By: NAACP Detroit Branch President Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony
DETROIT – As a student at Detroit’s Central High School, “1984” by George Orwell, was required reading. At the time it struck me purely as a figment of someone’s wild imagination. It could never happen here. The main points of the book reflect a dangerous totalitarian government in a place called Oceania. The government used propaganda, psychological manipulation, surveillance, and intimidation to control every area of the lives of its citizens. Big Brother, the government enforcer, is used to control the very thoughts of the people. In 2026, it is no longer a figment of someone’s imagination. It is now in our home called America. The recent killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, mother of three children, in Minneapolis by Jonathan Ross, a member of ICE’s Special Response Team, provides a key example.
The Trump Administration, led by Vice President JD Vance, is clearly engaging in psychological manipulation.
In other words, to the American public, do not believe what your lying ears hear and totally disregard what you lying eyes see. Do not believe that you saw a woman sitting in a vehicle, whose car door was being forcibly pulled on by a masked, camouflaged intimidator. You did not see her smiling while waiving other cars to drive past as she sat in the road. You did not see her turn her vehicle to the right, away from ICE agents to escape the area. The world really didn’t see an overzealous ICE agent with a cell phone in his left hand and pulling a handgun with his right hand, firing at point blank range, striking her in the head, taking her life.
What the community saw instead, according to Big Brother, were ICE agents peacefully helping a colleagues car out of a snowbank. All of a sudden a Domestic Terrorist weaponized her car, driving towards the agents to ram them. Big Brother then indicates an ICE agent was fearful for his life and fired three shots into the vehicle to defend himself. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and the number one critical advisor on immigration policy and expert on how to keep Americans in check Stephen Miller, both agree that this was an act of Domestic Terrorism.
Vice President JD Vance said, “The woman is dead because she tried to ram somebody with her car and that guy acted in self-defense, and that the agent is protected by absolute or total immunity from prosecution.” The ICE agent is treated like a heroic defender of law and order. Renee Good was not a terrorist, activist, or radical left-winger. According to her family, she was a dedicated Christian, people person, and was not a participant in marches or protests. She had just dropped her six-year-old off at school. It was discovered that her car was filled with stuffed animals in the glove compartment.
This same Big Brother on the fifth anniversary, January 6, 2021, of the insurrection led by Trumplicans in their attack upon the nation’s capital defended the actions of rioter Ashli Babbitt. Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through a broken window in the capital, heading towards the hiding members of Congress. She was warned several times to get back and not to enter. She was shot by a capital police officer during this process. Following the attack upon the capital, after police officers were beaten, pepper sprayed, one officer killed, four others committed suicide, President Trump, not known for his empathy or sympathy, said, “The person that shot Ashli Babbitt, – boom – right through the head – just boom – , there was no reason for this. She was an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman.”
President Trump went on to say, “She was murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun. She truly loved America and represents far more people than most of the politicians in America.” What a miraculous turnaround. This is psychological manipulation and political propaganda at the highest level. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly. That is bullshit.” Quite frankly it stinks so bad, we can smell it all over the country wherever ICE has been unleashed to wreak havoc on American citizens.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, while adorned in a cowboy hat as if she was getting ready to appear on the set of Gunsmoke, said, “An officer of ours acted quickly, and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.” As we say in the community, don’t go for the okie doke. ICE is not bringing law and order to our cities. ICE is creating disorder throughout our cities, from California to Chicago to Memphis. They have been more destructive than constructive. You cannot create law and order in a community by sowing the seeds of disrespect, human rights violations, while maintaining a lack of transparency with the citizens. FBI Director Kash Patel has now indicated the FBI is taking over the entire investigation into what happened in Minneapolis.
Yet the President, Vice President, and Secretary of Homeland Security have already indicated without any investigation this was a justified killing. Having this justice department to investigate itself is tantamount to inviting the Klu Klux Klan to investigate a lynching. You cannot create trust when you ban the local law enforcement agencies from participating in the investigation. The Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Investigation, charged with such investigations of this type, have been banned from participating in the process.
One of the reasons the city of Detroit has maintained its stability and cooperation between the community and the police department is because of the trust, cooperation, and transparency between both police and citizens. Detroit is no longer a city under STRESS, an old entity identified as Stop the Robberies Enjoy Safe Streets, or the Big Four, who would ride down abusing citizens like ICE is today. Working with gang members, community residents, non-profits, faith based and community violence prevention organizations has resulted in a bridge that has taken years to construct. It is important to have leadership committed to the community and to principle, not power. Our nation, under its current leadership, appears to have a hard heart and a frozen spirit. Unfortunately, this will not be the last of the unnecessary and vicious killings.
ICE is but a symptom of this winter that has come over America. We are not a hopeless or helpless people. As long as the people have SALT (Strength, Accountability, Legality, and Tenacity), we can melt the ICE, now spreading throughout our country. But even more important than melting ICE is to change this current regime from one that wreaks of domestic intimidation to a government committed to people appreciation. If we do this, then we can truly have a real government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
