ICE Thugs Have Killed a U.S. Citizen

Increasingly, the ICE agents under the direction of the Felon and ICE Barbie appear to be out of control and appear to deliberately seeking to provoke bystanders and observers in order that they can then lie and call the citizenry "rioters" and "domestic terrorist" - the latter term being what the Felon wants to label his critics.  Watching ICE operations it seems brutality and cruelty are the point with no regard to the rights of undocumented immigrants or U.S. citizens.   Yesterday, an ICE agent killed a white 37 year old American citizen by shooting into her vehicle on the false claim she was trying to run him over - a bald-faced lie based on a videos filmed by onlookers.  ICE Barbie repeated this lie and seemingly expects citizens to ignore what they saw with their own eyes.  Frighteningly, yesterday made clear that no one is truly safe from ICE thugs - many of whom are hastily trained and apparently told they are above the law - if they arrive in one's neighborhood.   No doubt the Felon's regime will continue to spew endless lies and seek to foment news stories to distract from the Epstein files and the reality that the Felon's regime has no plan for what comes next in Venezuela. In the Republican Party in which I grew up, by now steps would have been taken to rein in a lawless occupant of the White House.  Sadly, that political party has ceased to exist.  A piece in The Atlantic looks at yesterday's deliberate killing:

When a federal immigration agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis today, the details were fresh but the story was familiar. Once again, a law-enforcement officer had fired into a moving vehicle, even though experts on use of force, and many agencies’ rules, prohibit or discourage the practice as dangerous and ineffective.

The facts of the Minneapolis shooting are still emerging, but bystander videos and eyewitness accounts provide some sense of what happened. Federal agents are in Minnesota as part of an enforcement push as the Trump administration focuses on welfare fraud among Somali immigrants in the state. Video shows bystanders watching (and heckling) federal agents. A truck with flashing lights pulls up; the driver and a second agent jump out and rapidly approach a burgundy SUV blocking the road, and the driver appears to tell a woman to get out of her car. The SUV reverses briefly, then starts to move forward. A third officer then fires several shots. The car veers away before crashing.

According to a witness who spoke to The Minnesota Star Tribune, a doctor at the scene attempted to help the woman who was shot, but was kept away by federal agents. When an ambulance finally arrived, it was blocked from reaching her by law-enforcement vehicles, and paramedics had to reach her on foot. The woman has died.

An initial statement by Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, appeared to be false in most of its key details, including claiming that “violent rioters” were at the scene and alleging that the driver had “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.” The available footage suggests that the driver may instead have been trying to flee. Many DHS claims about incidents between civilians and agents have been misleading or plainly false, and the Trump administration has sought spurious charges against anti-ICE protesters.

Residents and local officials reacted with outrage.  . . . . Firing at a car like this is problematic as a matter of both law and practice. Under a 1985 Supreme Court ruling, police aren’t permitted to open fire on someone who is fleeing unless that person presents a serious danger to the officer or others. Justice Byron White wrote that “it is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes,” but “it is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape.” (The driver in question here was not clearly under arrest, much less a felony suspect.)

Shooting into moving cars is often a bad idea, though, even when it might be legally justified. Officers who fear they are in danger often miss their target—sometimes harmlessly, sometimes striking bystanders or other officers. “If you actually hit the driver and are successful, now you’ve got an unguided missile,” Geoffrey Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police use of force, told me in 2021. “It’s just as likely if you shoot someone that a foot’s going to go on the gas as on the brake.” In this case, photos suggested that the SUV struck another car after its driver was shot.

Experts also point to poor training as a common reason for these shootings. Though the identity and experience of the officer who opened fire today are not yet known, it should be one area of focus. As ICE and other border agencies scramble to add staff and to reach huge deportation quotas set by the White House, they have lowered standards and shortened training in the hopes of getting agents on the streets sooner—but untrained officers are more likely to make mistakes.

Tense relationships between state and local governments and the federal government will complicate the investigation into this shooting . . . .Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, today accused DHS of “propaganda” and promised “accountability and justice.” Officers who kill civilians are seldom charged with crimes, and when charges are brought, officers are often acquitted, but Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has shown a willingness to prosecute officers for violence, including securing the convictions of four Minneapolis police officers in the murder of George Floyd. A successful prosecution here might be even trickier.

In some ways, I barely recognize this country any longer.