Ashli Babbitt courted death and found it. Renee Good found it by accident.

In an encounter with police, it is best to do what they say. And watch your attitude. 

In ambiguous cases, the law enforcement officer gets the benefit of the doubt. 

On January 6, 2021 Ashli Babbitt was part of a mob bashing in the window and locked door outside the U.S. House of Representatives chamber. The mob was warned to stop. They had begun to breach the barrier. Babbitt was at the broken window, making her one of the first to enter had she not been killed.

The fact that the mob's intention was to stop certification of a presidential election is irrelevant to the validity of her being killed. Relevant is that a mob was attempting to enter a secure area, and that an armed law enforcement officer with the duty to protect people was present.

Of course he used his weapon. Why else are guards armed? 

I presume that any time people break locked barriers to enter a place secured by armed guards they run the risk being killed. That goes for courthouses, banks, airports, police stations, schools, and the Capitol. 

I challenge any reader who thinks that Ashli Babbitt should not have been shot to gather a group of 20 people and break into the interior rooms of your local police station, shouting that your group demands entry because the police chief is a traitor to the country. See how far you get. Or try this at a bank with armed guards getting delivery from an armored truck. 

Or, in the other direction, imagine your child is sheltering in a locked classroom at Uvalde, Texas, and an armed guard is inside with the children. An angry mob is breaking through the door shouting that they want take your children hostage. Wouldn't you expect the guard to use deadly force if warnings were not heeded?

The case of Renee Good is different. Again, the cause she cared about is irrelevant. Her disorderly conduct, having parked her car sideways in the street, isn't relevant either. What is relevant is that her car moved forward toward the officer when he shot her. Police are trained not to stand in front of cars in confrontations, but he was careless -- or perhaps intentional. The encounter was sloppy. The officers may have given contradictory instructions, both to move the car out of the street and to get out of the car. The officer was standing at the front corner of her car, and it moved forward. He had a colorable claim of fear for his life.

The claim of self defense may be utter pretext but the benefit of the doubt goes to the law enforcement officer. The moving car provides scaffolding for Trump's inventions about the car ramming the officer, the officer being dragged down the street and hospitalized. President Trump said  Renee Good was a terrorist and the officer a hero.

The officer filmed the event with his left hand while shooting with his right. An ICE officer having been overheard saying "fucking bitch" -- along with an officer positioning himself at the front corner of the car, against good police protocol -- suggests ICE officers may have been seeking confrontation with a hostile mindset.

I don't know the shooter's motives, but the administration's motives are proudly announced. They want to show they are tough on immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. They are doing so with conspicuous roughness and arbitrariness, while openly confronting anti-ICE protesters. This sets up a perfect political frame for Trump. Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise to rid the country of unwanted immigrants, doing so by making  their being in the U.S. unpleasant and dangerous. It is strategy and policy. Better for them to self-deport. The frame gives Trump a good antagonist: people he can call "domestic terrorists."

Renee Good stumbled into a campaign commercial. Because this political theater was live and improvised, the political optics are good for Trump, but not ideal. She appears to have been trying to leave, tires turned right, instead of a better story of her aiming at a helpless officer. That is inconvenient for Trump's narrative, but she moved forward, which is good enough. Her last words heard on video were kind ones, "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." That is inconvenient for Trump's narrative. Still, she moved her car forward.

An ICE officer's "fucking bitch" comment is a mixed signal for Trump's purposes. Probably some MAGA women won't like hearing that. Renee Good isn't entirely unsympathetic, even to people who see the event with MAGA eyes. But misogyny is part of the Trump story, and a tough armed man not "taking shit" from a woman is on-brand for Trump. The words are crude and contemptuous, but Trump is OK voicing crude contempt of Democratic women. Trump demonstrates that the era of polite wokeness is over. 

In both cases, the shots fired were messages. The shot through the broken window at the Capitol was a message of "Stop. I am defending House members. Heed my command." The mob stopped. It was a good and necessary message. 

The shots that killed Renee Good were a message of "We can rough up and kill immigrants and anyone who tries to stop us." This administration can indeed get away with it. The people who don't like this reality are "fucking bitches" getting what they deserve. I think this message is dangerous, but Trump likes it.

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