The Distance Between Renee Good and Ashli Babbitt Is Fascism
It’s not a hypocrisy. It’s a coherent worldview.
Hey fam: In the comments a bunch of you asked me to unlock this so that you could share it. I hear you. It’s open for everyone now.
If you’re new here and want to support an independent media that calls things by their right names, we’d be honored to have you be part of our mission.
Because I’m feeling particularly helpless and angry today. Maybe you are, too. But it’s precisely moments like this when we should strive to be our best selves and show grace.
—JVL
1. Making Sense of It
The killing of Renee Good is, as the saying goes, senseless. There was no need for ICE officers to be on that street in Minneapolis yesterday. There was no need for them to escalate their encounter with Good, screaming obscenities at her, attempting to force open the door of her SUV and assault her. There was no need for them to unholster their weapons. There was no need for them to shoot her three times.
There was no need for the entire apparatus of the federal government, from the DHS press flack, to the secretary of that department, to the president and vice president of the United States, to lie about the events and slander Renee Good as a “domestic terrorist.”
There was no need for Renee Good’s 6-year-old son to wake up an orphan this morning.
In a sane world—the kind of world we lived in twelve months ago—here is what would have happened:
Federal officers encountering a vehicle blocking traffic would have asked the driver some version of, “What seems to be the problem, ma’am?”
If the driver was blocking the street in an act of civil disobedience, a single officer would have given her a clear, followable direction. Either, “Leave this area immediately or you will be under arrest.” Or, “Move this vehicle to the left side of the road, put it in park, and wait for further instructions.”
If, during the encounter, something went terribly wrong and the officer used deadly force, there would have been an investigation.
Federal officials in the officer’s chain of command would have said some version of, “There is an ongoing investigation and we will comment once we have all of the facts about this tragedy.”
The nation’s political leadership would have responded with empathy and calls for calm, forbearance, and unity.
To understand why we don’t live in a world like that we need to talk about Ashli Babbitt, January 6th, and the right’s reaction to her killing.
So let’s start with this: Was Ashli Babbitt a “domestic terrorist”?
She was part of an armed mob that beat and assaulted police officers as it broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.1 She was then part of a breakaway mob that attempted to force its way into the Speaker’s Lobby. Inside the Speaker’s Lobby at the time was a group of elected officials and their staffs who were barricaded in to hide from the people who were rampaging through the complex calling for the hanging of the sitting vice president of the United States. Babbitt’s section of the mob broke through a window to breach the room. It is unclear what her intentions were. Perhaps she wanted to hug the people inside and thank them for their service.
Nevertheless, a police officer inside the room gave Babbitt specific instructions to stop her attempt to breach the window. One of them said “Get back! Get down! Get out of the way!” Babbitt did not comply with this instruction. An officer shot her once, in the shoulder; she later died from the wound.
Later, it was discovered that Babbitt was carrying a “Para Force” knife—a “tactical” folding knife—though the officer who shot her did not know this fact at the time.
No reasonable person could say that ICE had more to fear from Renee Good than police did from Ashli Babbitt. Yet the reactions to the two killings could not be more different.
Here is Trump on Ashli Babbitt:
To Ashli’s family and friends, please know that her memory will live on in our hearts for all time . . .
There was no reason Ashli should’ve lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family, so on this solemn occasion as we celebrate her life, we renew our call for a fair and nonpartisan investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt.
Trump would go on to award Babbitt full military honors and give her family a $5 million wrongful death settlement once he regained the presidency.2
Now here is Trump on Renee Good:
“[T]he woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“She behaved horribly. . . . And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over,” Trump told the New York Times.
I want to be very clear that this is a lie. You can watch the videos from multiple angles yourself, if you like. Michael Sellers has a detailed, frame-by-frame examination of what was happening as each shot was fired. But here is an accurate and bloodless description of the events from Joseph Cox at 404 Media:
A maroon Honda Pilot SUV sits perpendicular across a residential road in Minneapolis. At the time, federal authorities were in the neighborhood as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recently announced surge of thousands of officials. A silver Nissan Titan drives up the road and stops because the Honda is blocking its path. Two officers dressed in body armor, pouches, and badges saying “police” exit the Nissan.
The two people walk towards the Honda. Someone can be heard saying “get out of the fucking car.” One of them tries to open the driver’s door and reach through the open window. The driver of the Honda reverses and turns, getting straighter with the road. The driver then slowly accelerates and starts to turn to the right, leveling the car out with its front pointing away from the two officers.
A third officer, who has been standing on the other side of the road, pulls out a firearm while the car is turning away from him and fires into the car three times. The officer fires two of the shots when the vehicle is already well past him. He is not in front of the car, but to the side. The officer calmly holsters his weapon.
The Honda, now straight on the road and its driver shot, rolls up the street and collides with a vehicle and electricity pole. The woman driver died. The driver’s airbag is covered in blood.
2. In-Group/Out-Group
The purpose of this discussion isn’t to play gotcha or to expose hypocrisy. It’s to understand a worldview: The people who run this regime do not understand law enforcement as an institution to be stewarded. The view it as a tool for the domination of their enemies. And their “enemies” include about half of America.
Again: This is not hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is when someone holds to a set of values but applies them selectively. You can work with hypocrites because they share your values, even if they do not always adhere to them. Hypocrisy is, famously, the tribute that vice pays to virtue.
No, what we are seeing is a worldview for which the only value is the domination of enemies. There is a name for that. It is fascism.
In this worldview, Ashli Babbitt was committing violence on behalf of the regime; so she was justified, even if that violence was directed toward government agents. And because Renee Good was opposing the regime, violence against her—this time carried out by government agents—was likewise justified.
I’m sorry to keep repeating myself, but this is not hypocrisy. It’s illiberalism.
The liberal view is that violence is not acceptable unless it is carried out by the state under strict sanction of the law. The illiberal view—the fascist view—is that violence is a tool for domination of the out-group.
That’s why Renee Good was killed.
It’s worth nothing that Good was the ninth person shot—and the second killed—by ICE since September. All of them were shot while in their vehicles. In every case, ICE claimed that the officers were acting in self-defense.3
So what happened in Minneapolis yesterday was not a tragic accident. It was part of a pattern. A policy. A worldview.
I do not know how to counter to this ideology except to say that, should the opposition ever regain power, it should commit to prosecuting members of this regime at every level to the fullest extent of the law.
I’m sure that in 2028 Democrats will spend most of their time talking about Kitchen Table Issues and expanding health insurance. But honestly, I’m not sure how much any of that matters if the fascists who did this to America do not face whatever legal accountability is possible.
3. White Power Bill
How dare you suggest that Elon Musk did a Nazi salute.
Though we do not have evidence that Babbitt herself assaulted any LEOs.
Do you want more Trump on Babbitt? Fine. Here he is at a press conference on January 12, 2025:
[Babbitt] should have never been shot. She was shot for no reason whatsoever. In fact, they say that she was trying to hold back the crowd, and the crowd was made up of a lot of different people.
As you might imagine from the claims made by the government against Renee Good, the other claims of self-defense are also questionable.
I saw some of you asking for this to be unlocked this so that you could share it. I hear you. It’s open for everyone now.
This took place less than a mile from my home. Today and tomorrow my son can't go to school after a nearby high school in our district was targeted and invaded by ICE at afternoon dismissal yesterday. This should not happen here or anywhere. Thank you for the coverage when this feels so horrifying and unreal.