https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-10-2026
"Yesterday, in an apparent attempt to regain control of the national narrative
surrounding the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Vice President
J.D. Vance led the administration in pushing a video of the shooting captured
by the shooter himself, Jonathan Ross, on his cell phone.
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."
[...]
"In the case of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the murderers and their protectors
were clearly so isolated in their own racist bubble they could not see how
regular Americans would react to the video of them hunting down and shooting a
jogger.
In the case of the murder of Renee Good, the shooter and his protectors are
clearly so isolated in their own authoritarian bubble they cannot see how
regular Americans would react to the video of a woman smiling at a masked agent
and saying: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” only to have him shoot her
in the face and then spit out “F*cking b*tch” after he killed her.
The thread that runs through both is the assumption that an American exercising
their constitutional rights must submit, without question, to a white man
holding a gun.
This is the larger meaning of federal agents from Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol in U.S. cities. While they are
attacking primarily people of color, the message they carry is directed at all
Americans: you must do what the Trump administration and its loyalists demand."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
