CSotD: Death Again in the Powderhorn
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Stegelin’s New Year’s cartoon didn’t take long to come true, but, then, it’s not as if we didn’t know things would fail. Steve Bannon’s advice to the rightwing was to “flood the zone with sh*t,” and it has been working: We barely begin to deal with one outrage before the next occurs and the earlier one is set aside, along with the one that happened before it, and the one before that, and on and on.
It’s not even subtle: As we try to understand Venezuela, we are promised Greenland. And that’s only the planned sh*t-flood; Things have been set up that we also get unplanned but inevitable events to deal with, and this one might be slowed down enough to have real impact.
The death of Renee Good is a fact, and it’s a fact that is rocketing around the world, such that Badiucao, a Chinese dissident cartoonist exiled in Australia, picked up on the event: Her death has impact well beyond her life and well beyond the streets of Minneapolis.
People point out that she was a mother and had children’s toys in her car, and that she had apparently just dropped her six-year-old daughter off at school. On one level, this doesn’t matter. She could have been a single male construction worker and it wouldn’t change the fact of her death or the situation under which it occurred.
But already this woman is being slimed by those who could not possibly know her and have had no time to conduct a background search, and the events of her death have similarly been thrown into the Official Truth Machine.
Brodner offers this contrast between the report of a woman who was on the scene and the words of a woman who was not. As a former reporter, I don’t assume that eye-witness reports are entirely accurate; I’ve seen too many times when shock, fear and personal subjectivity cause people to get things wrong.
But I certainly put them above the reports of those who were not there, and may have motivation to shade their opinions to benefit themselves.
I’d also accept that the witnesses got this much correct, though I’d caution against viewing police and ICE agents as the same, though if you live in the Powderhorn neighborhood where George Floyd also died, you could find the distinction blurred.
However, I’d wait to see how local law enforcement reacts. I’d also suggest posting photos of the ICE officer who (apparently) fired the fatal shots seems a case of blaming one man for the entire system of poor training and lax discipline under which he serves. He certainly should face charges, but doxxing him won’t solve the problem.
I’m far more interested in official response from our federal leaders.
Fiore is justifiably outraged by the confident-but-uninformed analysis Noem offered. I, too, strongly doubt her qualifications and her honesty and, if nothing else, I wonder if she had that ridiculous cowboy hat on when she learned the news or decided that was the proper cosplay costume for her appearance before the press, particularly since she changed into a difference cosplay outfit for another presser. It makes you wonder what she decided to wear to shoot her puppy.
Fiore exaggerates her words, but he’s close enough to her tone, as she declared Good a terrorist well before there could have been any investigation into the incident or the woman who was killed.
“Let the jury consider their verdict.” the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.”
“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”
“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen, turning purple.
“I won’t!” said Alice.
“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
At least in Alice in Wonderland, the King indicated a small shred of doubt over his wife’s premature condemnation. But we’re not in Wonderland anymore.
Dear Leader has laid out some very specific things that can be fact-checked, and we start by looking at the various videos shot on the scene for any sign of an officer being run over or being injured enough to require hospitalization.
There does seem to be perhaps some slight contact between the car and the officer as he fires his gun into the woman, but it doesn’t even make him stumble, much less fall under the vehicle.
Fortunately, hospitals keep records, and so we’ll see.
And yet it has been reported on Newsmax that the agent was attacked, rammed and hospitalized, so it must be true, right?
This quote keeps popping up on the Intertubes, but in this case, it seems an excellent fit, given the number of videos that are also finding their way onto social media. Granted, 20% of videos on social media are bogus, but that leaves 80% that may provide valuable evidence, if evidence still matters.
Perhaps it doesn’t. When Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) made a motion for the House Oversight Committee to subpoena the records and footage from the event, her request failed.
Small wonder that commentators are showing little faith in American justice and law enforcement. Australia may be half a world away, but they get news reports there and they live under what should be a reasonably similar legal system.
Nor does the way ICE conducts itself seem right to a Canadian observer, who flips our administration’s accusation of “terrorist” away from a woman dropping off her child and applies it, instead, to a group of armed, undisciplined bullies. Your evaluation may, of course, vary.
I rarely agree with Rall’s take on things, but I certainly do here. In fact, given how the administration has posted lies about January 6, that cleansing cycle of history could take even longer than it should.
Fortunately, thousands of people turned out in Minneapolis to protest the death of Renee Good and the brutalization of the special police force under which it occurred. Standing up matters, voting matters and keeping up the pressure matters.
Even when you can’t help but feel disillusioned.
Get smart. Read. Think. Learn.
And stay mad, dammit.
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