We’re back to pretending there’s a debate to be had over whether someone recklessly disobeying law enforcement was justified in getting whacked. Per usual, Democrats and the dying news media are insisting it’s a civil right on par with free speech to not only interfere with arrests but to endanger the lives of government officials and innocent pedestrians in the process.
Minneapolis this week saw the deadly shooting of a 37-year-old woman who used her two-ton SUV to block a street patrolled by police and immigration enforcement agents. Several videos from different angles all show the same thing.
While officials are posted up in their vehicles, pedestrians are blowing whistles and yelling in protest. Renee Nicole Good, the now-deceased woman, has her Honda Pilot parked longways in the center of the street, obstructing traffic. When three officers approach Good and command her to exit the vehicle, she puts her car into reverse before shifting forward and flooring the gas pedal, apparently striking one of the agents on his left side. That officer had his weapon drawn for her to see, and when she failed to brake, he fired multiple rounds. The SUV then slams high-speed into another parked car on the road’s left shoulder.
An investigation is pending, and in the meantime, Democrat leaders and their supporters in the dying media are faulting law enforcement. “This was clearly not with any sort of intention to run somebody over but to get out of there,” Democrat Minneapolis Mayor and Somali whisperer Jacob Frey said Wednesday on CNN. “And you don’t need a legal degree to know that that does not authorize the use of deadly force.”
The Washington Post on Thursday ran headlines like “ICE agent was not in the vehicle’s path when he fired at driver, video shows”; “Minneapolis protests remain peaceful after ICE officer fatally shoots woman”; and “Woman killed was a mother of 3 and a poet.” (She may have also been a fan of sunny days and warm blankets, there’s no telling.)
They do this every time someone who fits the profile of a Democrat voter needlessly, brazenly provokes law enforcement and ends up dead. And the only person who might fit the profile of a reliable Democrat voter closer than an angry anti-ICE lesbian is a black man with a warrant. As it happens, four years ago, North Carolina police were attempting to execute an arrest for drug dealer Andrew Brown, 42, and he too tried peeling off in a car to avoid capture.
Video footage of the attempted arrest showed several police officers in a pickup truck driving to Brown’s home, where they found him inside his vehicle. They surrounded the car while telling him to exit. Brown backed the car up in the direction of the police officers, then drove forward in an attempt to flee in the direction of other houses. He apparently struck one of the officers with the right front of the car. As Brown floored it, police fired the shots that ultimately killed him.
Attempting to evade arrest in a high-speed chase not only endangers the safety of the suspect and the police, but also the rest of the public. Renee Nicole Good could have killed not only a member of law enforcement, but another protester or even just an innocent pedestrian by ramming her SUV straight into them. And in that split second, authorities don’t know what the intent of the suspect is. They only know that the order to stop has been disobeyed and their safety, as well as the safety of everyone nearby, is at stake.
The logical conclusion to the Democrat position, then, is that it’s never justified to use lethal force on a criminal suspect, so long as she’s fleeing the scene. In effect, crime becomes legal.
No, thanks! It’s not a question of whether a person deserves to die. It’s a question of whether law enforcement and the general public are entitled to the same safety Democrat-preferred suspects are. Democrats hold the position that they’re not.
