The shooting in Minneapolis last week of Renee Good, a 37-year-old wife and mom to 3 kids, hit me really hard. It’s not just that she was in a lesbian couple like me, with kids from previous husbands — and that I would be the one in the passenger’s seat. It’s because of the brazenness — pride, even — of the officer who ended her life cavalierly and without remorse.

The smear campaign about this woman nauseates me deeply — it began mere milliseconds after her death when the officer who shot her at point-blank range yelled “fuckin’ bitch!” after her vehicle and escalated extremely quickly to the sitting President, Vice President, and Homeland Security Secretary calling her a “domestic terrorist” despite the physical impossibility of being able to confirm that kind of information so quickly.

It is clear that agent Jonathan Ross escalated the situation himself. He broke DHS policy by putting himself in the path of a moving vehicle. And he should not have had his cellphone out, occupying his other hand, when he drew his weapon — you need the hands to be unobstructed to maximize your ability to handle any situation that may emerge.

He claimed he was afraid for his life — when? Show me on tape at which moment(s) in time this agent appears to behave an a fearful manner, because I do not see it. There are the moments when he’s calmly walking around the entire vehicle recording on his cellphone, moments when he has calmly drawn his gun and is pointing it at Renee Good, and moments where he is shouting and shooting bullets into her head. Where is the fear? He doesn’t run or dive; he doesn’t scream; he doesn’t call for help; he doesn’t show any surprise. He doesn’t seem fearful — he seems in control of the situation at all times, including when he pulls the trigger 3 times to take someone’s life as punishment for being cheeky.

Jonathan Ross created the situation in the first place. He put himself in harm’s way — in direct contraindication of his own training — and then used the alleged threat of that self-induced harm to justify killing someone for no good reason. The “reason,” if there is one, looks to me to be simply that homeboy got mad and did not have the emotional control to manage himself properly in that interaction. Of course, he could also just be a ghost skin.

Even at its most generous interpretation, you could say agent Ross made a mistake — but that’s a stretch because of shots 2 and 3. He wasn’t afraid of the motorist at all, and obviously not injured — he was making sure he “got the job done” once he had opened fire on an innocent unarmed bystander for the crime of being in the street. You can’t call it an accident either because of shots 2 and 3.

And most normal human people with empathy would still be profoundly sorry about an accident — especially one that took another human being’s life. This man goes on to shout “fucking bitch” after her as he watches the now driverless vehicle crash into other cars, creating an entirely unnecessary scene of destruction that will cost local taxpayers money to clean up. Nevertheless, the officer simply abdicates any responsibility whatsoever for the area under his authority and giant mess he created — does not stick around to see it through, or help, or ensure that the situation is brought back under control. Instead he flees the scene!

The entire episode was like a Worst Employee Ever parody — he must at minimum be fired immediately and be tried for murder. We need to have a real serious discussion about the use of force in this country because — if I’m remembering correctly from the past 5 decades of libertarian screeching (SCREECHING!!) about limiting the federal government’s power to rule over local jurisdictions — NONE OF US WANT THIS.

We don’t want masked thugs from DC occupying cities and towns.

We don’t kill innocent bystanders for no reason.

This is not who we are.

This is not what America is.

This is profoundly un-American.

And it is not okay.