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Minneapolis Isn’t a Movie
After Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE, protestors poured into Minneapolis streets, prompting federal agents to deploy tear gas to disperse the crowds. (Adam Gray via AP Photo)
There is a pervasive sense that ICE agents are more like cartoon villains than legitimate law enforcement. The killing of Renee Nicole Good proved this a dangerous illusion.
By Kat Rosenfield
01.13.26 — Culture and Ideas

Kat Rosenfield is a culture writer at The Free Press and the author of five novels, including the Edgar-nominated No One Will Miss Her. Prior to joining The Free Press, she was a reporter at MTV News and a columnist at UnHerd, where she wrote about American culture and politics. Her work has also appeared in Vulture, Playboy, The Boston Globe, and Reason, among others.

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I’ve seen the footage of Renee Nicole Good’s final moments a dozen times by now. So have you, probably, whether you wanted to or not. Maybe it presented itself unbidden in your timeline and you couldn’t look away; maybe you sought it in an effort to make sense of the act of violence captured there. Maybe it’s the shooting itself that fascinates you, the physics and logistics of the moment it all went to hell: When did he pull his gun, and why? How fast was the car moving when it struck him—or did it? Which way were the wheels turned?

As for me, I haven’t watched the video of Good’s death anywhere near as many times as I’ve watched the ones in which she’s still alive. Because the part that fascinates me, and haunts me, happens earlier: that final, fleeting moment just before the car moves forward and the shots ring out. It’s the last thing Renee Nicole Good would have heard, apart from the crack of the gun: a familiar voice, raised in a defiant cheer.

“Drive, baby, drive!”

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Kat Rosenfield

Culture writer, novelist, and podcaster. On Twitter at @katrosenfield.

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