Resignations From Minnesota and D.C.
Renee Good’s Death Goes Uninvestigated
Six attorneys inside the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division resigned their positions earlier this week after Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer responsible for the death of Minneapolis resident Renee Good.
A monumental aspect of taking up careers in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is to investigate instances of excessive police force. For decades, the division has worked to bring attention and powerful litigation to cases of police brutality. They investigated the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, among many others within the U.S.
On the official DOJ website, the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division currently reads:
“The Section’s cases often involve incidents that are of national interest. As experts in the field of criminal civil rights enforcement, Criminal Section prosecutors often partner with the 94 United States Attorney’s Offices throughout the country, as well as with federal and local investigators. While some violations may most appropriately be pursued by the federal government, others can be addressed by state or local jurisdictions. Criminal Section prosecutors therefore often work with state and local prosecutors to determine where a case should be handled. In some instances, Criminal Section prosecutors handle investigations due to actual or perceived conflicts of interest in local jurisdictions. In every case, the ultimate goal of the Criminal Section is to ensure that allegations are thoroughly and fairly investigated, that acts constituting federal criminal civil rights violations are sufficiently remedied, and the rights of the victims vindicated.”
Have Good’s rights been vindicated? A “fair” investigation isn’t a priority? There’s an obvious contradiction between the actions in the Good case and the mission statement on the DOJ web page.
Inside the U.S. Attorneys Office in Minnesota, six federal prosecutors also tendered their resignations this past Tuesday. This wave of exits came as a direct protest to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi pushing the attorneys to investigate Good’s, now widow, Becca Good. Someone only connected to the shooting due to her marriage with the recently departed.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have instead taken their own avenue when it comes to the incident that cost Good her life. They’ve launched investigations that seek to highlight Good’s entire past. The departments are looking into whether she had prior history as an activist and what her local connections to any activist movement in Minnesota may have been. The loved ones of Good are dealing with enough in this very raw moment of having her removed from their lives without the DOJ and the FBI digging into their lives.
It comes across as the DOJ vigorously deflecting from the gruesome video that the world has seen in order to paint Good, her widow, and protestors across the state of Minnesota under the “domestic terrorist” cloud that they seek to wrangle everyone under that disagrees with the actions of the federal government. Doing all this without any evidence to support their stance.
What about a sliver of justice for Renee Good?
In a short statement, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the shooting saying, “There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”
The DOJ website leaves enough interpretation for considerable legal action to be taken to prove the details of Good’s unfortunate killing. Or does it not?
No basis for the January 7th interaction that caused ICE agent Jonathan Ross to fire bullets into the cabin of Good’s vehicle? Ending her life?
Additional Charges Filed
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and ICE. The suit alleges that the federal government violated the Constitution with the influx of federal agents across the state.
After the federal government initiated “Operation Metro Surge” in December 2025, thousands of masked and armed federal agents entered the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They immediately engaged in illegal militarized raids, illegal — and unconstitutional — stops, frisks, and arrests of local Minnesotans.
An additional restraining order has been filed to slow the surge. There are over 3,000 ICE agents in the Twin Cities, outnumbering the local police force which amounts to 1,200 police officers.
To investigate anything, information must be shared from every party connected to said investigation. Trump’s officers in the DOJ and the FBI will not be forthcoming to anyone in Minnesota. Good’s family will have to continue to endure the attacks that their beloved one receives daily. Her heinous death wasn’t enough disrespect. That leads to…
DOJ and FBI
The FBI has taken the lead on the Good case while blocking access to pertinent information from authorities in Minnesota looking to provide answers to Good’s killing. Ellison is also claiming that the escalation activities of the ICE officer in the shooting of Good merits prosecution from the state of Minnesota.
Where will Ellison’s case ultimately go? He’s one of the few officials in the U.S. with power to challenge the federal government. In a recent interview with MS Now, Ellison said there is “no absolute immunity” that protects a federal officer from being charged “by a state authority.”
Minnesota is as likely to succeed in receiving authentic information regarding Good’s shooting from Trump’s DOJ and the FBI as someone being able to extract eggs from their mother’s baked birthday cake. Mom omitted chicken eggs from her diet two days ago, not alerting her children. The creation her daughter spent the entire evening crafting is painstakingly iced and ready to be cut 10 minutes before dear mother walks in the door.
Note: Historically, the DOJ has operated independently of the White House. That’s a tradition. A norm that took place in an expired era. It is not written into law that the DOJ function as its own entity. This is one of the myriad examples of what Americans think to be binding law that actually isn’t. The legal architecture of the U.S. is riddled with them. American law needs fixing, clarification, and ratification. Politicians should get on that.
