; the next two went through the driver’s side window as the car moved past him. An onlooker shouted “What the f*ck?!” Video taken by another eyewitness shows ICE agents refusing to allow a self-identified physician to tend to the victim and telling him to back up. Although there is no one tending the clearly visible woman in the car, an agent says: “We have medics on scene. We have our own medics.” When another bystander screams: “Where are they? WHERE ARE THEY?!” an agent tells her, “Relax.” “How can I relax?” she shouts. “You just killed my f*cking neighbor.” Whether it’s conditions in detention or the way ICE agents parade on American streets, shooting and killing instead of protecting and serving, it happens because of the people at the top. It’s those “leaders” who are responsible for ICE’s excesses, as responsible as the agent who fired his gun yesterday. Her blood is on the hands of the GOP Congress.