Deadly Protest in Minneapolis
A protestor identified as 37-year-old Renee Good is dead after being fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis last week. The shooting was captured on video by both the agent’s body cam and multiple onlookers. The videos show Good interacting with ICE agents after stopping her vehicle sideways across a residential street. The agents order Good to get out of the vehicle while her wife, who had exited the vehicle and was also filming part of the interaction, can be heard instructing Good to “drive.” Upon accelerating forward, Good was fatally shot and killed.
Anaysis and eternal perspective: Here we are again, friends. Another story where it is nearly impossible to read coverage of it (including the basic blurb above) without having objections to the way it is described. Even when an incident is captured on camera from multiple angles, the speed at which competing narratives are formed, disseminated, and adopted with fervency will make your head spin. To oversimplify the competing narratives in this story, one side asserts Good was murdered in cold blood and the other side asserts Good was killed in an act of self-defense after she attempted to run over the agent.
Here at The Equipped, we will not be able to mediate that dispute. It does not make it an unimportant one. In fact, as the judicial process plays out, the actions of both the agent and Good will be very relevant in determining culpability and liability. Law enforcement must be able to defend themselves from the threat of harm and must also act with proper proportion of force to an active situation. The legal process will rightly seek to determine which of these—or what mix of the two—occurred.
In the meantime, you and I—while very likely having strong and reasonable feelings about this story—should intentionally slow down enough to pivot our focus toward that which is absolutely true, including:
- Both Good and the agent have souls that are precious to God (Mk. 8:35-36).
- Law enforcement officials are in a place of authority, are to be respected, and carry out a very dangerous duty (Romans 13:1-7).
- Speech (even unpopular speech and protest) is legally protected by the First Amendment. Acts of violence are not protected, and the legal process is responsible for dividing the two.
- We are to pray for both those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2) and our enemies (Matt. 5:44).
This is one of those stories where heeding the instructions of scripture may get you vilified. But the instructions above are not about playing “both sides” or burying your head in the sand. Rather, they are about faithfully walking out the duties assigned to us and remaining clear-eyed about the how the white-hot questions involved will be adjudicated.
Americans should be thankful to live in a place with due process and where competing legal arguments are heard. A byproduct of this system is that the modern-day desire for immediate resolution and vindication cannot be satiated. Knowing this, let’s lead the way in using this interim space to pray for all those involved: the authorities making the deployment decision, the agents carrying out the orders, and the families of both Good and the agent.
Prayer: “Heavenly Father, may You use this tragic event to draw many into relationship with You.”
The preceding article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.