An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good -- David French, NYT

[erronis]

Last edited Sun Jan 18, 2026, 01:55 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/opinion/renee-good-ice-immunity.html
(I don't believe this is paywalled.)

A long and well-reasoned opinion piece including background from Aziq Huq in the Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/trump-executive-order-lawlessness-constitutional-crisis/682112/?gift=3qx5DAUwXOU-zo0uuMqXXXBdr-lY__ZS3Hup3wCAyzA

Starts:

Imagine for a moment that you're a member of Renee Good's family. You're mourning her death at the hands of an ICE agent in Minneapolis, and you want justice.

So you visit a lawyer to see what can be done.

First, you want to help in any criminal investigation of the officer. You've got information about Good's intentions when she protested ICE activities -- information you think might be relevant to prosecutors looking into the case.

"I'm sorry," the lawyer replies. "The administration has already declared that the agent did no wrong, and the Justice Department's civil rights division hasn't opened an investigation into whether the agent violated Renee's constitutional rights.

"Federal officials are, however, investigating Renee and may investigate her family, so you might need a defense lawyer."

. . .

[GiqueCee]

1. That's how irredeemably evil...

... these subhuman monsters really are. There can be no forgiveness for such rotten people. I can't wait to see them all go down in flames.

And what hitch in its git-along do you suppose makes an algorithm substitute ’ for an apostrophe? That's just weird.

[erronis]

2. These strange substitutions occur when DU translates smart quotes, etc.

I've corrected my text using an online tool (https://dan.hersam.com/tools/smart-quotes.php) that substitutes the "smart quotes" (meaning open/closed quotation marks, apostrophes, etc.) with HTML characters.

If I cut and paste from an online article that includes these typographical artifacts they'll show up with entity codes - and will get duplicated every time I do a preview. I've learned to pass the text through the tool (above) usually, but sometimes forget.

Thanks for pointing this out, GiqueCee!

[GiqueCee]

4. Thanks for explaining it, erronis!

[NotHardly]

3. Exactly what Nazi would do.