"I'm Not Mad at You"

In the December 20 edition of Decency and Sense I amplified a call from Ian Bassin and Paul Raushenbush for a new Great Awakening in our society. The most acute prompt for Bassin and Raushenbush was their concern over “how our government treats immigrants in our name.” I share again here just one paragraph from their essay:

A moral reawakening would compel us to look honestly at what we are doing to immigrants—and why. It would demand laws enforced with humanity and policies shaped by the recognition that every person has inherent worth. It would move us from indifference to accountability, from fear to courage.

This past week came another excruciating instance in which the kind of brutality that our government so commonly inflicts upon immigrants landed with the fullest force on a natural born U.S. citizen, Renee Good. Historian Heather Cox Richardson described what happened in an essay that she published on December 10. Richardson here describes a video that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross took on Wednesday January 7 in the minute before he shot Renee Good to death.

The video shows Ross getting out of a vehicle and walking toward a red SUV where Good sits in the driver’s seat. Sirens blare as he walks toward her. She smiles at him and says: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” As Ross walks alongside the car, she repeats: “I’m not mad at you.” As he reaches the back of the vehicle, another person, presumably Good’s wife, Becca, says: “Show your face.” As he begins to record the vehicle’s license plate, the same person says: “That’s okay, we don’t change our plates every morning,” referring to stories that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) switch out plates to make their vehicles hard to track. “Just so you know, it’ll be the same plate when you come talk to us later.” Ross’s camera pans up to show the person recording him on her cell phone.

She continues: “That’s fine. U.S. citizen. Former f*cking veteran.” As she walks to the passenger-side door, she looks at him and says: “You wanna come at us? You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.”

Another officer approaches the driver’s side of the vehicle and says to Renee Good: “Out of the car. Get out of the f*cking car.”

As the passenger calmly reaches for the passenger-side door handle, the police officer on the driver’s side again says: “Get out of the car!” Other videos indicate that he had then put his hand into the car and was trying to open the door. Good quite clearly turns the wheel hard away from the police officers to head down the street as the passenger yells: “Drive, baby! Drive! Drive!”

Someone says “Whoa!” as the car moves down the street. Ross’s camera shows his face and then sways—remember, he has been filming all this on his phone. There are three shots and the houses on the side of the street swing back into view on Ross’s camera, indicating he did not drop it. As the car rolls up the street, Ross says, “F*cking b*tch!” just before there is the sound of a smash.

For substantiation of Richardson’s assertion that “Good quite clearly turns the wheel hard away from the police officers,” view the analysis of bystander videos that the New York Times presented at this link. This analysis also contradicts assertions from the president that Good struck Ross with her vehicle. Indeed, Ross fired two of his three shots through the driver’s window as her vehicle passed him, apparently unharmed.

Set aside this forensic analysis and just watch the video that Richardson described. Understand, again, that this is the video that Ross took with his cell phone. Understand further that one can see him in bystander videos taking his video with his right hand before transferring the phone to his left in order to free up his right hand to draw his weapon. Concentrate on the interaction between Good and Ross. Absorb the kindness emanating from her as she tells the person who would kill her a moment later, “I’m not mad at you.” Sit with that while also considering how the president took to social media to defame Good and, with the following words, grotesquely misrepresent what happened:

I have viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.

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Yesterday I participated in one of the over 1,000 demonstrations that have taken place nationwide since the death of Renee Good on January 7. The sign I carried echoed her final words: “I’m not mad at you.”

Not mad, but very sad and disappointed. Most significantly, I am truly fearful for the future of our country under its present leadership and followership. I implore all people of decency, sense, and goodwill to take stock of where we are and where we’re headed, to appreciate the urgency of change, and to exercise their powers as citizens to move us in a better, safer direction.