Politics
Contributor: Don’t let the mobs rule
In Springfield, Ill., in 1838, a young Abraham Lincoln delivered a powerful speech decrying the “ravages of mob law” throughout the land. Lincoln warned, in eerily prescient fashion, that the spread of a then-ascendant “mobocratic spirit” threatened to sever the “attachment of the People” to their fellow countrymen and their nation. Lincoln’s opposition to anarchy of any kind was absolute and clarion: “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.”
Unfortunately, it seems that every few years, Americans must be reminded anew of Lincoln’s wisdom. This week’s lethal Immigration and Customs Enforcement standoff in the Twin Cities is but the latest instance of a years-long baleful trend.
On Wednesday, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mom, Renee Nicole Good, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Her ex-husband said she and her partner encountered ICE agents after dropping off Good’s 6-year-old at school. The federal government has called Good’s encounter “an act of domestic terrorism” and said the agent shot in self-defense.
Suffice it to say Minnesota’s Democratic establishment does not see it this way.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the deployment of 2,000 immigration agents in the area and the deadly encounter by telling ICE to “get the f— out” of Minnesota, while Gov. Tim Walz called the shooting “totally predictable” and “totally avoidable.” Frey, who was also mayor during the mayhem after George Floyd’s murder by city police in 2020, has lent succor to the anti-ICE provocateurs, seemingly encouraging them to make Good a Floyd-like martyr. As for Walz, he’s right that this tragedy was eminently “avoidable” — but not only for the reasons he thinks. If the Biden-Harris administration hadn’t allowed unvetted immigrants to remain in the country without legal status and if Walz’s administration hadn’t moved too slowly in its investigations of hundreds of Minnesotans — of mixed immigration status — defrauding taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars, ICE never would have embarked on this particular operation.
National Democrats took the rage even further. Following the fateful shooting, the Democratic Party’s official X feed promptly tweeted, without any morsel of nuance, that “ICE shot and killed a woman on camera.” This sort of irresponsible fear-mongering already may have prompted a crazed activist to shoot three detainees at an ICE facility in Dallas last September while targeting officers; similar dehumanizing rhetoric about the National Guard perhaps also played a role in November’s lethal shooting of a soldier in Washington, D.C.
Liberals and open-border activists play with fire when they so casually compare ICE, as Walz previously has, to a “modern-day Gestapo.” The fact is, ICE is not the Gestapo, Donald Trump is not Hitler, and Charlie Kirk was not a goose-stepping brownshirt. To pretend otherwise is to deprive words of meaning and to live in the theater of the absurd.
But as dangerous as this rhetoric is for officers and agents, it is the moral blackmail and “mobocratic spirit” of it all that is even more harmful to the rule of law.
The implicit threat of all “sanctuary” jurisdictions, whose resistance to aiding federal law enforcement smacks of John C. Calhoun-style antebellum “nullification,” is to tell the feds not to operate and enforce federal law in a certain area — or else. The result is crass lawlessness, Mafia-esque shakedown artistry and a fetid neo-confederate stench combined in one dystopian package.
The truth is that swaths of the activist left now engage in these sorts of threats as a matter of course. In 2020, the left’s months-long rioting following the death of Floyd led to upward of $2 billion in insurance claims. In 2021, they threatened the same rioting unless Derek Chauvin, the officer who infamously kneeled on Floyd’s neck, was found guilty of murder (which he was, twice). In 2022, following the unprecedented (and still unsolved) leak of the draft majority opinion in the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case, abortion-rights activists protested outside many of the right-leaning justices’ homes, perhaps hoping to induce them to change their minds and flip their votes. And now, ICE agents throughout the country face threats of violence — egged on by local Democratic leaders — simply for enforcing federal law.
In “The Godfather,” Luca Brasi referred to this sort of thuggery as making someone an offer that he can’t refuse. We might also think of it as Lincoln’s dreaded “ravages of mob law.”
