Dwain Northey (Gen X)

We’ve all seen the video by now. Or at least anyone who still bothers to look up from the constant churn of national absurdity long enough to recognize when a line has been obliterated has seen it. Minnesota. Daylight. A vehicle moving at what appears to be walking speed—five miles an hour if physics was feeling generous. And somehow, in that moment, an ICE agent decided this was the scenario that required bullets.

Not patience.

Not distance.

Not de-escalation.

Bullets.

I’m Gen X. We were raised on a steady diet of “question authority,” after-school specials about consequences, and the radical idea that adults—especially armed ones—should possess a baseline level of self-control. We were told deadly force was a last resort, reserved for imminent danger. Not irritation. Not ego. Not someone in a slow-rolling car who didn’t behave with sufficient gratitude.

Yet here we are.

A 37-year-old woman is dead. Not because she was charging anyone. Not because she displayed a weapon. Not because the vehicle posed an unavoidable threat to life. The car was barely moving. The agent steps back. The video shows it plainly. And still, the trigger was pulled.

If this qualifies as “imminent danger,” then the phrase no longer means anything at all.

What makes this worse—far worse—is what happened next. Instead of transparency, we got obstruction. We are now told the FBI is blocking any investigation into the shooting. Not reviewing jurisdiction. Not coordinating agencies. Blocking. Slamming the door shut before accountability can even knock. Which is remarkable, considering federal oversight is supposedly designed for moments exactly like this—when lethal force is used in public, on video, with no credible threat apparent.

Then comes the narrative laundering. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—“Christie gnome,” because sarcasm is all that’s left—has accused the now-deceased woman of recognizing the agent’s vehicle, as if awareness itself is grounds for execution. As if knowing who is confronting you retroactively justifies being shot. That’s not a defense; it’s a smear campaign aimed at someone who can no longer respond.

And then there’s Donald, doing what Donald does best: speaking loudly, confidently, and in direct contradiction to reality. He has stated—out loud—that the officer was run over and is in the hospital recovering. Except the video exists. We’ve all seen it. The agent is not struck. Not clipped. Not dragged. He is standing. He fires. End of story.

This isn’t a dispute of facts. It’s an attempt to overwrite them.

Gen X has been around long enough to recognize the pattern. Inflate the threat. Invent injuries. Blame the victim. Delay long enough for outrage fatigue to set in. We’ve seen this movie before, and the ending is always the same: no charges, no consequences, and a quiet expansion of what armed agents are allowed to get away with.

Here’s the real danger. If this agent is not charged—state and federal—then the message is unmistakable. Every asshole in a black ICE vest and face mask now has the temerity to believe they can shoot someone and simply claim they were afraid. That “imminent danger” can mean “I didn’t like how this interaction felt.” That video evidence can be ignored if the right people say the right lies loudly enough.

We were promised body cams and accountability. We were told video would protect the truth. Well, here it is—clear, brutal, undeniable. If the response is still stonewalling and fiction, then the entire accountability project was a lie from the start.

Gen X doesn’t gasp anymore. We sigh. We grind our teeth. We mutter “here we go again.” But resignation is not consent.

Charge the agent.

Stop the obstruction.

End the gaslighting.

Because if a slow-moving car now qualifies as a lethal threat, if investigations can be blocked and deaths rewritten with press releases, then we are no longer talking about law enforcement.

We’re talking about sanctioned fear with a trigger.

And that should scare the hell out of all of us.