CBP SOP And The Last Act Of The Play

 Same as it ever was:

"It is suspected that in many vehicle shooting cases, the subject driver was attempting to flee from the agents who intentionally put themselves into the exit path of the vehicle, thereby exposing themselves to additional risk and creating justification for the use of deadly force,” stated that report, which was commissioned more than a decade ago by CBP.

The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good on Wednesday morning by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has ramped up new scrutiny of tactics and training of immigration officers as President Donald Trump undertakes a mass deportation action across the country.

"Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said the ICE officer [who has been identified as Jonathan Ross] 'followed his training' and accused Good of trying to run him over," the Washington Post reported this week. "The SUV did move toward Ross as he stood in front of it, according to a Post analysis of video footage. But he moved out of the way and fired at least two of three shots from the side of the vehicle as it veered past him, the analysis found. Available videos of the incident reviewed by The Post do not show clearly if Good’s SUV made contact with Ross."

A Border Patrol agent shot and wounded two alleged gang associates Thursday afternoon in Portland after authorities said they attempted to run over the officer with their vehicle, and the driver has been charged with aggravated assault of a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

The 2014 report was based on a review of 67 cases from 2010 to 2012 conducted by the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum, and the Los Angeles Times obtained the CBP's 23-page response.

"The response rejects the two major recommendations: barring border agents from shooting at vehicles unless its occupants are trying to kill them, and barring agents from shooting people who throw things that can’t cause serious physical injury," the newspaper reported. "If drug smugglers knew border agents were not allowed to shoot at their vehicles, it argues, more drivers would try to run over agents."

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who had recently been tapped by Barack Obama for the job, said at the time he would reconsider those recommendations, but Mexican authorities had for years complained that border agents who killed Mexicans were rarely disciplined and investigative findings were buried.

“There needs to be a level of accountability if you want to change the culture and the pattern,” said Christopher Wilson, an expert on U.S.-Mexico relations at the Woodrow Wilson Center, more than a decade ago. “People are being killed that don’t need to be killed.”

CBP sez:

1) We gotta be able to shoot people in cars.

2) We gotta be able to hurt people who say mean things about us.

3)  And we gotta be able to do this with impunity.

Shorter CBP: “We can use deadly force whenever the fuck we want. You wanna fuck around and find out? Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

Mike Johnson on Renee Good: "This woman was taunting ICE officers. She was impeding law enforcement. She was violating a number of laws. They were very patient ... what I saw was she hit the accelerator and hit the ICE officer and he reacted in a split second." pic.twitter.com/79vbIhaboV

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 13, 2026

It turns out Trump couldn’t shoot someone on 5th Avenue in broad daylight and get away with it.

This is going to be the stain on his administration that won’t wash out. Everything else was inchoate and general: COVID,, his utter incompetence handling it. Even immigrant children in cages, or weeping as they were separated from their mothers. Lost in time, like  tears in rain. And who knew them; or even their names?

But a young, white (yes, sadly, it matters. We all know it does.) mother in Minneapolis? We know her name. We know her wife’s name. We know she had stuffed animals in the glove compartment of her “weapon.” We know what her last words were. This is beyond concrete. It is real.

And Trump won’t allow it to be investigated, or allow anyone else to investigate it. This is the true constitutional crisis we were warned about. ICE cleared the crime scene of any evidence. There are reports ICE agents cleared the shooter’s house of evidence, too. Anything that might be used against him. All we have are videos.

Ask Rodney King how much good video evidence did in the police brutality trial.

This is not going to disappear down the memory hole. And the “Who are you gonna believe? Me? Or your lyin’ eyes?” defense, is not going to work. The only upside is, fear of public opinion is not going to work to sway public opinion.

You can’t shoot a young, white woman to death in her car on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight and get away with it. Well, the shooter will, but that’s the crisis. Trump wants to try this case in the court of public opinion, never in a court of law. However, Trump has called the tune, and he will have to pay the piper.

His Presidency is over. This level of desperation less than a full year in, marks that. Venezuela was a half-assed attempt at a coup, dignified as serving an arrest warrant. Trump may be pissed at the oil majors who didn’t bring him gifts like Cooke and Bezos and Zuckerberg did earlier; or at least show an interest in his ballroom. But that cost those three nothing, and they reaped benefits for it. Trump is asking the oil companies to buy his bullshit and polish his newest turd; and they declined the offer. Trump thought his shit don’t stink. They told him shit was all he had, and they weren’t in the market.

And now what? He’s going to kill Iranians because the government is killing protesters? Is nobody else seeing the irony? The Administration even says Trump is so serious about protecting free speech they may throw a hissy fit if Britain sanctions “X” for letting Grok continue to churn out kiddie porn and regular “let’s stare at naked wimmen” porn. Does nobody else see this new found free speech absolutism just a little too ironic? Don’t you think?

But Trump says Rachel Good was very rude; and apparently that’s a capital offense now. A offense so serious the only investigation warranted, is into her.

Yeah. This is gonna go over like a flash flood in a Fizzies factory (even Siri doesn’t recognize that word. It really is hell getting old.). And defending Grok’s porn is not making us forget the Epstein files. If anything, that draws attention back to them. They are like chaos for the ancient Greeks: Trump may think his words suppress them from attention. But it’s a long time to November, and Trump’s words can’t keep Epstein suppressed forever. Anymore than the chaos of his presidency can distract from the chaos waiting in the wings. The Epstein files are like Chekhov’s gun: we all know it’s going to go off. We’re just waiting for the inevitable final Act, when it does.

And the sad part is: most of this is very old news, indeed. Trump is really just showing us how mean and nasty the government we benefit from, really is.  Which is going to make the electorate shoot the messenger. 

But it won’t stop us from eating the sausage.