Washington, January 14 – While President Donald Trump tries to resolve problems abroad, his disapproval rating in the United States has reached 57 percent, and protests continue following a killing in Minneapolis by ICE one week ago today.
Renee Good, 37, a mother of three, was shot at least three times last Wednesday morning by an agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Service, identified as Jonathan Ross, during an immigration raid in a residential neighborhood of Minneapolis.
The incident sparked immediate outrage and was the catalyst for protests that have taken place since that day in the most populous city in the state of Minnesota and in other cities across the country, including New York and Washington DC, the capital.
Good’s last words before being shot were: "I’m not mad at you." The moment was captured on a video recorded by Ross himself, in which she appeared sitting in her vehicle, somewhat smiling, without displaying any aggressive behavior.
This has been repeatedly highlighted by the media to debunk the official version of the tragic event, which has sparked a significant debate about the use of force by authorities.
Federal agents deployed tear gas and sprayed irritants into the eyes of activists in Minneapolis this Tuesday during a day of clashes.
Published images showed arrests involving the use of force, shoving against people who tried to document the events with their phones, and repeated scenes of home raids with long firearms.
Meanwhile, the day before, six simultaneous resignations within the federal prosecutor’s office in Minnesota came to light, including that of Joseph H. Thompson, who served as the first assistant U.S. attorney and former interim state prosecutor.
Reports say the resignations happened due to rifts between career prosecutors and the Department of Justice, amid fierce disputes related to an investigation following Good’s death.
The New York Times reported that the departures were due to pressure from high-ranking Department of Justice officials to frame the case as an alleged assault against a federal agent, while an independent investigation into the officer directly involved in the fatal shooting remained stagnant.
However, Trump defended the presence of ICE agents deployed in Minnesota, despite widespread anger in communities. He called them “patriots” whose sole mission is to rid the country of undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
On his social media platform Truth Social, the president took the opportunity to attack political rivals. He said Minnesota Democrats “love the chaos that anarchists and professional agitators are causing.”
In his opinion, this “distracts from the $19 billion” that, according to him, “was stolen by really bad and disturbed people,” referring to fraud allegations in the state.
The strong federal deployment continues. Around one thousand additional ICE agents will be deployed in Minneapolis in the immediate future. “DO NOT FEAR, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING AND RETRIBUTION IS APPROACHING!” Trump wrote, using his characteristic all-caps.
However, she did not mention Good in that text, although she had previously described her as a "professional agitator" and later claimed that she was a "very violent" and "radical" person.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states that it has made more than two thousand arrests in the state of Minnesota since early December in its operations, and its commitment is not to back down.
Yesterday, the states of Minnesota and Illinois sued the Trump Administration over the repressive immigration tactics used during immigration enforcement operations which, as Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker expressed, have "terrorized our communities" and violated the Constitution.
In response to the lawsuit, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Minnesota authorities of ignoring public safety.
These days Minneapolis remembers that nearly six years ago the city was ignited by the killing of African American George Floyd by a white police officer, an event that triggered massive protests against police brutality across the country.
