Murder in Minnesota

 Yesterday, ICE apparently shot a woman in the face in cold blood.

They did it in front of witnesses—with cameras rolling. 

Now, the public can see with our own eyes what happened. We see an ICE agent approach the vehicle, swearing profanities, and try to pry open the door. 

We see the car briefly go into reverse, then try to move forward. 

As it does so, another ICE agent fires directly into the windshield. 

The driver was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. She was the mother of a six year old child. 

But, of course, the administration has said she deserved it. They say she brought it on herself. 

The government says the agent fired merely "defensive shots." 

DHS says the victim was a "rioter," who "weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism."

They dare to say this even in the face of the video evidence that we can all see for ourselves. 

But go ahead, DHS—lie. 

Slander the murdered, libel the dead, 

burden your guilt on the innocent dead, [...]

call them 'barbarians,' you who have murdered —as Harry Alan Potamkin once wrote of the Haymarket massacre. 

We all knew this is what you would do. 

We all knew as soon as you viciously smeared an entire ethnic community—Somalis living in Minnesota—and sent in jackbooted thugs to abduct them, that you would create preconditions for murder and violence. 

We all knew that your ICE raids are staged provocations, designed to create spectacles of violence and cruelty, and that it was only a matter of time before someone actually ended up getting shot in the face. 

I said months ago that Trump's deployment of federal troops to American cities resembled nothing so much as the events preceding the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819. 

Now, the massacre has occurred. 

As Shelley wrote of the massacre in his "Masque of Anarchy": 

I met Murder on the way –

He had a mask like Castlereagh –

Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

Seven blood-hounds followed him:

[...]

Next came Fraud, and he had on,

Like Eldon, an ermined gown;

His big tears, for he wept well,

Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

[...]

Clothed with the Bible, as with light,

And the shadows of the night,

Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy

On a crocodile rode by.

[...]

Last came Anarchy: he rode

On a white horse, splashed with blood;

He was pale even to the lips,

Like Death in the Apocalypse.

And he wore a kingly crown;

And in his grasp a sceptre shone;

On his brow this mark I saw –

‘I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!’