Speaker Johnson blames Renee Good for her own killing as ICE agents cite her death to threaten civilians

This is not justice. It is a threat.

After the Minneapolis ICE killing of Renee Good, Republican leadership has repeatedly defended the shooter and framed Good’s behavior as culpable, while ICE personnel and federal rhetoric have used her death to intimidate, terrorize, and justify violent enforcement tactics.

This framing reached an ugly crescendo when House Speaker Mike Johnson publicly defended the ICE killing by placing responsibility squarely on Good’s shoulders — an inversion that effectively declares a federal agent’s use of lethal force justified not by evidence of threat but by political characterization of the victim. That assertion sits uneasily alongside multiple videos and eyewitness accounts that challenge the official narrative and raise questions about whether the force used was necessary.

This political framing has real consequences on the ground. In Minneapolis and elsewhere, video and eyewitness accounts have shown federal agents invoking Good’s death as both justification and intimidation. ICE agents declare the killing a lesson for anyone who might challenge or question ICE’s presence. Even as thousands protest her killing and call for accountability, Republican rhetoric demands that the tragedy was her own making and that her death demonstrates what happens when federal agents feel threatened.

In Minneapolis, a man was boxed in by ICE agents who felt he was following them. The man claims he was just going home. The exchange was very telling:

“You’re not going to like the outcome of this, sir,” the first officer said. “I guarantee that… Did you not learn from what just happened [when Renee Good was killed]?”

“Learn what?” the driver asked. “I serve the Lord, not a draft-dodging coward. I can’t believe you’d take orders from a draft dodger.”

RawStory

Yesterday, we shared an interview with a US Marine veteran who was similarly threatened and subject to both verbal and physical abuse. This is not merely a matter of spin. When public officials and enforcement agents use a citizen’s death as a hammer, first to justify violence, then to threaten those who dissent, it signals a deeper institutional shift: consequences are defined not by evidence or accountability, but by political allegiance and control of the narrative.

This is not justice. It is a threat.