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ALPERN AT LARGE - What happened in Minneapolis—the location of George Floyd’s death and epicenter of a wave of nationwide riots several years ago is tragic, awful, entirely unnecessary, and downright alarming…but is not going to be a redux of some kind of national division.
It MIGHT, however, raise a few questions as to what the heck is going on in Minneapolis, and in the state of Minnesota.
(Before proceeding, I need to emphasize that I will piss off a few of my more right-wing friends and neighbors by suggesting that I have NO sympathy for the police officers—particularly their overseeing officer who should have been far more professional—because the death and mayhem they caused resides on their shoulders.)
But now we have a dead woman and mother, her wife who has to live with her guilt in egging her spouse to take an impulsive course of action that resulted in her death, and children who are now orphaned.
Yet the late Ms. Renee Good (who I will NOT demean, decry her as a “terrorist”, or the like) is someone who made wrong decisions which were encouraged by a lousy mayor, a lousy governor, and a lousy system that is rife with corruption, divisive party politics, and downright anti-American activities that thwart the rule of law on multiple fronts.
As much as many in California, and other states, decry their own local governance it does appear that Minnesota has “won” the race to the bottom with respect to provoking chaos, tax fraud, immigration fraud, and an almost rebellious approach against their own citizenry and against both their own laws and federal laws.
AND SHALL WE IGNORE THE FACT THAT BOTH THE DEATHS OF GEORGE FLOYD AND RENEE GOOD HAPPENED IN MINNEAPOLIS?
While I’m sure that many will disagree, I don’t think that the evidence being brought forward will prove that the death of Renee Good was the same as that of George Floyd, who while he had drugs in his system and had a long criminal track record did NOT deserve to die...and he died while pleading that he couldn’t breathe.
The officer who restrained George Floyd, and those other officers with him, showed poor judgment and had several minutes to think about their actions and the reactions of the crowd who watched in horror.
In contrast, the ICE officer (not a city officer as in the George Floyd incident) had a split-second to react to what appeared to him as an assault on his life by a deadly weapon (Ms. Good’s automobile) while simply doing his job, and in an atmosphere where not only threats but actual assaults against ICE are way out of control.
Many if not most of the nation support ICE, and many if not most in nation are increasingly horrified at the taxpayer and immigration fraud being revealed in Minnesota and throughout the nation, and many if not most in the nation would never do what Ms. Good did moments before she was shot:
WHEN LAW ENFORCEMENT TELLS YOU TO GET OUT OF THEIR CAR, AND THEN YOU ACCELERATE AND EITHER BY INTENT OR BY ACCIDENT POTENTIALLY STRIKE AN OFFICER, YOU WILL BE SHOT!!!
Do I think that Ms. Good tried to strike the ICE officer with her car?
I don’t believe we’ll ever know, but it is indeed possible that she responded to her obnoxious wife, who screamed “Drive, baby, drive!” after the ICE officers present demanded she get out of her car, and Ms. Good accidentally miscalculated which direction to drive while the ICE officer responded the way he was trained to.
ICE officers are trained to follow federal law, and as with other law enforcement officers trained to bring someone DOWN who might pose a threat to their life.
Period…and therefore there will NOT be a “Defund the Police” like we saw after the George Floyd incident.
Because while most of the nation will acknowledge law enforcement misbehavior when George Floyd died, it will NOT perceive any misbehavior or nonprofessional behavior when Renee Good died.
The nation WILL, however, likely wonder ever the more as to what the devil is going on in Minneapolis and in Minnesota that led to the death of a woman that never, never, NEVER should have happened.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
