JONATHAN TURLEY: Minnesota Democrats choose 'rage politics' over sanity
"It was an outright murder." Those words from Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) were echoed by Democratic leaders from coast to coast almost immediately after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, as she sped toward him in a vehicle. Goldman has become the Madame Defarge of American politics — the character from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" who knitted as she gleefully called for the heads of aristocrats and counterrevolutionaries during the French Revolution.
Goldman has made a career of dismissing due process for his political opponents while engaging in willful blindness toward the conduct of his allies. He has denied the existence of Antifa as an organization, while also claiming he has seen no evidence of an increase in attacks on ICE officers.
He apparently needed no further proof to declare this officer a murderer: "It was an outright murder. This officer needs to not only be fired and suspended but — based on the video — charged."
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The video does not establish such a claim. Under governing case law, an officer may use lethal force when facing an imminent threat to his life or the lives of fellow officers or third parties.
In this case, the officer had a fraction of a second to decide whether to fire his weapon after Good sped toward him. Good appears to have been attempting to flee the officers, and flight alone is not a justification for lethal force. However, when a suspect accelerates toward an officer, the vehicle may be treated as a weapon, permitting the use of lethal force in self-defense.
Goldman is fully aware that past case law supports the officer in this case. However, he is also aware that he is facing a Mamdani-backed socialist, Brad Lander, a popular local politician. Goldman is escalating his rhetoric to appeal to the radical left — from promising impeachments to calling for this officer’s prosecution. This officer is no longer treated as a human being; he is a prop to be used for political gain. If he has to go to jail to secure a third term for Goldman, he is viewed as a small price to pay.
Others have joined the murder mantra, including Mamdani, who declared, "This morning, an ICE agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis — only the latest horror in a year full of cruelty."
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Mamdani has insisted that he would focus on retaining existing NYPD officers rather than adding more. That promise rings hollow when he signals that officers cannot expect his support if they are involved in controversial shootings. The mayor immediately joined the mob, dismissed the need for an investigation, and declared the officer a murderer.
In an age of rage, the loudest and angriest voice is king.
That was evident in the profane, unhinged diatribe of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who immediately not only declared the officer a murderer but called claims of self-defense "bullsh*t" and told ICE to "get the f–k out" of the city.
When many of us denounced his conduct, he mocked his critics by apologizing if his profanity "offended their Disney princess ears."
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Gov. Tim Walz followed suit. As his head of public safety insisted that officials would not speculate on the outcome of the investigation, Walz stood beside him, declaring that Good was killed for no reason and portraying ICE as terrorizing the state. Walz previously denounced ICE as "Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo … scooping folks up off the streets … being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons." Ironically, he then added that these people have "no chance to mount a defense." That concern, apparently, does not extend to members of law enforcement.
Goldman, Mamdani, Frey, and others are traffickers in rage, feeding an addiction in the hope that mobs will propel them to greater power. Law enforcement officers are simply expendable when political advantage is at stake.
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Democrats showed the same cynical calculation in condemning border agents falsely accused of whipping migrants at the Texas border. Even after videotape refuted the claim, leading Democrats and much of the media continued to push the narrative. The agents were subjected to more than a year of abuse before being cleared.
There is a method to this madness. As Madame Defarge assured her husband, they must ignore the cost to others because "Nothing that we do is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph."
Democrats may indeed "see triumph" through rage politics. However, history shows that today’s revolutionaries often become tomorrow’s reactionaries. Goldman is already facing a challenge from the left that he is not radical enough. Feeding a nation of rage addicts can prove a dangerous business when someone inevitably offers purer, cheaper highs.
For now, however, no one will out-rage Goldman and his allies. They remain on a political hair trigger, eager to find triumph in the tragedies of our times.