“Killer Agent Unmasked,” screamed a headline in The Drudge Report. I know, I know, hardly anyone sane reads the Drudge Report anymore. But its headline and accompanying stories did stake out the let’s-see-if-we-can-spark-the-George-Floyd-reboot territory. So did a supremely irresponsible opinion column in The Chicago Tribune, which argued that “every last American” should agree that the shooting death of Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis a few days ago was “an abomination.”

Should they? Was it?

Soon-to-be ex-Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey certainly think so. Walz has been comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo for years. Frey abetted the “fiery but mostly peaceful” burning of Minneapolis in 2020 after George Floyd died of a drug overdose while resisting arrest, and Frey acted entirely according to form in denouncing ICE and Donald Trump in response to the shooting of Good by an ICE agent.

The destructive, anti-American left thought they were getting the band back together. Mobs in various cities have been protesting, harassing, and impeding the lawful activities of ICE. In Minneapolis, mobs are going from hotel to hotel in search of ICE agents, smashing windows, blaring horns, and screaming obscenities.

For just a few days, the city of Minneapolis—and other blue cities across the country—teetered back and forth. Full summer-of-love-smash-everything riots? Or impotent progressive-white-female fury and hysteria, aided by low-testosterone soy boys in the media and ranks of Democrat officeholders?

Right from the beginning, I thought the second option more likely. Why? For one thing, it was winter in a cold city. Protestors prefer warmer temperatures. Then, too, the person shot was a white woman, not a black criminal, so a large quota of the rage would have to be special ordered from the warehouse. There was plenty of rage on hand. But there were also, almost from the beginning, many dissenting voices. Sean Morrison, a Cook County Commissioner, took on the Chicago Tribune in a post on X: “The Chicago Tribune editorial declaring that ‘every last American should agree’ the death of a Minneapolis woman at the hands of a federal immigration agent is an ‘abomination’ is a textbook example of unethical, ideologically driven journalism.”

The Minneapolis Fraternal Order of Police put out a statement saying that they stand with ICE.

[W]hile Federal law enforcement has been doing their job in Minnesota, political and community leaders have condemned and vilified them. The hateful and anti-law enforcement rhetoric by Mayor Frey and other politicians have made their jobs and those of local and state law enforcement more difficult and dangerous. The job of law enforcement is difficult and dangerous enough without the agitation by leaders in our state and communities.

And it wasn’t just Neanderthal pro-Trumpist white males comme moi who were not buying the riot stew. Lots of intelligent, law-abiding blacks also rejected it. See here, for an example, or here, here, or here. And did someone say “double standard”? How about this response:

[W]hen American women were raped and murdered by illegal aliens, Democrats said nothing.

No outrage for Laken Riley.

No outrage for twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

No outrage for Rachel Morin.

No outrage for Dacara Thompson.

Not one word. Not one demand for justice. Not one call for deportation.

But the moment federal law is enforced…

The moment ICE does its job…

The moment a liberal activist interferes and gets hurt…

Now you suddenly there’s outrage.

Democrats don’t speak for Americans.

They speak for criminals, activists, and chaos… while American victims are ignored or have their graves pissed on.

Analysis: true. As one commentator on X put it, “Biggest difference between right and left … No one on the right wishes that woman were dead. The left would be jubilant if she had run over and killed that ICE agent.”

There were two big impediments to the robust formation of anarchy à la Saint Floyd. First, video evidence from the scene of the shooting instantly cast doubt on the destructive left meme that an ICE agent callously shot an “innocent 37-year-old mother of three” (here’s the rest of the story). Renée Good and her “wife” had spent the day harassing ICE agents. Good cheerfully ignored an order to exit her car. Her wife captured the ensuing drama on her phone’s camera. When one agent stepped in front of her car, she briefly reversed, and then, turning her wheels towards the agent, she changed direction. Her wife yells, “Drive, drive!” and Good plows into the agent. Whap, Contact! He is hit. Then three shots rang out.

Good smashed into the agent. Then he shot her. This analysis of the originally released video footage shows what happened. Again, Good wasn’t just impeding ICE; she deliberately drove into the agent, who, in self-defense, shot her. And it is also worth noting that the agent in question had been dragged 100 yards by an illegal migrant in Minnesota last June after his arm was trapped inside the vehicle during a traffic stop. The resulting injuries required 33 stitches.  Not only is Good an implausible martyr/heroine, but the agent in question (whom I forbear to name in the hope of deflecting a bit of the mob’s fury)  is no Derek Chauvin, the officer caught on video restraining George Floyd.  In my view, Chauvin has been monstrously treated, but in agent the case of Renée Good  offers no easy visuals for the media to enlist in a morality melodrama. Tim Walz, Jacob Frey, and others disputed the original video evidence. Then the body cam video from the officer who shot Good was released. The White House made good use of that footage in this little compilation.

The second big impediment to a repeat of George Floyd-style riots is the dawning recognition by the public that, as Elon Musk put it, “The Democrats hate ICE because ICE deports their illegal voting base.” The Somali childless childcare fraud in Minneapolis and elsewhere highlighted this truth. Billions of dollars of taxpayer money went, not to “help the children,” but to buy off illegal immigrants who could then be counted on to vote for Democrats.

In the past, politicians of either party would have caved to the sort of left-wing pressure being brought to bear in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Donald Trump is made of sterner stuff. After news of the Somali fraud broke, he sent 2000 ICE and DHS agents to Minneapolis. After the shooting of Renée Good, he sent 1000 more. Vice President JD Vance put it well: the action of Good and other anti-ICE agitators was “an attack on federal law enforcement; this was an attack on law and order; this was an attack on the American people.” It’s another 80-20 issue. Trump is with the 80 percent. As that old Arab proverb has it: the dogs are barking, but the caravan moves on.