This is message from a former police officer friend that I admire and respect, Jim Shepard. He is speaking truth.
These aren’t my words but they capture my feelings on the Renee Goode situation pretty well
“I wore a badge long enough to know the difference between a dangerous situation and a manufactured one.
What happened in Minneapolis wasn’t split-second chaos. It wasn’t a tragic accident. And it sure as hell wasn’t “necessary force.”
It was escalation. Illegal, reckless escalation—and any law enforcement official who tells you otherwise is lying, or hasn’t done the job.
From what we’ve seen so far, the encounter didn’t begin with a threat that justified lethal force.
There was no imminent danger to officers or the public that required bullets. There was time. There were options. There were off-ramps.
One of the first things you’re taught as a police officer is that force is not a punishment. It’s not a tool to assert dominance. It’s not something you use because someone doesn’t comply fast enough or says the wrong thing.
Force is a last resort governed by law. Period.
The standard is simple: Is there an immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death? If the answer is no, deadly force is unlawful. Full stop.
What we’re being fed now—by Trump officials, right-wing media, and the same law-and-order grifters who never hesitate to excuse police violence—is a familiar script.
They cherry-pick moments. They speculate about “what could have happened.” They inflate fear after the fact to justify an outcome that was already decided before any real threat existed.
That’s not analysis. That’s propaganda.
I’ve watched this play out too many times. A civilian is killed. The facts are inconvenient. So the story gets rewritten—fast. Suddenly the victim is on trial. Suddenly we’re told the officer “felt threatened.” Suddenly every rule of policing bends to accommodate the result.
But feelings don’t determine legality. The Constitution does.
If a cop “feels” scared but the objective facts don’t support deadly force, the shooting is still illegal.
Law enforcement isn’t vibes-based. It’s rule-based. Or at least it’s supposed to be.
The Trump administration knows this. They also know that if they repeat the lie often enough—if they shout “violent suspect” and “split-second decision” and “officer safety” into every camera—they can muddy the water long enough for accountability to disappear.
That’s the real pattern here. Not law enforcement. Not justice.
Covering your ass cause you just did something morally abhorrent and don’t want to admit it.
As someone who has been in violent confrontations, who has had to make real decisions under real pressure, I’m telling you this plainly: restraint is part of the job. De-escalation is part of the job. Walking away alive with everyone still breathing is the job.
When officers abandon that responsibility—and when the federal government rushes to excuse it—we don’t get safety. We get impunity.
And when the state lies to protect unlawful killing, it doesn’t just dishonor the person who died. It poisons the legitimacy of every officer who still believes the badge means something.
This wasn’t a tragedy without cause. It was a choice.
And no amount of propaganda can change that.”