Regardless, a free republic cannot long endure like this. The rule of law cannot be held hostage to the histrionic temper tantrums of a radical ideological flank. The law must be enforced solemnly, without fear or favor. There can be no overarching blackmail lurking in the background — no Sword of Damocles hovering over the heads of a free people, ready to crash down on us all if a certain select few do not get their way.
The proper recourse for changing immigration law — or any federal law — is to lobby Congress to do so, or to make a case in federal court. The ginned-up martyrdom complex that leads some to take matters into their own hands is a recipe for personal and national ruination. There is nothing good down that road — only death, despair and mobocracy.
Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. X: @josh_hammer
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- Democrats and activist left are perpetuating a dangerous “mobocratic spirit” similar to the mob law that Lincoln warned against in 1838, which threatens the rule of law and national unity[1]
- The federal government’s characterization of the incident as self-defense by an ICE agent is appropriate, while local Democratic leaders are irresponsibly encouraging anti-ICE protesters to view Good as a martyr figure like George Floyd[1]
- Dehumanizing rhetoric comparing ICE to the Gestapo is reckless fear-mongering that has inspired actual violence, including a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas and the fatal shooting of a National Guard soldier[1]
- The shooting was “avoidable” not because of ICE’s presence, but because the Biden-Harris administration allowed undocumented immigrants to remain in the country without legal status and state authorities moved too slowly investigating immigrant fraud[1]
- Sanctuary jurisdictions that resist federal law enforcement represent neo-confederate “nullification” and constitute crass lawlessness and Mafia-style extortion, effectively telling federal agents they cannot enforce the law or face consequences[1]
- The activist left employs threats of violence as systematic blackmail, evidenced by 2020 riots following Floyd’s death, threats surrounding the Chauvin trial, protests at justices’ homes during the abortion debate, and now threats against ICE agents[1]
- Changing immigration policy must occur through Congress or federal courts, not through mob rule and “ginned-up martyrdom complexes” that lead to personal and national ruination[1]
Different views on the topic
- Community members who knew Good rejected characterizations of her as a domestic terrorist, with her mother describing her as “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” “extremely compassionate,” and someone “who has taken care of people all her life”[1]
- Vigil speakers and attendees portrayed Good as peacefully present to watch the situation and protect her neighbors, with an organizer stating “She was peaceful; she did the right thing” and “She died because she loved her neighbors”[1]
- A speaker identified only as Noah explicitly rejected the federal government’s domestic terrorism characterization, saying Good was present “to watch the terrorists,” not participate in terrorism[1]
- Neighbors described Good as a loving mother and warm family member who was an award-winning poet and positive community presence, suggesting her presence during the incident reflected civic concern rather than radicalism[1]
Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20515
January 22, 2026
Mr. Don R. Berthiaume Acting Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530
Dear Acting Inspector General Berthiaume:
Please find attached a letter sent to Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi detailing credible, and outrageous reports of preferential treatment, retaliation, and widespread sexual assault at Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Texas. By this correspondence, we respectfully request that the Office of the Inspector General immediately initiate a criminal investigation into the reported staff misconduct at FPC Bryan, including but not limited to violations of 18 U.S. Code § 2243(c) (criminalizing sexual abuse of an individual in federal detention).
We also request that your office accompany a delegation of congressional Members and staff to FPC Bryan next month, and, prior to that visit, provide our Committees with a briefing and all documents related to your office’s oversight and investigations of FPC Bryan.
Jamie Rashi
Jamie Raskin
Ranking Member
House Committee on the Judiciary
Very truly yours,
Pai
Robert Garcia Ranking Member
House Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform
Encl.
CC:
The Honorable Jim Jordan, Chairman House Committee on the Judiciary
The Honorable James Comer, Chairman
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi, Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice
Politics
Post-Roe battle over abortion pills reaches Kentucky gas stations as AG opens investigation
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With the March for Life marking nearly three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Kentucky has launched an investigation into out-of-state groups advertising mail-order abortion pills, citing a post-Dobbs law that bans the drugs’ delivery into the state.
