Press Statement on the Killing of U.S. Citizen Renee Good of Minnesota & The Growing Global Alarm Over the Erosion of Law in the United States of America
The Redefining Freedom Center of Virginia is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization. We do not endorse or oppose political candidates or parties. We exist expressly to preserve, protect, and defend freedom, constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and human dignity.
In that regard, the Redefining Freedom Center of Virginia mourns the horrific killing of Renee Good, a 35-year-old mother of three, who was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minnesota after dropping off her six-year-old child.
Based on video evidence now widely available, Ms. Good was turning away and attempting to disengage when federal agents aggressively approached her. She was not attacking an officer, she was not chasing anyone, and the officer who fired the shots was not injured. Ms. Good was shot three times while driving away. She died at the scene.
These are not disputed facts. They are visible reality.
Renee Good received no due process—no charge, no hearing, no trial, no jury, and no opportunity to live. What she received instead was the irreversible application of lethal state power in a moment where restraint and de-escalation were required.
Public efforts by senior national leaders—including the Vice President of the United States, the President, and the Secretary of Homeland Security—to blame Ms. Good for her own death ask the American people to deny what they can plainly see. As George Orwell warned, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
That form of moral inversion has not gone unnoticed.
Leaders within the Catholic Church have publicly condemned the Vice President’s remarks, calling them incompatible with human dignity, the sanctity of life, and fundamental principles of justice. When faith leaders feel compelled to speak, it is not partisanship—it is moral alarm.
That alarm now extends well beyond our borders.
Germany’s head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warned that democracy is “under threat like never before,” citing a profound “rupture of values”—not only by Russia, but by the United States itself. He stated that America has “broken with the values it helped to establish” and cautioned that the erosion of the international order is no longer theoretical but “well advanced.” He warned of a world at risk of becoming “a den of thieves,” where power replaces law, nations are treated as property, and smaller and weaker states are left exposed and unprotected.
France has issued a similar warning. President Emmanuel Macron stated that while the United States remains an established power, it is “gradually turning from some of its allies,” and cautioned that recent events reveal a “real temptation to divide up the world.”
These warnings do not come from adversaries. They come from America’s closest allies—nations shaped by history, deeply invested in democratic norms, and acutely aware of what happens when state power is normalized without accountability.
Let us be clear about the law:
Murder is a state crime.
Federal officers do not enjoy blanket immunity from state criminal law.
States are sovereign, and federal force within them must meet strict constitutional standards.
Lethal force absent imminent threat violates both the rule of law and the moral foundations of a free society.
The normalization of armed federal power without accountability—paired with official narratives that excuse or justify lethal outcomes—moves the nation toward soft martial law, where fear replaces law and force replaces justice.
That is not freedom.
That is not order.
And it is not who we are meant to be.
We therefore call for:
A full, independent state-level criminal investigation and charges where warranted
The public release of all body-camera, dash-camera, and surveillance footage
A clear reaffirmation that no badge, uniform, or federal authority places anyone above the law
Justice for Renee Good will not bring her back to her children. But denying justice will ensure that this happens again—to another mother, another family, another community.
Freedom without due process is not freedom.
Law without accountability is not law.
And a nation that asks its people to deny reality has already crossed a dangerous line.
