“We are not responsible for the issue. It is not of our seeking. It has been forced upon us; and for the very reason that we deprecate violence and abhor bloodshed we cannot desert our comrades and allow them to be put to death. If they can be murdered without cause, so can we, and so will we be dealt with at the pleasure of these tyrants.” —Hoosier socialist Eugene V. Debs in “Arouse, Ye Slaves!” (March 10, 1906)
On the morning of January 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good in the streets of Minneapolis. Renee Good was a Midwesterner. A wife, a mother of three, a queer woman, and a poet. The stuffed animals her child played with were in her glovebox, so many that it couldn’t be fully closed.
Renee’s vehicle was surrounded by ICE agents, and she was given conflicting commands by armed officers with guns trained on her. When she started to drive away, she was murdered. The violence of these officers is despicable, criminal, and indefensible. Since the widespread deployment of ICE across America last year in a reckless and xenophobic policy of terror against the working class, she is at least the fifth victim to die at the hands of these incompetent and violent agents of the state.
By the end of the day, thousands of Minnesotans had taken to the streets to demand that ICE leave and stop their tyrannical horror show. Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America stands in solidarity with the targets of ICE’s brutality and grieves alongside the victims of this unfolding tragedy. We condemn this administration’s horrific abuse of all those in this nation, regardless of their citizenship status.
The members of Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America mourn with the community of Minneapolis and demand that:
- ICE which terrorizes our neighborhoods and makes everyone, regardless of citizenship status, less safe, be abolished
- United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kirsti Noem be impeached, removed from office, and face criminal charges for the constitutional violations of this agency
- Murderous police and ICE officers be held legally accountable
- Police nationwide be de-funded and de-militarized
But in the face of the worst of circumstances, the best of humanity always appears. We refuse to lose hope for a finer world and will continue to demand it, provide mutual aid to those in need, comfort to those who suffer, and resistance to those who would harm humanity. Progress can and must come from those of us who will not forget and who will not bend to attempts to silence us. We may be broken-hearted today, but our spirits will not be shattered.
“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.”—Hoosier socialist Kurt Vonnegut in The Sirens of Titan (1959)
Contributing authors:
Justin Anthony Knapp
Dan A.