THE UPPER MIDWESTERN American state of Minnesota, typically a frozen tundra during its harsh winters, has been a powder keg since Renée Nicole Good was shot in the face by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on the streets of Minneapolis on 7 January.

Many politicians and pundits aligned with President Donald Trump maintained that the 37-year-old was both impeding federal officials in fulfilling their duties and posing a genuine threat to their lives behind the wheel of her car.

Those who watched the video footage of what happened to the late Ms Good from an objective standpoint, not through an intensely partisan lens, have dismissed such nonsense. But it was impossible for Trump’s adherents to credibly contend that the subsequent killing of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, was in any way excusable.

Renee Good, left, and Alex Pretti, who were both shot and killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Pretti may have had a permit to carry a firearm, though the only thing he could be seen brandishing before he was callously leapt upon and brutally slayed by ICE’s masked men was a mobile phone. Even President Trump’s deputy chief of staff and loyal servant Stephen Miller admits that they “may not have been following proper protocol” prior to the fatal shooting.

That the local congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, was just attacked by a disturbed man with an unknown substance at a town hall meeting for her constituents reflects how dire the state of play has been there. And the reaction of the commander-in-chief to this incident – “No, I don’t think about her… I think she’s a fraud… She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her” – is absolutely reprehensible.

While President Trump repeats his vile libels of Ilhan Omar, there seems to have been something of a climb down in Minnesota. The controversial Greg Bovino, who was leading........

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