On Jan. 7, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers approached a maroon Honda Pilot idling at an angle on a two-lane street where traffic could still pass. The driver, Renee Nicole Good, waved an ICE vehicle around it and it pulled through.

A second vehicle stopped. Officers exited and began shouting commands. At least one officer recorded the encounter on his phone as he walked around the front of the vehicle. Video shows the passenger, Good’s wife, standing outside the car filming ICE activity from the side of the road–citizen action protected by the First Amendment.

As ICE officer Jonathan Ross started his loop around the vehicle, Good spoke calmly to him. “That’s all right, dude,” she said. “I’m not mad at you.”

Another officer then pulled on the driver’s door handle. Good reversed a few feet while turning the car’s wheels away from the officer standing near the front of the vehicle. As she began to pull forward, Ross, the officer recording the scene, drew his firearm and fired three shots. At her head.

With the driver gravely wounded or already dead, the vehicle continued forward uncontrolled, crashing into parked cars and a utility pole, a death made inevitable by ICE’s bullets.

ICE killed Good.

We have a higher standard for capital punishment in this country. No law enforcement officer has the authority to kill civilians in the street. Law enforcement officers have a duty to use the minimum force necessary to protect life. Our standard for capital punishment is not “disrespect” of law enforcement as Trump suggested over the weekend.

It has to be uniquely disturbing to have videos of your murder circulating widely on the internet, discussed by political figures and pundits and viewed by millions.

The president claimed that Good attempted to run over an ICE agent. This is a lie. Video does not show Good striking, pinning, or ramming an officer at the moment shots were fired. In fact, video stills at the time when Ross opened fire show him at least an arm’s length from the vehicle.

The vice president called Good a “domestic terrorist” and a “deranged leftist.” Good was not armed. There were stuffed animals in the front seat, not a weapon or even a protest sign. She neither attacked nor berated anyone. She said, “That’s all right, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Renee Nicole Good exercised her right to document federal agents in public.

In his tele-town hall on Jan. 7, Congressman Nick Langworthy quickly labeled Good’s actions illegal — before any investigation was complete. Yet the 1st Amendment guarantees our right to record police, to speak to them, and to criticize government authority in whatever terms we choose. We have the right to assemble — indivually or in groups — to document the actions of our government and criticize — even insult — those actions and officials.

What is not protected is law enforcement’s use of deadly force against someone who is posing no imminent threat of serious harm.

So what is legal in a country that claims to be free?

ICE has authority to enforce federal immigration law.

It does not have state police powers over traffic control, public order, or civilian crowd management–which is why federal agencies are required to rely on local law enforcement to manage situations like this.

What is at stake is whether any American can film, speak, and exist in public without being met with a federal gun.

Is it legal for a citizen to block roadways? No. But in this case, traffic could move around the Honda Pilot. Was it the best choice? Probably not, though video is ambiguous about what Good was trying to do at that moment–pull away, turn, or continue idling indefinitely. Did ICE have the legal authority to conduct traffic control? No.

And what are the beliefs and values of those on the “left”?

We believe in dignity and fairness for all Americans. We believe in the rule of law. We believe that we are as strong as the weakest among us. We are citizens exercising our individual freedoms to keep our democracy alive.

I believe those on the right share many of those same beliefs and values. We differ on policy positions. What is the right size and role of government? What should we do about our national debt? At the end of the day, I want to believe in the goodness of people who disagree with me about our policy differences.

People lament the loss of the “center” in American politics. The center in the United States is the Constitution and the rule of law. That is the standard, the baseline, and the bare minimum of agreement against which the full left-to-right spectrum of policy negotiations and compromises must ultimately be tested.

We need to stand up for the good in our country — individual freedoms that keep our government honest and accountable, moral leadership that has made our world more safe, economic leadership that has made our world more prosperous, and a vision that protects our citizens from unrestrained power and greed.

This is not about left versus right. It is about whether federal agents can escalate a routine street encounter into a fatal shooting–and then have political leaders tell us we’re not seeing what we’re seeing with our eyes to justify it.

If we allow that, we are not safer. We are simply less free.

Julie Jackson-Forsberg is a Jamestown resident.