About 35 Chico-area residents gathered at City Plaza this evening in a vigil for Renee Nicole Good, the woman who was killed earlier in the day by an immigration officer in Minneapolis.
The demonstrators gathered with candles and alternately sang and spoke about the need to organize and protest in the wake of the killing by an officer from Immigration, Customs & Enforcement (ICE). Good, who was 37, and according to reports was a U.S. citizen, was driving a maroon-colored SUV when she was approached by officers and then shot.
Video shows her steering her car away from officers who were pulling on the driver’s side door handle. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good was killed during an “act of domestic terrorism,” and the Trump administration has said the officer acted in self-defense.
Bill Bynum, a demonstrator from the Defenders of Democracy Coalition, said he watched the video and doesn’t believe that ICE acted in self-defense.
“I am outraged,” Bynum said. “It’s murder, in my opinion. She was approached, and the guy said, ‘Get the fuck out of your car.’ She was scared to death in my opinion.”
Another Chico demonstrator, Lupe Arim-Law, said she had been deeply upset by the killing.
“She’s a mother, she’s a young woman and she’s white,” Arim-Law pointed out. “They’re coming for all us that don’t agree with them. We need to keep coming out and we need to keep showing up.”
Thank you Chico Sol for showing we care and we showed up
Soy madre, así que voy a decir esto exactamente como lo piensa una madre. Crudo, directo, sin fingir que esto es complicado.
Una mujer de 37 años. Tres hijos. En medio de la semana laboral. El padre de esos niños está muerto. Ella es el único padre que les queda. Su responsabilidad número uno, por encima de cualquier causa, protesta o titular, es volver a casa con sus hijos.
¿Y qué está haciendo en lugar de eso?
Está fuera del estado (otros reportes dicen que vive ahí), en la calle, dentro de su carro, bloqueando a agentes federales que están haciendo su trabajo. No está sola. Su pareja está ahí mismo grabándola, como si esto fuera un pequeño documental heroico. A su alrededor: silbatos, gritos, caos puro, caos provocado, para impedir que los agentes cumplan con su deber legal.
La ventana está abajo. Ella escucha las órdenes. Entiende las órdenes. Decide ignorarlas.
Luego pone el carro en reversa.
Aún así no cumple.
Después pone el carro en drive, ¡no en parking!, y avanza hacia el agente.
Eso no es “confusión”.
Eso no es “pánico”.
Eso es decisión tras decisión tras decisión.
Ahora pónganse en los zapatos del agente por un segundo. El conductor ya está cometiendo un acto ilegal, desobedeciendo órdenes en un ambiente hostil y caótico, y ahora usa un vehículo para avanzar hacia ti. Tienes una fracción de segundo. No tienes el lujo de pensar “tal vez solo está estresada”. Tienes que asumir el peor escenario. Tienes que pensar en proteger a otros, incluso a la persona que está grabando desde la ventana, porque si asumes lo mejor y estás equivocado, no regresas a casa tú o alguien más no regresa.
Por eso el agente dispara después de que ella hace un movimiento intencional y agresivo hacia él, porque no tiene idea de cuáles son sus intenciones, y ella acaba de demostrar que está dispuesta a escalar la situación.
Ahora… imaginen a sus tres hijos. En la escuela. Sentados como cualquier otro día. Sin saber que su madre está afuera jugando a ser heroína callejera por criminales, en medio de la semana laboral, con los dos adultos responsables de ellos.
Ella no pensó en ellos.
No pensó: “Si me arrestan, ¿quién recoge a mis hijos?”
No pensó: “Si me lastiman, ¿quién los cría?”
No pensó: “Si muero, se quedan sin nadie”.
Pensó en proteger criminales.
Pensó en interferir con agentes federales.
Pensó en la cámara.
Pensó en la multitud.
Pensó en el momento.
No hay cantidad de pruebas, dinero, lágrimas en televisión o manipulación mediática que haga que esto tenga sentido.
Como madre: NADA de esto tiene sentido.
Como mínimo, ella sabía que podía ser arrestada. Como mínimo. Y aun así lo eligió. Eligió a desconocidos. Eligió el caos. Eligió la ilegalidad.
Hagan que esto tenga sentido, porque lo único que yo veo son tres niños que acaban de ser abandonados por el único padre que les quedaba, no por accidente… sino por una serie de decisiones deliberadas.
I’m a mother, so I’m going to comment right now. I will say this exactly the way a mother thinks it, raw, direct, and without pretending this is complicated.
A 37-year-old woman. Three kids. Middle of a work week. The father of those children is dead. She is the parent left. The one job she has above every cause, every protest, every headline, is getting home to her kids.
And what is she doing instead?
She’s out of state (other report claims she lives there), in the street, in her car, blocking federal agents who are doing their job. Not alone! Her partner is right there filming her like this is some brave little documentary moment. Around them: whistles blaring, people yelling, pure chaos, manufactured chaos, so agents can’t do their lawful duty.
Her window is down. She hears the orders. She understands the orders. She ignores the orders.
Then she puts the car in reverse.
Still doesn’t comply.
Then she puts it in drive, NOT park! She moves forward into the agent.
That’s not “confusion.”
That’s not “panic.”
That’s decision after decision after decision.
Now put yourself in the agent’s shoes for half a second. A driver is already in an unlawful act! refusing commands in a hostile, chaotic scene, and now that driver uses a vehicle to move toward you. You get a split second. You don’t get the luxury of “Maybe she’s just stressed.” You have to assume the worst, you have to think of protecting other people like the partner at the window, because if you assume the best and you’re wrong, you don’t go home or someone else.
So the agent fires after she makes an intentional and aggressive move toward him, because he has no idea what her intentions are, and she just demonstrated she’s willing to escalate.
Now… imagine her three kids. At school. Sitting there like any other day. Not knowing their mother is out playing street-hero games for criminals in the middle of a work week, with the two adults responsible for them!
She didn’t think about them.
She didn’t think, “If I get arrested, who picks my babies up?”
She didn’t think, “If I get hurt, who raises them?”
She didn’t think, “If I die, they have nobody.”
She thought about protecting criminals.
She thought about interfering with federal agents.
She thought about the camera.
She thought about the crowd.
She thought about the moment.
There is no amount of evidence, money, tears on TV, or news spin that can make this make sense.
As a mother: NOTHING about this makes sense.
At minimum, she knew her actions could get her arrested. At minimum. And she still chose it. She chose strangers. She chose chaos. She chose lawlessness.
Make it make sense, because the only thing I see is three kids who just got abandoned by the only parent they had left, not by accident… but by a series of deliberate choices.
I encourage you to see the second video, from the camera of the agent who killed her. He wasn’t in any danger, and neither was the agent who stuck his hand into her car. His words immediately after shooter her were “f*ckin b*tch”. To me, that does not sound like the language of an officer most people want to keep the peace. Ot sounds like exactly the kind of misogynist that good parents teach their daughters to stay away from.