“I’m Not Mad At You”

By Siggy Raible

That’s what a smiling Minneapolis mom, Renee Good, told ICE agents as they approached her while she was sitting in her car with her arm resting on the driver-side window on January 7. Moments later she was shot ─ dead. Those words were probably the last words she spoke in this world. The agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross, moments later was caught on camera calling her a “f**king bitch.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I can tell you that I’m beyond mad, I’m effing pissed.

I am outraged because Good, shot three times, is dead at the hands of a government employee. I am mad because 18 days later another Minnesotan, Alex Pretti, was shot 10 times and lay dead in the icy cold streets of Minneapolis. Both Americans were killed by their fellow Americans, employees of the federal government. My tax dollars paid for these murders and I have a right to know what is being done in my name. After growing unrest across the nation an investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti has begun. It is unclear to me whether an investigation into Renee Good’s death is/has/will begin. Why? I have no idea. Is one life worth more than another? I don’t have an answer to that question either.

These two 37-year-olds were demonstrating and bearing witness to the actions being taken by a militarized federal police force carrying out the orders of an American administration bent on depopulating the country of “illegal aliens.” These events remind me of an event which occurred on the grounds of Kent State University in 1970. Back then demonstrators were protesting against the Vietnam War. The National Guard was called in and four students were shot. Neil Young wrote a song commemorating the event entitled Ohio. With a few changes, we have a ready-made protest song for 2026.

On November 5, 2025, I clipped an article in the New York Times entitled Making Sense of the Federal Forces on the Streets thinking I would read it at a later date. I came across it the other day while cleaning up my stack of clippings. How frighteningly sad it is to see illustrations of 10 men and women ─ some in military-style “uniforms,” some with masks, others with weapons. More frightening now is knowing that some Americans, dressed like the individuals in the article, shot two of their fellow Americans on a residential street in Minneapolis. WTF?!

The Times article goes on to explain that the various agents deployed can be from one or all of the following: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection (ICE, Homeland Security and/or ICE Special Response Teams) and federal agencies (FBI and DEA). Depending on the agency, the officers can be masked. They may or may not be wearing vests which will identify the part of ICE or law enforcement agency they work for and some may operate in plain clothes with no or minimal identification. “Technical teams can carry additional equipment such as a less-lethal ammunition launcher… National Guard troops can carry shields, batons and rifles.” I can tell you that should I attend a demonstration I would be hard-pressed to tell one from the other especially if they’re wearing masks.

The various agencies have deployed agents to the following states: California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Washington, D.C. and counting. They have been deployed for varying reasons ranging from crime control to “illegal immigration” enforcement actions. In Minneapolis, where Good and Pretti were killed, 3,000 agents were deployed to a city with 600 police officers. Were there so many criminals and “illegal aliens” roaming the Minneapolis streets that the federal government felt a need to send a force five times the size of the city’s police force? Neither the mayor of Minneapolis nor the governor of Minnesota thought so and objected to their presence.

A human life is precious and when one life is lost to violence a reckoning has to follow. How can the federal government morally defend its actions without an accounting of its military-style police actions?

I was surprised to learn that 16 Americans have been shot or shot at during these ICE surges (see NY Times article dated February 11, 2026, entitled D.H.S. Claims In 4 Shootings Fizzle in Court). Three have died as a result of these actions; one woman was shot five times and lived to talk about it. In other instances demonstrators/witnesses were accosted by Darth Vader-like agents dispensing chemical agents, shoving observers and/or aggressively approaching individuals on the streets or while sitting in their cars, breaking the windows and dragging the drivers from their cars. Will we accept the continued violation of individual rights by government enforcers attacking unarmed American civilians? I pray not.

I know I will not. I will be voting in November.