The march’s organizers now see new meaning in their annual demonstration following the landmark Dobbs decision, and states around the country are taking sides on whether abortion should be “safe, legal and rare,” as then-President Bill Clinton put it, or liberally permitted or strictly prohibited. In Kentucky, lawmakers responded by passing House Bill 3 in 2022, banning the mailing or delivery of abortion-inducing drugs.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman told Fox News Digital on Friday that he is citing the law in launching an investigation into organizations that could be participating in unlawful activity in that regard, as reproductive health groups have been advertising at gas stations in both the Bluegrass State and its Appalachian neighbor, West Virginia.
In recent months, a New York-based nonprofit called Mayday Health that advertises “abortion pills by-mail” announced it would buy advertising at more than 100 gas stations in the two rural states — with the phrase: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be?” and inviting customers to contact them.
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Kentucky AG Russell Coleman is shown. (Marcus Dorsey/Getty Images)
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Coleman told Fox News Digital on Friday his probe is intended to discern whether the mail-order abortion ban and/or Kentucky’s consumer protection laws are being violated by these groups.
“Out-of-state activist groups who are targeting the vulnerable here should be on notice: Keep your illegal pills out of our Commonwealth or face the full weight of the attorney general’s office,” Coleman said, issuing subpoenas to the various fuel stations as well.
“These deadly and unlawful pills cannot be allowed to continue flooding into Kentucky through the mail, and we will thoroughly pursue every lead to hold bad actors accountable,” he continued, adding the ads may also violate Frankfort’s consumer-protection laws.
TRUMP URGES GOP TO BE ‘FLEXIBLE’ ON HYDE AMENDMENT, IGNITING BACKLASH FROM PRO-LIFE ALLIES
The March For Life ends at SCOTUS in Washington. (Dominic Gwinn/Getty Images)
Coleman said that any resident who sees such ads should report them to his agency’s consumer-protection office.
Liv Raisner, executive director of Mayday, told Fox News Digital in response that “it turns out [Coleman] doesn’t like free speech as much as he says,” adding her group similarly advertised at South Dakota gas stations and won a temporary restraining order against that state.
“We think everyone in Kentucky, and South Dakota, and around the country, should know that abortion pills are safe and available,” Raisner said.
On the other side of the Tug Fork River, West Virginia itself previously took action to pass a near-total ban on abortion drug Mifeprestone — a policy that was later upheld by a court — along with hefty restrictions on abortions themselves.
Mississippi, where the Dobbs case originated, had passed the Gestational Age Act in 2018, banning most abortions after 15 weeks, which set up a legal battle after the Tupelo State’s only clinic sued. The result of that case before the high court opened the floodgates to other localized changes nationwide.
PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATION CALLS ON HHS AND FDA TO SUSPEND ABORTION PILL APPROVAL, TIGHTEN SAFETY RULES
Upon the decision in favor of Dobbs, Mississippi’s pre-Roe ban became enforceable once more, as did a slew of other states’ so-called “trigger laws.” Those include Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and North Dakota.
Other states moved in the opposite direction. Arizona lawmakers decided to repeal their state’s ban after the Dobbs decision came down, while the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a pre-Civil War law there that essentially provided for felony charges for anyone who “intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child.” Illinois moved to protect abortion pills and expand the roles of medical providers, while Montana voters passed a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights.
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Virginia voters will decide on a similar amendment this year, after lawmakers in the Democratic-majority legislature passed such a resolution.
Several other states have expressly protected abortion in their state constitutions since the Dobbs decision, further expressing the Tenth Amendment dichotomy of regulating issues not expressly delegated to the federal government by the Constitution that the high court’s ruling indicated.
How do you know what you know?
Did you learn it in school, read it in a newspaper? Did you get your information on social media or though chatter with friends?
Even in an age of misinformation and disinformation — which we really need to start clearly calling propaganda — we continue to rely on old ways of knowing. We take it for granted that if we really need to get to the truth, there’s a way to do it, even if it means cracking the pages of one of those ancient conveyors of wisdom, a book.
