Americans who remember how an incident in Minneapolis six years ago plunged the whole country into a summer of rioting — then years of elevated criminal violence — should think carefully about where the protests over the death of Renee Good are leading.
Like the killing of George Floyd, Good's tragedy is being exploited for a political purpose, with the radical activists who then called for defunding the police now demanding an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — not only the agency, ICE, but the enforcement of the nation's democratically enacted immigration laws.
It's the protesters' veto, an assertion by activists of a right to cancel laws they don't like.
And it's already cost lives, including Renee Good's.
She was shot and killed by an ICE officer when she drove her car toward him.
Why was she having any interaction with ICE at all?
She wasn't a bystander-she and her wife were activists trying to prevent ICE from doing its job.
"We had whistles, they had guns," Good's widow said in a statement that reveals more than she intended.
Law-enforcement officers are supposed to have guns, after all — they risk their lives when they confront criminals.
But the whistles?
Their purpose is to alert the criminals that law enforcement is approaching.
The Goods had whistles to help illegal immigrants evade officers of the law.
According to ICE spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, the Goods were "stalking" ICE.
Leftist organizations train activists like the Goods to harass and interfere with law enforcement in a variety of ways, including by using vehicles to block their movements.
This "activism" is not only in support of illegal activity, it creates dangerous situations for law-enforcement officers, bystanders and the activists themselves, as Renee Good sadly discovered.
The organizations that train activists to thwart law-enforcement know the risks — in fact, they're part of the plan.
If ICE agents get killed as a result of interference, that's a win in the eyes of those who brand law enforcement as "fascists."
And if bystanders or anti-ICE activists get killed as a result of the activists' meddling, that's a win, too, since it serves to embarrass law enforcement and hurt the agency politically.
Groups that teach people like the Goods how to endanger themselves and others know they can count on sympathetic coverage from much of the media whenever something violent occurs — it's a publicity windfall.
So why would they stop promoting these tactics, even if they get people killed?
If one Renee Good can close schools and conjure up protests against hotels said to be housing ICE agents in Minneapolis, imagine what three or four more martyrs will accomplish.
The only obstacle is the victims have to be sympathetic:
On Jan. 8, an ICE agent in Portland, Oregon, shot two people in a car that tried to run him over — yet inconveniently for anti-ICE activists, the injured duo were illegal immigrants with ties to the Tren de Aragua gang.
Portland Police Chief Bob Day nonetheless broke down crying at a press conference describing the incident, bemoaning "historic injustice of victim blaming."
He knows that in a city as progressive as his, it's politically smarter to side with lawbreakers than with other officers of the law.
Cities like Portland and Minneapolis are hostages to the whims of progressive activists.
The result is a situation that's been called "anarcho-tyranny" — freewheeling anarchy for activists and criminals, tyranny for ordinary citizens who have to pay taxes even though they receive little protection from society's predators.
The political movement that gained momentum from George Floyd's death in 2020 didn't make America safer for people who looked like Floyd.
It only weakened police and subjected Americans of all colors to more violence.
Voters nationwide had several opportunities to register their feelings about that, culminating in the 2024 presidential election, which put Donald Trump back in office with a mandate to enforce the law, especially immigration law.
But what's the use of an election if activists can negate laws simply by hassling and endangering those charged with enforcing them?
For all the liberals' talk about dangers to democracy and the rule of law, they're remarkably complacent about this danger, not only to the law and the democratic process but to people's very lives.
Not police but criminals are obviously the greatest threat to Americans' well-being.
Yet a small number of unelected activists have mastered tactics and publicity techniques that demonize law enforcement while letting illegal immigrants and hoodlums with rap sheets as long as their arms run free.
Activism that abets law-breaking is the moral equivalent of racketeering, and it might meet the legal definition, too.
The only way to prevent more deaths like Renee Good's — and more mayhem like that unleashed by the exploitation of George Floyd's killing — is to stop giving in to activists who think they have a right to resist and obstruct law enforcement.
Daniel McCarthy, a recognized expert on conservative thought, is the editor-in-chief of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. He's also a regular contributor to The Spectator's World edition. He has a long association with The American Conservative, a magazine co-founded by Pat Buchanan. Mr. McCarthy's writings appeared in a variety of publications. He has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN International and other radio and television outlets. Read more of Daniel McCarthy's reports — Click Here Now.