WARMINGTON: Despite sad outcome, ICE not to blame in Minneapolis

If you run your vehicle toward a police officer who has his gun out of holster, you are going to get shot.

Every time. Especially when up to four Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were surrounding said vehicle with the instructions to “stop the car.”

According to the Department of Homeland Security, it’s alleged that this driver in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday not only did not stop the car but reversed it and then put it back in drive and revved the engine in an effort to flee. Video shows the officer with the gun nearly being struck as he fired on the driver.

People trying to start civil war

The car crashed a few dozen metres away and the driver is dead.

Right away, the political crowd is out in full force attempting to stir things up.

“This is the Kent State of our time,” wrote political commentator Keith Olbermann on social-media platform X, adding in another post “this is murder.”

What this was was attempted murder — and it seems the police officers were the alleged victims.

The police officer merely took out the threat of someone armed with a vehicle and allegedly utilizing it against law enforcement who had given instructions to the driver that were not being followed.

It has to be said because with some tying to get a civil war started or create a national crisis to halt President Donald J. Trump’s tough stand on immigration, the basic facts can’t be swept under the carpet.

Trump supports officers

And it was appropriate that the president dive right in and defend these officers — as he did in a post on his own Truth Social Platform.

“I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense,” wrote Trump, who added “based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.”

You can’t drive your car toward a police officer and then blame others for the outcome.

But much blame seems to be coming in.

“On tape, a federal agent in Minneapolis using deadly force against an unarmed woman trying to flee a confrontation between ICE agents and protesters,” wrote legendary American journalist Geraldo Rivera. “The agent appears to shoot the driver at point blank range, killing her. DHS says the agent was justified to use deadly force as self-defense. Perhaps they should investigate before they spew bulls—. It’s all on tape.”

What he doesn’t mention is the part about the car travelling directly toward the officer, and that an officer was at the driver’s side door as well. Many police officers have been killed in similar scenarios.

It’s highly dangerous.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also weighed in, saying people should not “believe the propaganda.”

Olbermann calls it this era’s “Kent State.”

However, it doesn’t matter what the stop was for or what someone’s political views are, when the police tell you to stop the car, if you don’t, you are on your own with what happens next. That’s not new.

In Ontario, officer would likely be cleared

We have seen this in Ontario on numerous occasions and the police typically get cleared by the SIU. One case that comes to mind is in Peel Region six years ago to the day — Jan. 7, 2020.

At 7:44 p.m. at Southampton Dr. and Aquinas Ave. in Mississauga an attempted arrest of Jamal Francique on alleged weapons breaches went wrong when the suspect managed to get back into his blue Acura and, as the SIU said, “when officers approached the vehicle, he drove at them.”

An officer shot the driver through the windshield. Francique was shot in the face and later died in hospital.

In his ruling, SIU director Joseph Martino cleared the officers on the scene, saying “pursuant to section 25(1) of the Criminal Code, police officers are immune from criminal liability for force used in the course of their duties provided such force was reasonably necessary in the execution of an act that they were authorized or required to do by law.”

He added: “I am unable to reasonably conclude” that “lethal force fell outside the limits of legal justification” and the subject officer “in my view, was engaged in the lawful execution of his duties when he participated in an operation aimed at arresting Mr. Francique.”

Of course, none of this is pretty. Horrific, actually. But it’s real. People in Peel protested and even vandalized the police memorial. But it does not change the fact that police officers are within their rights to protect themselves, their peers and the community.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Stop when they say stop

And that’s what the officer in Minneapolis did. If the cops tell you to stop, you stop. No matter how important, connected or targeted you feel you are. You are on your own if you don’t.

Now if this had have happened in Ontario, it would automatically be reviewed by the SIU. It might be different in Minnesota because of the politics at play, but at first blush, the ICE officers did their jobs here and should not face any charges as people like Olbermann and Rivera would like to see.

That said, it’s brutal that this happened and another reminder that people need to dial down the hatred of each other and hold their tempers.

And when police tell you to not resist, listen. If you do resist, it may end up being a fatal mistake.