From Manufactured Crisis to Deadly Force: How Propaganda Helped Set the Stage for Renee Nicole Good’s Killing
The conditions that led to the lethal encounter were set well before the trigger was pulled.
The Murder of Renee Nicole Good and the Justification for State-Sponsored Terror
On the morning of January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old American citizen, mother of a six-year-old child, wife, poet, and creative writing graduate, was shot and killed by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross in South Minneapolis. She had just dropped off her child at school.
As I wrote yesterday (above), Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. The trigger was a street-level encounter set by heightened tensions. The conditions that made the encounter lethal were set well before a gun was drawn.
In the weeks leading up to her death, Minneapolis was being framed nationally as a city overrun by fraud, corruption, and criminality, with particular attention placed on Somali American communities, regardless of the fact that only around 8% of all ethnically Somali people are non-citizens. That framing did not arise from new evidence or sudden discoveries. It was constructed, amplified, and weaponized through social media, political rhetoric, and selective storytelling. It created the justification for a massive federal escalation that placed heavily armed agents into everyday civilian spaces.
This is not an abstract media critique. That escalation put ICE agents on Minneapolis streets in unprecedented numbers. One of those agents killed Renee Good.
The Video That Built the Narrative
A central role in shaping this atmosphere was played by a viral video produced by Nick Shirley, promoted aggressively on X by Elon Musk and echoed by other high-profile far-right political figures, such as J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States of America, and The White House, as well as Donald Trump Jr. on his Rumble Podcast. The video currently has nearly 140M views on X, but only 3M on Youtube, which tells me that the boost from Musk and the V.P. sharing it was significant. Shirley’s video claimed to expose “massive fraud” in Minneapolis, focusing heavily on Somali-American childcare providers and nonprofits. It has been presented as investigative journalism but relied on superficial visuals, selective anecdotes, and insinuation rather than verified audits or comprehensive data. Mainly, Nick and his old pal David were running between multiple childcare facilities, banging on the doors, and shouting “Show me the kids!” Kind of creepy, if you ask me.
State and federal officials have already been investigating Minnesota fraud cases for more than a year. Indictments have been handed down. Convictions and sentences have already occurred. The largest fraud cases involved multiple actors across racial and organizational lines, including a white woman, Aimee Bach, identified by prosecutors as a central organizer in several schemes, including Feeding Our Future, totaling over $250M, convicted in March 2025. None of this complexity appeared in the viral narrative.
Instead, the video reduced systemic failures of bureaucratic state oversight and administration into a racialized morality play. Empty buildings were framed as proof of criminality without context about operating hours, licensing status, or inspection records, which are all publicly available. The result was not understanding but outrage.
Multiple outlets later reported that many of the facilities featured in the video were licensed, inspected, and operating within state regulations, or conversely, were closed and in need of repairs before reopening. Those clarifications traveled far less widely than the original accusations.
Amplification From the Top
Elon Musk’s decision to boost Shirley’s content was not neutral. Musk’s platform influence transformed a fringe, unverified narrative into a national talking point. That amplification was followed by engagement from senior political figures, including public statements that treated the sensationalist video’s unverified claims as established fact rather than allegations requiring verification.
Shortly after the video gained traction, the administration announced a dramatic escalation of federal enforcement in Minnesota, including the deployment of thousands of additional ICE agents, citing this dramatic caricature of journalism as the voice of reason. The justification echoed the language of the viral sensationalist content. Rampant fraud. Breakdown of order. Necessity of federal intervention.
This sequence matters. Policy did not follow careful investigation. It followed virality. We live in the stupidest timeline.
From Moral Panic to Armed Presence
When the state responds to fear rather than fact, the response is almost always force. In Minneapolis, the propaganda cycle portrayed the city as out of control and in need of discipline. That portrayal made extraordinary measures seem reasonable.
ICE agents are no longer framed as narrowly tasked immigration officers. They have been cast as a stabilizing force, deployed broadly into neighborhoods, streets, and routine civilian interactions, despite receiving only 47 days of training. (Why 47 days? Well, that’s because it’s Donald J. Trump’s favorite number, of course.) Local oversight has diminished. Federal authority has expanded. An authoritarian tool has been established.
This shift has had immediate consequences. Federal agents operating with heightened urgency and political backing are more likely to escalate encounters. They are more likely to interpret confusion as defiance and movement as threat.
Renee Nicole Good encountered ICE agents in this exact environment.
The Killing and the Shielding of Power
After Renee was killed, the same machinery that justified the escalation moved to contain accountability. Federal authorities blocked Minnesota from fully investigating the shooting. The Vice President publicly asserted that the agent involved was protected by absolute immunity, as I wrote about recently.
That statement was not legally accurate, but it was politically instructive. It told federal agents that they would be protected. It told the public that accountability was optional.
This response cannot be separated from the climate that preceded the killing. A city framed as corrupt and dangerous becomes a place where extreme force is easier to excuse. A population framed as fraudulent becomes one whose suffering is easier to dismiss and ignore with a simple mindset of “It couldn't happen to me.”
Responsibility Does Not End With the Trigger Pull
Jonathan Ross pulled the trigger. He is responsible for Renee Good’s death in the most direct sense. But responsibility does not end there.
Those who manufactured a racialized crisis narrative bear responsibility for the conditions that made lethal escalation likely. Those who amplified unverified claims to millions bear responsibility for the fear they generated. Those who translated that fear into armed deployment bear responsibility for the outcomes. This is imperialist action, turned inward. Where did Ross serve as a machine gunner again?
Propaganda is not harmless speech when it is used to justify force. It is an enabling condition.
Renee Good was not killed by a video. She was killed by an agent. But that agent was operating inside a system trained to kill and primed by misinformation, racial panic, and political incentives that reward domination over restraint. Primed by a willing Nick Shirley, an oligarchic Elon Musk, and an opportunistic J.D. Vance looking to further his political career.
Last Words
Now that Jonathan Ross’ perspective from the phone he was recording with in one hand while shooting Renee Good with his service weapon in the other, we can hear what exactly transpired, up close.
Renee Nicole Good’s last words to the ICE agent that killed her:
“That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.”
The ICE agent’s final words after killing her:
“Fuckin’ bitch.”
The killing of Renee Nicole Good did not emerge from nowhere. It followed a pattern of violence that is now familiar. Sensational content replaces evidence. Fear replaces governance. Force replaces accountability.
When politically and financially powerful figures choose to amplify sensationalist othering over accuracy, they are not merely expressing opinions. They are shaping reality, as Sociologist and Communication Theorist George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory outlines with the “Mean World Syndrome”. “Everything is scary, and there’s danger behind every bush.” In Minneapolis, that reality included thousands of additional federal agents on the streets and a mother who never made it home.
Will anyone beyond the shooter will be held responsible for what this chain of events produced?
https://x.com/benjaminpdixon/status/2010073066265817423?s=46