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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   33064 thread views

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.

  • -20

Then she called his bluff and began driving anyway

It clearly wasn’t a bluff. As I said to another poster, “you’re allowed to obstruct and then flee as long as you’re reckless about it” is not a stable status quo. “Resisting arrest and ignoring the authority of detaining officers will get you shot”, is.

Complying with the police is how you stay alive and fleeing the scene / believing your car is “base” that you are allowed to plow forward is how you get shot. I can’t comprehend how it could be any other way. It’s the very belief that you are allowed to flee that is creating these outcomes.

I mean, I don't really agree with either person's decision-making here. I wouldn't have stepped in front of a running car as means of "stopping" it. I also wouldn't have tried to drive away if I were being arrested. And if I was standing in front of a moving car, I would prioritize jumping out of the way rather than shooting the driver, given how newtonian mechanics work.

So I agree that this woman's poor decisions got her shot, but that doesn't necessarily mean the officer is innocent. At best, he made a blunder that put himself in a position where he "needed" to use deadly force. But I think even that is debatable, because shooting the driver really has nothing to do with why he survived. He survived because he got out of the way of the car. He essentially shot the driver to stop her from escaping, which is questionable.

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