Editor’s note: The Daily Emerald welcomes guest viewpoints or letters to the editor from the University of Oregon and Eugene community.

This letter reflects the opinions of its writer, Katherine Benton, and not of The Emerald as an organization.

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In the aftermath of the murder of Renée Good in Minneapolis, I followed the online discourse as an observer. Like clockwork, the internet was already practically exploding with arguments. So, when browsing through the typical community forum, I wasn’t surprised when I saw intense disagreement about the case. What surprised me was the number of comments not just accepting Good’s death, but considering it deserved.

The arguments that occur online typically begin with someone posting to memorialize Good, sharing a photo of her or a video of the incident itself. On several posts, people immediately jumped on the Department of Homeland Security’s response and took it as fact, believing that Good attempted to run the officer over. After “netizens” would respond explaining that the video contradicts DHS’s claims, they would commit themselves to the idea that Good was a domestic terrorist who needed to be taken out. It didn’t matter to them that DHS policy forbids officers from shooting drivers, even if they were attempting to run the officer over. It didn’t matter what contradicting evidence or facts were presented to their narrative; the end of the story always felt the same: Renée Good deserved it.

So I want to ask those who believe this narrative: Who are we as human beings if we consider death the appropriate sentence for evading law enforcement? How long can Americans be expected to trust their law enforcement officers wholeheartedly while those same officers attempt to normalize mass surveillance technology and regularly use excessive force against members of our community? The bar for immigration enforcement officers remains low, declining as ICE recruitment continues to struggle, resulting in officers receiving less training than some animal control officers. 

The bar for citizens, on the other hand, is now ten times higher. Now, instead of providing people with due process during investigations so they can have their day in court — a Fifth Amendment right — community members are now policing themselves into smaller and smaller boxes of what acceptable behavior during a law enforcement stop should be. It no longer matters if they have a legal right to stop you in the first place. It no longer matters if you’re detained for filming an ICE agent striking a suspect from 20 feet away. It no longer matters what your intentions were, how well you followed instructions or if you’re not even an immigrant yourself. No one is presumed innocent anymore.

And just when it seemed like tensions could not escalate further, ICE struck again. Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked in an ICU unit caring for veterans, was approached by immigration enforcement. As officers attempted to pepper-spray a woman directly in the eyes, Pretti stood between them and asked the woman if she was okay. In response, he was forced to the ground onto his hands and knees, forcibly disarmed and then shot several times in the back execution-style. Pretti was, by any reasonable standard, a model citizen — and still he was not immune. Within hours of his death, administration officials reflexively dragged his name through the mud, labeling him a “domestic terrorist.” In less than a day, this man was targeted, beaten, killed and posthumously smeared by his own government.

This pattern is not isolated. The number of citizen deaths that resulted from ICE operations in the past year has hit a 20-year high of over 30 deaths, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with most of the deaths occurring in ICE custody or detention centers. Causes of death include detainees mysteriously being found “unresponsive” during transport or in detention centers, and suicide. Yet the most common manner of death for detainees was to pass away from neglected medical emergencies, with one person dying without their blood pressure medication, while ICE claims that the person refused to take their own medication. There are several cases of different detainees vomiting and having strokes, all dying. Did their lives deserve to end that way, too?

I close this by urging readers to stop living inside the political rhetoric that constantly surrounds them. Please fight the urge to turn against your neighbors, especially immigrants. They were here before the current political moment, and I am certain that they will be here after it, too. Time will pass, and so will administrations, but the people in our community are not going anywhere.

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Katherine Benton is a University of Oregon psychology student and community member who writes about civil liberties and the human impact of public policy.