ICE in Minnesota
Protests have been occurring in Minneapolis over the use of deadly force alongside unlawful arrests and detainments. Trump and all those inside — and outside — of his administration are dictating to the American people that the evidence of their eyes isn’t to be believed. The world is a witness. They see where it’s headed.
The red hats cheer. Still. They got what they selected. Those that voted for other candidates will suffer. Trump’s policies only harm his opponents. Clearly.
To the Trump voter and supporter, this is what your healthcare funding is being reserved for. Instead of addressing your ailments. You voted for a masked police force — with no identifying characteristics outside of three letters — to act at the whims of an imperial president. It was your vote that allowed Project 2025 to be enacted. Make no mistake that ICE is a large part of the MAGA and Republican vision of the current and future U.S.
Protestors
ICE wants to adjudicate any and all opponents of the president. Buoyed by a force that trains agents and puts them on the streets in less time than it takes your local animal control officer to be certified to catch the stray dog barking at odd times of the evening down the block from you.
ICE recruits those with grudges. Grievances. Those holding inner resentments that a licensed therapist would need years to heal. Background checks only get in the way of those prime signing bonuses. ICE is powered by those that look down on the others who found a way to rise above the natural barriers that the U.S. has due to the ethnic realities and demographics of the nation since its founding.
The best aren’t completing ICE applications. The president doesn’t want America’s best. He calls for those loyal to him. Competence is a demerit for his law force. It’s to the point where legal U.S. citizens and those with legal rights to reside here need to have their papers present at all times.
Papers.
This sounds like a time in Germany.
When I was in elementary school, I found myself perplexed at how the world could allow a dictator to rise. This was primarily when discussing lessons revolving around World War II. It fascinated me endlessly. In 2025, that thirst was satiated. Today, I no longer need to understand why Adolf Hitler and others like him ascended while the world watched. In the 1930s and 1940s there wasn’t social media, cameras in every pocket, or surveillance at intersections and government buildings.
An argument could be made that a dictator-to-be shouldn’t be able to amass unbound influence in this digital age. Hitler and his class had the benefit of a smaller media ecosystem. The world, then, was bigger in regards to access. Journalists from the UK, France, the U.S., etc., needed to be either in Germany covertly, under supervised direction of the Third Reich which meant their pieces were subject to edits from German officials before a radio dispatch or publishing run, or they dotted around Europe remaining close to Germany without stepping into it.
All media has failed in this past decade of U.S. history. Politicians as well. Republicans in Congress, right now, with the legal mandate to reign in a tyrannical executive have ignored such duty. The Supreme Court has started a course to send powers to the president that will render their positions obsolete soon enough. There’s no check on his powers. Those around him have taken both knees. Gladly.
However, the largest slice of this pie belongs to the American voter. Republican MAGA voters.
ICE represents the president’s urge to instill fear. Control. Just the mere presence of ICE is used to frighten Americans. To give them pause especially if they have accented English, they speak a language fluently that isn’t, and-or they have the wrong skin tone. They exist in this form to caution families. To make those that speak out, speak less with the threat of ICE outside their doors. Stomping along their streets. Dictating the movements in neighborhoods they don’t reside themselves. Stay calm everyone, these ICE officers are only following orders from the top executive. Why should they question directions from above? Don’t overreact.
Trump is instigating chaos and simultaneously standing as the only one strong enough to bring order. He’s causing strife. He’s also its remedy. By design, naturally. It allows him to enact the Insurrection Act. To use the U.S. military in U.S. cities…on anyone. Namely, in blue states. According to him, only liberals live in blue states. There are only MAGA followers in red states.
Protestors shouting against the government’s blatant disregard for their rights as Americans are also the “domestic terrorist” threat that demands grave force? Clever. Quite clever, president. They are the insurrectionists.
Trump led a true insurrection on January 6, 2021 to overturn an election he lost. He was indicted for it. Set to be tried until his Supreme Court saved him from accountability. Americans with eyes weren’t supposed to believe that. Especially when he pardoned patriots convicted of assaulting Capitol Police on that peaceful day in D.C.
Part of me feels that Trump has ICE stationed across the U.S. in order to capture a state and hold it as a show of power. As a trinket. A bauble to fawn over before he tosses it into the corner to play with the box it came in — until something else grabs his attention. Another state. Another country. Another election.
When Americans were presented with the choice of a reasonable alternative, 49.9% of voters selected this administration.