Local opinion: This is a time for grief and reconciliation

We all saw the video. We saw the ICE officers run up to Renee Macklin Good’s car and try to yank open the car door (unsuccessfully as the car was in drive), saw the car move slowly forward, saw the ICE agent shoot, saw the gunsmoke when he fired the shots that killed her and saw the car go forward about 100 feet and crash into another vehicle. The driver had been protesting the ICE raids. She was likely killed instantly, shot in the head.

Depending on the angle, videos may give a false impression, but with this one, it is hard to conclude anything other than deliberate murder. The car’s wheels were turned away from the officer in front, not aimed at him. She was apparently trying to leave. The claim that the victim was using her car as a weapon and threatening the life of the officer appears unsustainable. So, with our grief at the killing of this wonderful person, we have the righteous indignation and anger at a citizen being deliberately killed by a government agent.

In the subsequent TV feed of the resultant protests, the reporter interviewed a well-dressed Black gentleman, who, in his Vietnam Veteran’s hat, spoke eloquently about why he was there: When he was sent to Vietnam, he had taken an oath to defend the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and he felt the oath still held. He was there in protest to defend the country and stated emotionally that this type of action sullied all who had served and given their lives to defend the United States of America.

I wept for my country.

Then there was a report that the officer who fired the shots had just six months earlier been dragged 300 feet while holding onto the car of a fleeing sex offender. For anyone in law enforcement or otherwise, this has to be one of the most terrifying events one can experience: You are holding on for dear life, realizing that at any moment you could be dragged under the vehicle and torn to pieces. This report was on Fox News, which I profoundly distrust. But if the report is true, the officer was reliving his worst nightmare when he thought the car was heading for him.

I have no doubt that Renee Macklin Good was terribly frightened and only trying to leave, not to hurt anyone. And I think it is equally likely that the officer truly believed his life was in danger. So we now have a terrified man and a terrified woman, one armed with a gun, one driving a vehicle which could be used as a 5000-pound deadly weapon. And a terrible tragedy occurs. If the officer is a decent human being, and I suspect he is, he has to have been horrified at what happened, at watching a person die as the result of the bullets he fired.

If any good could come from this terrible event, it is perhaps this: that we collectively take a step back and realize that we are all human, with our own limitations and frailties, and can all make terrible mistakes. We can choose not to listen to the voices of hate and division, can choose not to demonize those with whom we profoundly disagree. We can find common ground in our humanity and in our citizenship in the country we all love.