I was tempted to blog about this yesterday, but I thought it best not to have a knee jerk reaction. I thought I should wait twenty-four hours after the shooting in Minneapolis before I put my thoughts in writing.

I hoped someone in the Trump Administration would step forth and speak with restraint and a modicum of wisdom. I did not expect it, so I was not surprised when Wednesday’s lies, accusations, and name calling continued for a second day.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem showed up dressed appropriately yesterday for a news conference about the killing of a 37-year-old American citizen by an ICE Agent. That was refreshing after we had to see her in a cowgirl outfit – perhaps her Halloween costume – when she spoke from Brownsville, Texas, about the incident a couple of hours after it occurred on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Noem said the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday was “standard operating procedure.” She once again labeled Ms. Good “a domestic terrorist.”

Shooting the driver of a moving vehicle does not seem to me to ever be a wise choice, but I am not a trained law enforcement officer. Perhaps Ms. Good felt her life was threatened by the masked officer who approached her car using profanity, tried to open her car door, and then stuck his arm through the opened car window. We will never know what was in her mind, since she was shot in the face and killed.

A nearby physician requested access to Ms. Good as she bled out in her car, but he was denied the fulfilling of his obligation as a medical doctor by the ICE agents. It has been reported that she did not receive medical attention for more than ten minutes.

Secretary Noem said the officer who shot Ms. Good was following his training.

All this is being said by the Trump Administration before the incident is investigated. In fact, Noem said the officer was within his rights, was following his training, and the woman who was shot was the instigator. In other words, she got what she deserved.

Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance blamed the “left wing lunatic fringe” for the shooting of Renee Good. He said, “It was a tragedy of her own making.” He said the ICE agent was “just doing his job.” He hinted that Democrats are funding the peaceful protests. He verbally attacked journalists for falling for the lies of the “lunatic fringe” on the left.

It sounds like the Trump Administration sits as law enforcement, prosecutor, witness, judge, and jury in this case. This is unconstitutional.

When a law enforcement officer in the United States is involved in a shooting, it is standard operating procedure for that officer to be removed from on-the-street duties until a full investigation can be conducted by a separate law enforcement organization.

It has been my experience that even local law enforcement officials know that. It is very telling that the top level of law enforcement in the United States is thumbing its nose at that commonly accepted – and commonly expected – practice. What federal officials should be saying is, “We cannot comment on the details of the incident because it is under investigation.”

However, what Secretary Noem has said is that the dead victim is going to be investigated. Apparently, her ICE agent will not be investigated.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that the Trump Administration has denied the State of Minnesota the right to investigate the incident.

I believe the Trump Administration and, by association and blind allegiance, the Republican Party, have lost sight of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Americans have a constitutional right to peacefully protest. No one pays us to voice our opinions!

No one pays me to write my blog posts. I have a constitutional right to write my blog and express my opinions. It is beyond tragic that the Trump Administration and the Republican Party, which remains in lock-step with Trump, have completely lost sight of the First Amendment. They are obsessed with the Second Amendment, and they want us to forget the rest of them – especially the First one.

We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.

New Assistant U.S. Attorney General position

Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance announced we will have a new U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Fraud. This person has been guaranteed confirmation by the U.S. Senate by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this announcement was that this person will work in the White House and answer to the President and the Vice President.

That, my fellow citizens, is a dangerous precedent-setting action to blatantly announce that the U.S. Department of Justice is now officially a political arm of the U.S. President. It should send a chill down the spine of every American.

We have known since January 20, 2025, that Trump considers the U.S. Justice Department “his” Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his personal attorney. But what Vice President Vance did yesterday was announce to all the world that what they have in practice demonstrated for a year is exactly what they believe and they believe they have the right to control and dictate the actions of the U.S. Department of Justice.

If the U.S. Congress does not stop them, the U.S. Constitution be damned.

In conclusion

I am writing this blog post mid-afternoon on Thursday, January 8 to be posted on the morning of January 9.

I hope there will be a fair and honest investigation to the shooting in Minneapolis, but I do not expect one as long as Trump is President.

It bears repeating: We will not be silenced. And we are not being paid to voice our opinions.

Janet

P.S. I thank Pat, one of my blog readers for bring it to my attention that I gave the wrong date in my blog post yesterday (“Go fight, Johnny!” – historical short story) for the Battle of Kings Mountain. I stated that the battle occurred on October 17, 1780, but it actually took place on October 7, 1780. Much to my embarrassment, I then realized that I picked up the wrong date in my blog post because I have the incorrect date in Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. My apologies to my readers, and my thanks to Pat for having a sharp eye and for bringing this error to my attention. It just goes to show that even if you proofread a book’s manuscript eight times, you will still not catch all your errors.

J