Don't let the response obscure the injustice

I wasn’t planning to write today, but I fear for Minneapolis. I’ve spent a lot of time in the city and in Minnesota in general. It’s a diverse city of neighborhoods built along the Mississippi River and surrounded by large, magnificent lakes. Local business districts with small shops and restaurants stretch out from downtown in every direction, with names like Northeast, Loring Park, Uptown, Kingfield, Linden Hills, Powderhorn.

Before the George Floyd riots, it was a vibrant place with miles of bike and pedestrian paths that wind around the lakes and along the river. During the summer, sidewalk cafes dot the neighborhoods and city parks host outdoor events almost every evening. During the winter, the city shifts to ice sculptures, ice fishing, and cross country skiing. Since the riots, it has more of an edge with boarded up stores marring once-thriving areas.

I worry that the shooting that took place yesterday will lead to more damaging unrest. I hope the inevitable protests stay calm and worry that the ICE and CBP agents in the city are now looking for a confrontation. Bad actors from both sides could spur behavior that’s even more harmful to a city that’s already under the national spotlight for fraud scams run mainly by Somali immigrants. The Trump administration sent a large force of ICE and CBP agents into the city, vowing to crack down on the immigrant communities.

In the wake of yesterday’s shooting, both sides immediately jumped to their preconceived notions. Conservatives and the Trump administration claimed the dead woman attempted to run over an ICE agent. Liberals and progressives jumped to the woman’s defense claiming that the agent recklessly fired into the car.

I’ve watched the videos numerous times from different angles and at different speeds. I think most Americans less invested in a side will see an abuse of power. The car was moving at a very slow speed and the officer stepped out of the way of the car before he fired a shot and then continued to shoot after the car was passed. The agents refused to offer assistance to the woman after the car came to a halt.

The Trump administration immediately lied about the incident. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told the press that the officer had been hit by the car and sent to the hospital. Donald Trump insisted he was lucky to be alive. Video of the scene showed the officer walk up to the car after the shooting, look into it, and then walk back without so much as a limp.

Protesters in Minneapolis and around the country need to stay peaceful. This episode is likely to bring attention to the abuse of power by ICE and CBP if it doesn’t get obscured by the reaction of the opposition. Even Americans who opposed the flood of immigrants into the country don’t like the heavy-handed tactics that have put masked gunmen on our streets and in our neighborhoods. They aren’t likely to support the killing of a 37-year-old mother driving a family SUV.

The best outcome for this awful situation is to bring more scrutiny to ICE and CBP, forcing them to check their aggressive behavior and maybe reduce the scope of their operations. The press needs to be asking more questions about these agents. Do they have criminal histories? How many have associations with gangs like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers or paramilitary organizations? What kind of training do they have?

To get productive results, though, the protesters need to keep the focus on the incident, not their reactions to it.