The agitprop coming from the Left has been hyperbolic since the death of Renee Good, the protester who was fatally shot after accelerating her vehicle toward an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week. Despite the fact that Good went to extraordinary lengths to impede a federal law enforcement operation, blocking ICE vehicles, sounding her horn for minutes on end, dancing, and finally striking an agent with her car, the Left has tried desperately to present her as an innocent figure — and ICE officers as villains — in order to stoke nationwide outrage.
The skewed portrayal of this event by the legacy media, Democrats, and members of Congress has had the effect of legitimizing extreme and even illegal behavior by protesters against any and all ICE agents.
On Monday, hundreds of Somali protesters descended upon a St. Cloud, Minnesota, strip mall that is home to many Somali-owned businesses, where ICE was carrying out an immigration enforcement operation.
CBS News Minnesota described the scene as follows:
The sound of whistles and shouting drew attention to a mall at Third Street and 33rd Avenue in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Monday. That’s where dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were met by hundreds of protesters.Protesters screamed and yelled profanities at federal agents as they attempted to leave the parking lot. Many wanted to know who ICE was targeting at the mall.Federal agents arrested one person as part of the raid, and later, two protesters in the parking lot.
CBS, of course, presented only one side of the story. Sadiq Daud, a Somali man, told the outlet, “They just showed up, spraying people and this is not good. Everybody is scared. Everybody scared. Most of the people are scared, they are, like, you know, they are scared for their life.”
How about not interfering with federal agents who are carrying out lawful duties? Unlike Somalia, America is a nation of laws.
A second protestor said, “I don’t know why. This community is a peaceful community. It was a peaceful community before ICE arrived. The only reason they keep coming back is to destroy the businesses that are here.”
No, ICE is not there to destroy legitimate businesses. They are there to apprehend individuals who entered the U.S. illegally and those who have been defrauding the government.
In the video below, to his credit, Minnesota State Sen. Aric Putnam (D) is shown trying to diffuse the situation, telling the crowd, “Don’t even get close.”
As helpful as Putnam was in holding the crowd back, his true loyalties became clear when he spoke to the CBS reporter:
You just saw 50, 60 soldiers occupy a parking lot in a perfectly reasonable and respectable neighborhood. So, it’s here and it’s real.The idea that you need 50 people with weapons and tear gas, and I’m not speaking real well because I got a little bit of pepper spray, those things are not needed for a normal, regular, authentic, genuine law enforcement operation.This has been done for ratings and popularity and to make people afraid. And the more that we show up peacefully and solid in our experience and convictions and commitment to justice, the more likely that this is going to stop.
Two days earlier, ICE agents attempted a similar enforcement action at the same mall. Although the crowd was smaller, without Putnam on the scene to help de-escalate the situation, the interaction between the agents and the demonstrators appeared more direct.
Over the weekend, conservative Matt Whitlock published excerpts from a “MN ICE Watch” training manual on X which suggested tried and true ways of “de-arresting” comrades who have been detained by law enforcement officers. It should be noted that Renee Good belonged to this group.
According to the manual, “each de-arrest is a ‘shaking off’ … a micro-intifada which can spread and inspire others until we may finally shake off this noxious ruling order all together.”
For example, if a comrade is caught in the grasp of law enforcement, the manual suggests “using a secure grip like the Gable grip that’s illustrated above, hug the arrestee and pull them out of danger.”
Another goes a bit further, instructing comrades on how to pull and push “an officer off of an arrestee and/or break their grip on an arrestee.” Users are warned of the risks associated with this tactic because “it requires physical contact with an officer, which could lead to assault on an officer charges or escalate the LEO response.”
The least risky of the suggestions involves “pressuring police to release the arrestee(s). Activists should “totally surround the officers who have the arrestee … chanting ‘Let them go!’ and the like until the LEOs cave to the mounting pressure.”
MN Ice Watch is just one small group that few of us had ever heard of until now. There are many such activist organizations whose sole purpose is to train people in how to defy laws they disagree with.
What the Renee Good case ultimately revealed is a well-worn strategy: delegitimize law enforcement, distort the facts, and inflame public emotion before the truth has any chance to surface.
A society cannot long endure when organized activists are trained to physically interfere with law enforcement, elected officials echo their distortions, and large segments of the public are conditioned to view the rule of law as optional.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY