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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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A woman in Minneapolis has been killed in an altercation with ICE. I don’t really trust any of the narratives being spun up. Here are two three angles:

Angle 1

Angle 2 [Twitter] [youtube]

Angle 3 (Emerged as I was writing this)

This is actually a fairly discussed type of shooting. Law enforcement confronts a person in a vehicle, the LEO positions himself in front of the vehicle, the person in the vehicle drives forward, and the cop shoots the person. Generally, courts have found that this is a legitimate shoot. The idea being that a car can be as deadly a weapon as anything.

Those who are less inclined to give deference to law enforcement argue that fleeing the police shouldn’t be a death sentence, and that usually in these situations the LEO has put himself in front of the vehicle.

I have a long history of discussing shooters in self-defense situations [1] [2] [3] and also one of being anti-LEO. However, I’m softer on the anti-LEO front in the sense that within the paradigm in which we exist, most people think the state should enforce laws, and that the state enforcing laws = violence.

The slippery slope for me: “Fleeing police shouldn’t be a death sentence”

“Resisting arrest shouldn’t be a death sentence”

“If you just resist hard enough, you should be able to get away with it”

People really try to divorce the violence from state action, but the state doesn’t exist without it.

This is exactly the kind of situation I was afraid of when ICE started running amok in states where they aren't wanted. I don't see how it can be a "narrative" when we point out that the thing happened that we warned would happen. Giving a paramilitary organization the power to make people disappear without due process was always a recipe for disaster. These ICE agents now appear to be so power-drunk that they are shooting unarmed white women, something normal cops very rarely do.

From what I can see in the video, the ICE agent chose to put himself in front of the SUV to block the woman from leaving. Then she called his bluff and began driving anyway. At that point, shooting her made no difference in his ability to survive the situation. Even if she were killed instantly by a headshot, the car would still have the same amount of momentum when it hit the officer. If anything, he could have gotten out of the way faster if he weren't dealing with his gun. I don't see any justification here.

  • -19

Giving a paramilitary organization the power to make people disappear without due process

These histrionics are embarrassing.

A more neutral and truthful way to describe was ICE does is "arrest and deport illegal immigrants in accordance with existing law." They're not a paramilitary organization, they don't "disappear" people, and deportees get all the due process they are afforded by US law.

They sometimes deport legal immigrants not in accordance with the law though.

Do they? How often? Based on what I see, it happens virtually never and leftists are just straight up lying about it for dramatic effect.

I don't know how often. But I've read about it a few times in the news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/supreme-court-kilmar-abrego-garcia-1.7507521

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuelan-brother-deported-el-salvador-family-looking-rcna202279

There are more, but these are the two I remember best.

Neither of the cases you posted involved legal immigrants.

The first one had a court order preventing his deportation. The second one was invited into the country to attend an immigration hearing.

Neither was a legal immigrant.

More comments

Sure, I'll grant the premise. In that case you might say "deporting people in contravention of the law." They still aren't "disappearing" people.

If they arrest someone and don't bring them before a judge upon request as they are legally required to do and don't allow them to contact anyone on the outside and don't tell their family members where they are when asked, that is disappearing people, even if they eventually show up again.