But we are entering an era in America when knowledge is about to be hard to come by. It would be easy to shrug off this escalation of the war on truth as just more Trump nonsense, but it is much more than that. Authoritarians take power in the short term by fear and maybe force. In the long term, they rely on ignorance — an erasure of knowledge to leave people believing that there was ever anything different than what is.
This is how our kids, future generations, come to be controlled. They simply don’t know what was, and therefore are at a great disadvantage in imagining what could be.
This week, the White House altered a photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, the civil rights lawyer arrested in Minneapolis for protesting inside a church.
The original photo shows Armstrong in handcuffs being led away by a federal officer with his face blurred out. Armstrong is composed and steady in this image. A veteran of social justice movements and a trained attorney, she appears as one might expect, her expression troubled but calm.
In the photo released by the White House, Armstrong is sobbing, her mouth hanging open in despair. In what is clearly nothing more than overt racism, it appears her skin has been darkened. Her braided hair, neatly styled in the original picture, is disheveled in the Trump image.
On the left, a photograph from the X (formerly Twitter) account of U.S. Secretary Kristi Noem, showing Nekima Levy Armstrong being arrested. On the right, the photo has been altered before being posted to the White House’s X (formerly Twitter) account.
(@Sec_Noem via X/@WhiteHouse via X)
A strong, composed resister is turned into a weeping, weak failure.
“YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter,”
That was the official White House response to inquiries about the photo, posted on social media.
The same week, the Trump administration began ripping down exhibits at the President’s House in Philadelphia that told the story of the nine Black people held in bondage there by George Washington. I’ve been to that exhibit and had planned to take my kids this summer to learn about Joe Richardson, Christopher Sheels, Austin, Hercules, Giles, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond.
They are names that barely made it into American history. Many have never heard of them. Now, this administration is attempting to erase them.
How do you know what you know? I learned most of what I knew about these folks from that signage, which is probably in a dump somewhere by now.
The information we once took for granted on government websites such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is gone. Climate change information; LGBTQ+ information; even agricultural information. Gone (though courts have ordered some restored).
The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which tracked federal police misconduct, has been shut down.
The Smithsonian is undergoing an ideological review.
And now, our government is telling us it will alter in real time images of dissenters to create its own narrative, demand we believe not our own eyes, our own knowledge, but the narrative they create.
“I’ll end with this, we’re being told one story which is totally different than what’s occurring,” said Cumberland County, Me., Sheriff Kevin Joyce.
He was speaking specifically about an incident in his town in which a corrections officer recruit was detained by ICE this week. In video taken by a bystander, about five agents pull the man from his car as he drives home after work. They then leave the car running in the street as they take him away.
Joyce told reporters the man had a clean background check before being hired, had no criminal record, and was working legally in the country. The sheriff has no idea where the man is being held.
Joyce’s sentiment, that what we are being told isn’t what’s happening, applies to nearly everything we are seeing with our own eyes.
A woman shot through her temple, through the side window of her car? You don’t understand what you are seeing. It was justified, our vice president has told us, without even the need for an investigation.
Goodbye Renee Good. They are attempting in real time to erase her reality and instead morph her into a domestic terrorist committing “heinous” crimes, and maybe even worse.
“You have a small band of very far left people who are doing everything they can … to try to make ICE out to be the ultimate enemy, and engage in this weird, small-scale civil war,” Vice President JD Vance said this week.
Protesting turned into civil war.
Next up, artificial intelligence is getting into the erasure game. Scientists are warning that those who wish to destroy truth will soon unleash AI-run operations in which thousands if not millions of social media posts will offer up whatever alternative reality those in control of it wish. Under the pressure of that avalanche of lies, many will believe.
The message the White House is sending with Armstrong’s photo is that they control the truth, they decide what it is.
Our job is to fight for truth, know it when we see it, and demand it not be erased.
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