Category: Minneapolis
From ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ to ‘drive, baby, drive’
The shooting death of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has quickly become a rallying point in the broader political battle over immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
It should also be a lesson for the rest of us to wait for all the facts before making judgments and especially to beware of media narratives that try to simplify complicated events.
When journalists and commentators repeat an unverified transcription as fact, they do more than simplify a complex event. They create a moral narrative that can endanger real people.
Videos of the shooting, which took place on January 7, have been widely circulated, including one taken by Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fired the fatal shot. You would think that since the shooting, or the circumstances surrounding it, are on video, it would be easy to determine responsibility for Good’s death.
But instead, we have evidence once again that eyewitnesses — in this case all of us who have watched the videos — cannot be depended upon to get the story straight.
I am talking in particular about the near-universally repeated narrative that Good’s wife, Becca, shouted, “Drive, baby, drive!” in the split second before Good was killed. The phrase appears to have traveled with early write-ups of the Alpha News-distributed agent-perspective video, then hardened into “fact” as larger outlets repeated it. That goes for everyone from right-wing Just the News (“Drive, baby! Drive, drive!”) to left-wing CNN (the more common “Drive, baby, drive!”).
From the time I first read this representation, I began publicly questioning the interpretation by posting comments online. I’ve listened to the audio hundreds of times by now, and there is no way I can hear those words. Instead, I watch Becca Good hear an officer shout, “Get out of the f**king car” at her wife, try the passenger door handle and realize it is locked, and then recognize that Renee is preparing to accelerate. At that point, she screams either “Do not drive!” or more likely “Don’t drive!”
Not only do the words fit the audio pattern better, but they also make more sense as a response to the circumstances. Yet throughout the media, everyone repeats the “drive, baby, drive” narrative without any hesitation. I later heard commentator Megyn Kelly argue that Becca Good should be arrested — even suggesting felony liability — based on the assumption that she urged her wife to flee.
Kelly went so far as to say that Becca Good should be in custody now, but that claim depends entirely on a transcription that may not be accurate. What if the wife never even said, “drive, baby, drive” at all? What if it was all just a media invention?
It’s not like that has never happened before. Do you remember “hands up, don’t shoot”?
That was the media narrative to describe the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, policeman in 2014. The progressive left picked up the battle cry and accused Officer Darren Wilson of killing the teenager while he was in the act of surrender.
It wasn’t true, but it took weeks for the truth to come out — that Brown had approached Wilson in his patrol car and tried to wrestle the officer’s gun away from him. Shooting Brown was the only way for Wilson to protect himself and others. Yet because of the media narrative, Wilson was put in danger of arrest and of worse — as angry mobs in Ferguson sought justice based on a fairy tale.
Now, 12 years later, another shorthand narrative was out of control. Unable to find any outlet that had questioned the transcription as I had, I turned to an AI-based audio analysis tool, ChatGPT, to examine the clip more rigorously than the human ear alone allows.
Using slowed playback and spectrogram analysis, it reported its results. Bottom line (short answer):
- The audio does not support “drive baby drive.”
- It is far more consistent with “don’t drive” (or “do not drive”) spoken urgently.
- I would rate confidence moderate to high, given the recording quality.
Asked why “drive, baby, drive” does not fit the sound signature on the audio, ChatGPT responded:
I isolated the quoted moment from the clearest clip available to me and examined it as a time-frequency spectrogram (a standard way to visualize speech). The widely repeated phrase “drive baby drive” doesn’t match what’s in the recording. The utterance is too short for three words, and the audio lacks the distinct consonant bursts you would expect for “baby” (two clear “b” onsets). The sound pattern is more consistent with a prohibitive command such as “don’t drive” or “do not drive,” delivered urgently.
RELATED: Renee Good had 4 gunshot wounds, including in the head, new report shows
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
I’m not asking anyone to treat AI as an oracle — only to notice what happens when the slowed audio and the spectrogram don’t match the confident captioning. Perhaps ChatGPT and I are both wrong. But I don’t think so. After repeated playback, I could not hear anything resembling the word “baby.” And if the argument is that the audio portion of the video recording is too ambiguous for a definitive conclusion, then that point should have been made to the hundreds of media outlets that ran with the “drive, baby, drive” narrative — not with me for questioning it.
Deciding whether Officer Ross was justified in shooting Renee Good does not hinge on what Becca Good said in a moment of panic. But public judgment — and calls for criminal punishment — clearly have. When journalists and commentators repeat an unverified transcription as fact, they do more than simplify a complex event. They create a moral narrative that can endanger real people.
If the audio is ambiguous, that ambiguity should have been reported as such from the beginning. If it is not, then the words attributed to Becca Good deserve correction. Even if I’m wrong about the exact words, the larger point stands: If the audio is ambiguous, it should never have been presented as a definitive quote — and certainly not used to justify calls for prosecution.
In cases like this, restraint is not just appropriate. It is the responsibility that journalists owe their readers. And readers should demand the same restraint from those who claim to inform them.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
DOJ Reportedly Investigating Tim Walz, Jacob Frey For Obstruction
Federal agents are investigating whether Walz and Frey tried to block ICE oeprations.
Renee Good had 4 gunshot wounds, including in the head, new report shows
New information has surfaced regarding the January 7 death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after obstructing a deportation operation and ultimately endangering the officers’ lives.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Good suffered four gunshot wounds, contradicting earlier reports of the January 7 incident that said she had three gunshot wounds.
