More About ICE
and conscience, drama, and the essential goodness of the human heart
It is stunning to me that Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Renee Good, is (so far) not being held accountable in any way for what certainly appears to be a cold-blooded murder. Really stunning and terrible.
I know little about Ross other than what I read in the NYT. He has a military record, served in Iraq (which likely means he is a traumatized person) and had a previous run-in with a protester in a car. I imagine that in the super-charged atmosphere of the ICE invasion of Minneapolis, in which ICE agents are purposely (directed by their bosses) creating havoc and fear, and therefore lots of serious push-back from activists and ordinary citizens, Ross must have been quite keyed up and super-charged when he ordered Good to get out of her car. And when she didn’t, and was, according to accounts I have seen, a bit defiant, he popped.
Really, she should have gotten out of the car. I would have. A crazed guy with a mask and a gun pointed at my face? I’d’ve gotten out of the car. Had she done that she’d probably be alive today.
I admire her defiance though; probably, as a young white woman with moxie, she never imagined in a million years that the terrible guy she was facing would actually shoot her. She’d probably faced down guys like this before.
But she should’ve gotten out of the car.
How provocative should the anti-ICE protests be? Provocative enough to show strength and determination in the exercise of the legal right to free speech. But not so provocative as to invite violence and murder. Respectful non-violence. Like MLK.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not blaming Renee Good for her own death. I blame Jonathan Ross, who absolutely didn’t need to shoot her, not in any way, in any world. Charges that she was about to run him over, that she was a ‘domestic terrorist’ are, to me, not only false, but horrifying — horrifying that public officials would have the chutzpah to level such an absurd accusation. “Have you no decency?”
But Ross is a victim too. Rather than receiving effective counseling after his service, and good training for his law enforcement job, his very limitations were weaponized by the powers that be. And although he may never face legal consequences he will not escape consequences.
I’m reminded of the case of Dan White, The San Francisco City Supervisor, who shot Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in cold blood in 1978. While convicted for the murder (manslaughter charge), White served only five years. Two years after his release, eaten up with remorse, that he took his own life.
If you believe, as I do, in fundamental human goodness, that people are basically decent, only their conditioning messes them up, then you know that no one escapes the consequences of their actions. Bad conduct twists the soul out of shape. So you do someone a favor to hold them accountable for their actions. Ross would be better off in jail. Out of jail he’s going to do more damage, and he is going to suffer for that damage one way or another.
I don’t blame him as much as I blame the government officials, his superiors, who are engineering this lurid destructive drama. The other day on the podcast Today Explained I learned that ICE has launched a $100 million ad campaign to recruit new officers. The campaign uses video game imagery, big buff guys with blazing guns, and slogans like “protect the homeland” “cleanse the culture,” violent white supremacy stuff.
So who is going to join ICE? And what do these poor guys think they are being asked to do?
Unfortunately, the law is on their side. It is illegal (though this is a nuanced and complicated thing) for a foreign national to be in the country without proper authorization; such people are subject to deportation, and, it seems, Americans by and large, want them to be deported or, at least, somehow dealt with.
But not like this. This is neither legal nor moral.
Fascism is an extreme enthusiasm. It depends on drama and violence and the kind of intensity you see on reality shows and crime series episodes. It is theatrical.
ICE is theatrical. The recruitment ads, like the Trumpist style of rhetoric and action, are not meant to be taken literally or seriously — it’s an act, a spectacle. There’s an edge of irony and unreality to it. It’s entertaining.
Watch Trump himself. He’s entertaining, always, weirdly theatrical. Never quite sincere or serious. Even when he is serious it’s a performance of seriousness (the famous prison mug shot for instance). I guess even the inside of his mind is a zone of performance, of irony for effect.
Every performance, every drama, ends dramatically. Fascism rises like a meteor and falls apart fizzling in the air. It is doomed to fail. Hitler invades Russia. He thought that would work out? No, he couldn’t not go too far.
We don’t yet know what the Trumpists will do to enwrap their spectacle in flames (possibly they are already doing it) but they will do something.
In the meanwhile.. so much suffering.
I am not satisfied about the fastness of concluding: The killer is also a victim. And then the heads of the police are also victims of the chauvinist, uneducated image they attribute to these professionals.
I call a victim the person or persons or animals who were threatened, overwhelmed by force, and not only that, their life was taken without formal accuse, defender, trial. Without the possibility to call a lawyer.
What characterizes the situation is the extreme power inequality. I suppose that his way of talking to the woman was not polite but aggressive, so that she was at once on alarm. He cannot expect obedience, I find, when he is inflicting terror. A young lady who was never confronted by naked violence may react as she reacted. Not wise but naturall, insisting in being talked to in another way.
All physical, systemic and gender power was on his side. So he is fully to be made accountable for his impulsiveness (which is, we know, fostered and welcomed).
In a way, if we want to soften our hearts, all are accountable for a brutal, not really protective police system, for misogyny, and more.
Our energies, I find, should turn towards Renee, her child, her beloved ones, in solidarity. As they are the victims.
Before court, one might have wished, a deep analysis of the situation, where the officer might learn about his vulnerability. This to happen, seems, however, a Utopian wish in that authoritarian, fascist society.
By the way, shouldn't we ask ourselves, which values we want to serve? And how is our position towards power and overwhelm?
I would rather renounce to have a weapon because the one who has a, weapon, tends to use it. What about accountability?
Prayers go to both.
Really I think it’s a bit disgusting (and kind of weird in this context) telling us what she should have done in an encounter with these violent irrational thugs.
Really you should go try your theory and see how well it works.
Just how self—absorbed are SF zen priests?