Videos of Good’s Shooting
Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot to death in her SUV by a masked ICE agent on Jan. 7. Within hours, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Good of being a domestic terrorist and defended the shooting as an act of self-defense. Trump added that she “viciously ran over the ICE Officer”. However, cell phone videos have completely debunked these claims. Good did nothing to provoke the agent, who shot her three times while she attempted to flee the scene. Noem, Trump and Vance have since doubled down on their egregious lies. Persons who knew Good have described her as kind, generous, and apolitical. Nevertheless, the Justice Department has shifted its investigation from the agent who shot Good to her widowed wife, who recorded one of the videos, the Mayor of Minneapolis, and the Governor of Minnesota.
Trump and his officials are using a tactic known as DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. Psychologist Jennifer Freyd coined the term when she was studying the behavior of sexual assault offenders, who are often narcissistic and sociopathic. She found that DARVO is very effective at self-silencing the victims and discrediting their claims. The tactic is very effective because ordinary people with some sense of decency have difficulty believing that an offender could lie and falsely attack their victims so brazenly. However, Freyd’s research has also shown that ordinary people are less likely to be fooled by an offender if they are educated about DARVO beforehand.
Trump has used DARVO repeatedly over his lifetime on hundreds of individuals, including E Jean Carroll, James Comey, Jack Smith, several Democratic politicians, and even the Democratic Party, accusing it of stealing elections and weaponizing the government against him. However, most of his offenses have been offset by a steady stream of right-wing disinformation and have not been directly observable. Hopefully, this clearly documented ICE murder will open the eyes of enough ordinary people to finally have an impact.
This tyrannical administration must be removed and held to full account. Only then can we start repairing our badly damaged democracy.