Renee Nicole Good was murdered by an agent of the federal government and a fellow human being as she drove in a car with her dog, her wife standing by, having just dropped her child off at school. In the last image we have of her, she seems almost perky as she engages with the agent who will kill her just seconds later.
There were lots of options here for the officer from letting her drive home to recording her license plate to shooting a tire. It takes a lot of raw anger to point a gun in the face of another human being and pull the trigger, only to follow up with a horrible expletive as she lays dying. I heard an adminstration official say that we couldn’t know what was in his mind. I don’t think it’s hard to tell at all what is in his head and his heart.
It takes even more anger and arrogance to immediately blame the dead woman and warn that these kinds of extrajudicial killings might be expected going forward. But, here we are.
Just comply, and you will be fine. Tell that to the many people, mostly black men, who have died because they complied. I think any woman would have hesitated to get out of her car even with friendly folks nearby. She was surrounded by aggressive, heavily armed, masked men. Not a recipe for safety and why many women would choose the bear.
I am tired and angry, feeling helpless and hopeless.
While it is less important in the larger scheme of things, we also lost an icon of the 60s, Bobby Weir. The Grateful Dead has been part of my life and many others for their unique blend of folk, country, rock and psychedelic music.
I wrote about the Dead before, describing their other unique practice of allowing taping of their live shows. Weir discussed it as part of a longer interview with Dan Rather:
The New York Times and Rolling Stone posted their favorite Weir songs. I think I will go with “Cassidy,” his ode to a crew member’s baby named Cassidy and the beat icon, Neal Cassady.
“Fare thee well now
Let your life proceed by its own designs
Nothing to tell now
Let the words be yours, I’m done with mine.”