How this government responded to kindness with bullets — and what that says about us

“That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”

Those were the last words Renee Nicole Good ever spoke.

They were not uttered in anger. They were not provocative. They were said with warmth, understanding, and a smile — a tacit acknowledgment that the ICE officer in front of her was doing what his superiors had asked of him.

After collecting her wife, she backed away from the officer and attempted to leave. There was no attempt to use her car as a weapon. No high-speed getaway. No obscene gestures. No threats. Just: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”

Seconds later, Jonathan Ross pulled out his pistol and fired three shots into her car, killing her — denying her children their mother and her wife her partner.

No Aid. No Urgency. No Accountability.

The ICE officers on scene did not administer first aid. Instead, they blocked medical personnel from reaching her. It was not until six minutes later, when Minneapolis Fire and EMS arrived, that anyone attended to a woman whose only offense was caring deeply about her neighbors.

Let’s be clear: Renee Nicole Good was not a member of a domestic terrorist organization. She was not part of this government’s imagined boogeyman known as “ANTIFA.” She was a mother doing what mothers do — standing up for her family and her neighborhood.

According to her family, she fervently believed that we are on this earth to love and care for one another, and to bring warmth and creativity into the lives of those around us.

This Government Had a Choice

This government could have paused.
It could have reflected.
It could have acknowledged that something had gone terribly wrong.

It chose not to.

Instead, in the aftermath of this tragedy, this government chose not to question the actions of masked, unbadged ICE officers. It chose to blame a soccer mom with stuffed animals jammed into her glove box.

Words Matter. Lies Matter More.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said:

“It is very clear this individual was harassing and impeding law enforcement operations.”

I don’t know about you, but telling a masked officer “That’s fine, dude. I don’t hate you,” said with a smile, does not meet any reasonable standard of harassment. It sounds more like the verbal equivalent of a warm hug — one that might, if handled properly, end with a cup of cocoa.

Noem then defended Officer Ross by saying he “followed his training and did exactly what he’s been taught to do … and took actions to defend himself and his fellow law enforcement officers.”

The standard for using deadly force is well established:

• The threat must be immediate
• The individual must have the capability to cause serious harm
• There must be clear intent
• Reasonable alternatives must be unavailable

Additionally, FBI guidance is clear: officers are not supposed to fire at a fleeing vehicle.

Noem’s statements leave us with only two possibilities. Either she is lying — something that has become distressingly routine in this government — or Officer Ross truly did follow his training. If it is the latter, then this government is sanctioning the killing of soccer moms for saying something as dangerously inflammatory as:

“Dude, I’m not mad at you.”

The Vice President Weighs In

Vice President J.D. Vance called the killing “a tragedy of her own making.” He ignored the reality that the ICE presence itself was inflammatory, particularly in the context of this administration’s rhetoric. He also claimed Ross had “absolute immunity,” apparently under the belief that asserting something makes it true — a level of reasoning one expects from a nine-year-old, not the second most powerful person in the country.

What This Means for Our Democracy

What horrifies me most is not just this killing, but what it represents.

It moves us one step farther from constitutional democracy and one step closer to authoritarianism.

The First Amendment guarantees free speech and peaceful expression. That is exactly what Renee Nicole Good was exercising. There was no violence. No imminent threat. Her expression of dissent was simply:

“That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”

And how did this government respond? Not with accountability — the most profoundly American value — but by blaming a mythical far-left cabal and a soccer mom who preached kindness and compassion.

This Is Ours to Own

Like it or not, this is our government doing this. We are responsible for the actions of Trump, Vance, and Noem. We must call out their lies, their misdirection, and their hypocrisies — and we must hold them accountable.

With all due respect to Renee Nicole Good, I say this:

Hey, dudes. I am mad at you — and I won’t rest until you are out of power, and those who deserve it are held fully accountable under the law.