For the life of me can someone explain how things have gotten so out of hand?  Can someone tell me how do we get back to some sense of decency and normalcy?  

I’m curious why things need to be so crazy when it comes to our immigration policies.  Why can’t we hire more ICE agents if necessary and have them do their job calmly without the masks and fear tactics?

I watched the video of the tragedy in Minneapolis where Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent.  No matter If you think the officer acted in self-defense or if he is a cold-blooded murderer can we at least all agree that this was a tragedy?  

A valid argument can be made that the officer acted in self-defense.  We have the luxury of looking at the video in slow motion, frame by frame.  The masked ICE agent didn’t have that luxury.  In the heat of the moment he made a split-second decision. 

I’m willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt and to let the courts decide if he acted properly. 

But I’m not willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Kristi Noem and President Trump for the way they behaved during this. 

I heard about the news the same way you probably did.  I got a notice on my phone.  So, I turned on the cable news networks to get an idea of what was going on.  

Before the networks showed the video or any of the details were known, the head of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem got before the cameras and called the victim a “domestic terrorist.”  

On Renee Good’s social media, she described herself as “poet and writer and wife and mom” Hardly the rhetoric of a domestic terrorist. 

When I saw the video, I saw a woman who probably panicked when ICE agents approached her vehicle and tried to drive away.  If she was trying to hit the officer, she was doing a horrible job.  But as I said we have the luxury of looking at the video and we don’t have to make a split-second decision. 

In the video there is a woman, presumably the person taking the video, who is screaming at the ICE agents after witnessing what had happened.  There’s a good chance you would have done the same thing.

President Trump got on Truth Social and chimed in.  “I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense,” 

He then went on to claim that the ICE officer was lucky to be alive and was recuperating in a hospital.  

Just like Kristi Noem, President Trump’s comments were, if I may use the words of the Minneapolis mayor, “bullshit.”

The shooter walked away from the incident and was quickly whisked away by another agent.  If he was even injured at all it was barely a scratch. Ms. good was not disorderly.  There is no evidence whatsoever the woman screaming was “obviously a paid agitator.” 

Why can’t the president and Ms. Noem act normal and say things like, “the incident is under investigation and that the ICE agent is on administrative leave?”  Why can’t they act decent and offer condolences to the victim’s family? Do they have to attack her? Why accuse a civilian witness of being a paid agitator with absolutely no evidence?  

Speaking of no evidence, without any proof or naming any names, Kristi Noem claimed that the officer in question had been hit and dragged by a vehicle last June. 

You’d think there would be some video of an attack like that.

It’s very possible that the ICE agent thought he was in danger. It’s possible he wasn’t properly trained.  He may not have had any kind of crowd control experience either. Instead of getting in front of or out of the way of a vehicle that wasn’t even aiming for him, he panicked and shot her.  

The death of Renee Good is indeed a tragedy, but the death of normalcy and decency from our leaders and the behavior of ICE agents overall is a tragedy as well.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.