Good was brought out of the vehicle to a snowbank and then the sidewalk to get ‘separation from an escalating scene involving law enforcement and bystanders.’
Citing the Minneapolis Fire Department’s incident report acquired through a state Data Practices Act request, the Tribune reported that paramedics found Good unresponsive, not breathing, and with an “inconsistent” and “irregular” pulse.
Good was brought out of the vehicle to a snowbank and then the sidewalk to get “separation from an escalating scene involving law enforcement and bystanders,” the Tribune wrote.
RELATED: ‘That’s what the Bible tells us’: Renee Good’s former in-law surprises CNN host with his message
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images
According to the Star Tribune, the incident report said that Good had two gunshot wounds to her right chest, one on her left forearm, and one “with protruding tissue on the left side of [her] head.”
Blood was flowing out of her left ear, according to the outlet’s summary of the report.
Lifesaving efforts were given at the scene of the shooting, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and at the hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center. These efforts were stopped around 10:30 a.m.
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MINNEAPOLIS MELTDOWN: Anti-ICE Mob Spraypaints ‘Only Good Agent is a Dead One’ on Destroyed Car
Minneapolis went full war zone overnight, and the message from the anti-ICE mob couldn’t be uglier.
As Tim Walz Encourages Resistance, Minnesota ‘ICE Watch’ Declares ‘Time Is Ripe To Embrace Militancy’
The “ICE Watch” group at the center of the unruly demonstrations gripping Minneapolis urged supporters to “embrace militancy” and escalate their demands “by any means necessary.” Hours later, Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) also encouraged residents to resist ICE, accusing the agency of carrying out a “campaign of organized brutality.”
The post As Tim Walz Encourages Resistance, Minnesota ‘ICE Watch’ Declares ‘Time Is Ripe To Embrace Militancy’ appeared first on .
Trump threatens Insurrection Act after ambushed ICE agent shoots illegal alien: ‘Put an end to the travesty’
Despite their vilification by Democrat officials and an 8,000% increase in death threats, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents continue in Minneapolis and other dangerous sanctuary jurisdictions to make arrests — 70% of which are reportedly of criminal illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the United States.
When attempting to make one such arrest on Wednesday evening, a federal law enforcement officer was savagely attacked not only by the illegal alien he was pursuing but by a pair of onlookers who apparently felt compelled to frustrate the administration of justice.
‘Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence.’
The incident resulted in an apparent defensive shooting, which radicals seized upon as yet another excuse to attack police, engage in wanton destruction, and altogether ramp up what the Department of Justice is now referring to as an “insurrection.”
The shooting
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that around 6:50 p.m. local time, federal agents attempted to arrest an illegal alien from Venezuela. The suspect peeled away in his vehicle and fled the scene but ultimately crashed into a parked car.
While the suspect proceeded to take off running, an agent, who has been identified as an ICE officer by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, caught up with the Venezuelan in the 600 block of 24th Avenue North.
When the ICE officer attempted once again to make the arrest, “the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer,” said the DHS.
Seeing the two men struggling on the ground, two individuals exited a nearby apartment and allegedly began attacking the officer with a shovel and a broom handle, enabling the illegal alien to break free.
The Venezuelan allegedly proceeded to use one of the two improvised hitting implements to strike the outnumbered officer.
RELATED: Blocking ICE with ‘micro-intifada’: Good’s group taught de-arrest, cop-car chaos before her death
Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Image
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” said the DHS.
The two alleged attackers and the Venezuelan — who sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg — reportedly barricaded themselves in the apartment but were ultimately flushed out. The illegal alien and the officer were taken to the hospital, and the two suspected attackers were placed in custody.
Minneapolis police were ultimately joined at the scene by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that a broom and a snow shovel were found at the scene of the struggle and indicated “at least one person may have assaulted federal law enforcement.”
The Minneapolis reflex
O’Hara indicated that in the wake of the struggle and shooting, a mob assembled and began “engaging in unlawful acts.”
In addition to pelting law enforcement officers with incendiary devices, ice, rocks, and other projectiles, rioters ransacked and vandalized federal vehicles, videos showed.
Mayor Jacob Frey (D) wasted no time in fanning the flames, referring to ICE during a press conference on Wednesday night as an invading force that’s supposedly rounding up American citizens.
“I’ve seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and is intolerable,” said Frey.
After demonizing ICE and championing anti-ICE protests, Frey suggested that radicals “taking the bait” weren’t helping.
Gov. Tim Walz (D) also responded with mixed signals, characterizing federal agents as villains and recommending resistance but also suggesting that Minnesotans should remain peaceful.
“You’re angry. I’m angry. Angry is not a strong enough word,” Walz said in a video address on Wednesday night. “You are not powerless, you are not helpless, and you are certainly not alone. All across Minnesota people are learning about opportunities, not just to resist, but to help people who are in danger.”
The Justice Department evidently saw the signal through the noise and accused the two Minnesota Democratic Party leaders of incitement.
“ICE operates in thousands of counties without incident. Men and women doing their jobs, protecting us from criminal aliens,” said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement. It’s disgusting.”
“Walz and Frey,” continued Blanche. “I’m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It’s a promise.”
President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday morning to invoke the Insurrection Act “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
Trump noted that many presidents have utilized the Insurrection Act of 1807 and that it would “quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great state.”
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