Rule of law, or rule of “What group do you belong to?”
Posted by Ed Folsom, January 11, 2026.
Former federal prosecutor Willam Shipley, writing as Shipwrecked Crew, does a solid job demonstrating that the law supports ICE agent Jonathan Ross’s use of force against Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week. His detailed breakdown of the facts and the law can be read on his Substack account here.
The video evidence from the event shows that many of the initial claims made on social media, in the mainstream media, and by politicians, are simply not true.
Good was clearly not a frightened observer merely trying to peacefully drive away from the scene when she was shot. She was smiling and addressed Ross shortly before she put her vehicle in drive and hit the gas.
We were told that Good turned her wheel to drive around Ross, that she did not drive toward him. And we were told that, as a result, Good did not strike Ross with her vehicle. That is simply not true.
Video clearly shows that Good was told by a second ICE officer to get out of her vehicle. She backed up slightly before putting her vehicle in drive, spinning her tires on ice and quickly driving into Ross who was standing directly in front of her vehicle. In the seconds after Good spun her tires, as she ran into Ross and continued past him before driving away down the street, Ross fired three shots. At least one of them was fatal.
We were told that Good couldn’t possibly have presented any threat of death to Ross because she’s a mom who had stuffed animals in her glove box. And when video emerged showing that Good clearly must have driven at Ross, given that she actually hit him, people as eminent as the mayor of Minneapolis pooh-poohed it, saying that she didn’t hit him very hard because he walked away from it (as if Ross could only have been justified if couldn’t walk away).
Shipley’s Substack piece explains the law and why it justifies Ross’s actions. In the course of that, he rebuts a lot that you might have heard said; things like, Ross’s actions were unjustified because: ICE agents have no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens; a law enforcement officers is never justified firing at a moving vehicle; a law enforcement officers is never justified firing at someone who drives at him if the officer put himself in front of the vehicle; an officer is never justified firing at a driver if the officer can jump out of way instead; and Ross had no justification firing shots after he was hit by the vehicle, because any possible risk of harm had passed by then.
Here’s the deal: The people making these arguments, which arguments Shipley rebuts, will continue arguing that Ross was unjustified regardless of the law or of any facts that could possibly emerge. It’s political. All they want you to know is that Good was a mom with a wife who had stuffed animals in her glove box and was there to protest ICE (in fact, to impede them).
Neither the facts nor the law matter at all. All that really matters is that the anti-ICE crowd doesn’t want the people who are in the U.S. illegally to be removed from the U.S., and it’s largely a partisan issue.
The Biden Administration allowed millions upon millions of people into the U.S. illegally. At first, he claimed it wasn’t happening. Then, when it became undeniable, he claimed there was nothing that could be done about it without legislation, legislation that the Democrats ensured would not be enacted so they could blame the continuing influx on Republicans. For whatever reason he did it, he clearly did it on purpose. Pew Research estimated, in 2023, that as a result there were 14 million “unauthorized immigrants” in the U.S. that year.
Now, ICE is aggressively arresting people who are in the country illegally, including in places run by politicians who were solidly down with millions of border crashers illegally entering and staying in the U.S. to begin with. The sanctuary/anti-ICE people don’t want ICE enforcing the law. They want to continue sanctuary policies that allow the people who are here illegally to remain here.
They encourage their fellow travelers to interfere with ICE, whom they call “fascists.” They want to make ICE agents fearful. That’s why they doxx ICE agents – a form of stalking specifically done to create fear – and call them “fascists,” “Gestapo,” and “Nazis.” They want to make ICE agents and the Trump administration so uncomfortable and fearful that they will abandon the arrests and deportations.
The sanctuary anti-ICErs rev-up people like Renee Nicole Good to go forth and stand between ICE and the illegals. Good was one of theirs – good. Ross is one of The Other – bad. The good cannot be bad, so Good is to remain categorically good, no matter what. She’s an LGBTQIA+ mom, resisting the fascists, with stuffed animals in her glove box for crying out loud! All that matters is who she is, not the particulars of what she did on any given day. On the other hand, Ross, being one of the fascists, is thereby guilty. All that matters is who Ross is – a fascist – no matter any particulars and no matter what the law is. And so it will remain, no matter what the evidence shows from here on.
But despite the sanctuary anti-ICErs’ commitment to their tactics, it’s a very bad idea to make law enforcement officers fear for their lives or personal safety, even if you delude yourself into thinking it’s the way to make “fascists” stop doing “fascism.” By law, if you place an officer in reasonable fear that you present an imminent threat to the officer’s own life or to the life of another, the officer doesn’t have to put up with it, no matter what your sense of moral privilege impels you to do. If, in a split-second decision, the officer eliminates the threat with deadly force, the law says you had it coming.
To those whose sheltered life and sense of privilege have shielded them from knowing this, please understand, it’s probably wise to proceed accordingly.
