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“That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
Those were Renee Nicole Macklin Good’s final words before she was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week. The video leaves no ambiguity. This was state violence.
This killing reflects Step 7 in the 10 Steps to Autocracy and Authoritarianism: the use of force to silence resistance. The message is clear: comply, do not protest, or face deadly consequences.
To normalize what happened, the Republican authoritarian regime followed a familiar script: mislabel, mislead, misdirect.
Renee was stripped of her humanity. We are told not to see a mother, a wife, a U.S. citizen, but a threat—recast through the language of immigration. That framing works only because we have already tolerated the dehumanization of migrants.
Then comes the lie: blame the victim, doubt the video, offer excuses. This is not an isolated incident. Renee joins a growing list of deaths tied to this administration’s mass deportation campaign.
The misdirection is the most dangerous part. The United States now operates a masked, armed paramilitary that assumes it can act with impunity. Lethal force has become an acceptable tool of governance.
We watched Renee Macklin die. The question is what we do next.
Protests matter, but they are not enough. Action must follow. Local governments must refuse cooperation with ICE raids and publicly condemn this violence. State legislators must put bans and legal challenges on the record. Congress must stop funding the machinery that makes these killings possible.
They will call this unpatriotic. It is not. Civil disobedience is how this country was born, and how democracy is defended.
We talk about this and much more on this week’s episode of our podcast Assembly Required, with NYU Law Professor and Strict Scrutiny host Melissa Murray. I hope you’ll tune in ⬇️
Missed it? Watch now!
This week we also had a great conversation right here on Substack with Professor Timothy Snyder. He gave us some concrete actions we can take right now to resist the Trump regime’s actions. Couldn’t make it? Watch below ⬇️
And there’s more…
I had a wonderful conversation with Emily Farallon and Misha Collins for their Substack The AnteSocial by eM&M. We talked about authoritarianism, the importance of media, and why joyful resistance is crucial.
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