Former US soccer star Megan Rapinoe has slammed Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after Renee Nicole Good was shot dead in Minneapolis last week.
The 37-year-old mother-of-three was killed by an ICE agent in what Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem claimed was ‘self-defense.’ The Trump administration, meanwhile, branded Good ‘a domestic terrorist.’
But her death has also sparked protests across the US, with NBA coach Steve Kerr among those to insist Good was ‘murdered’ by the ICE agent.
Now Rapinoe, a longtime opponent of Trump, has weighed in on the controversy. Speaking on her podcast, ‘A Touch More,’ Rapinoe said Good’s death is ‘just so sad.’
‘I think this has been abnormal for the entire time the Trump administration has been conducting these raids and disappearing people,’ she said.
‘They’re knocking people’s phones out of their hands. It’s lawful to do that. They’re basically intimidating and threatening people not to protest and not to track what they’re doing, and that’s a lot of what was happening in Minneapolis.
Mother-of-three Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead in Minneapolis last week
She was shot dead by an ICE agent in an incident that has sparked protests across the US
‘The community coming out, keeping their eyes on ICE – where are they, trying to stamp their people, impeding them in what feels (like) a very unlawful way of doing these immigration raids.
‘It’s just really sad. Obviously, our heart goes out to Renee Good’s family and her community and all the people that love her and support her.’
She added: ‘This is so outside the norm and outside of what’s OK, and I think everybody’s seen that, and I hope that the proverbial people will stand up whenever that is and whatever way that is — whether it’s midterms or elections or out in the streets to say this is not what we want, not what we think is acceptable.’
The former USWNT star also praised Kerr and his fellow NBA coach, Doc Rivers, for speaking up against ICE.
‘When I saw this, I thought: “This is what I really miss about being an athlete – to be able to interject.” And I feel like that just gives a little more weight to it,’ Rapinoe added.
‘I always appreciate when players do that, it’s super powerful when coaches are doing that… it’s just so sad, it’s hard to know what to do. It feels very overwhelming.’
Rapinoe then took aim at the administration’s reaction to the incident, adding: ‘They came out and immediately had a verdict on what happened without any investigation, without anything happening.
‘It’s the classic Orwell — the last command they told you was not to believe what your eyes are seeing or something to that effect.’
