Brockway Weighs In on Response to Renee Good’s Death in HuffPost Article

January 12, 2026

HuffPost

Mark Brockway

Political Science Department

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict & Collaboration

Crime & Violence

Federal

Media & Journalism

Political Parties

United States

HuffPost

Mark Brockway

Following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, prominent right-wing figures including Matt Walsh and President Trump attacked her character.

Political scientists attribute this pattern of celebrating or mocking political opponents' deaths to extreme polarization, partisan dehumanization driven by political anger, and a divisive political culture increasingly defined by “the fight” against invented enemies rather than ideological differences.

“This is not ideological conservatives versus ideological liberals. This is not even Democrats versus Republicans. What it is is something much, much more unwieldy and difficult to understand,” says Mark Brockway, assistant teaching professor of political science.

It’s division, sure, but it’s division based entirely around the idea of “the fight,” Brockway says.

Read more in the HuffPost article, “You're Not Imagining It: The Same People Up In Arms Over Charlie Kirk Are Silent On ICE Shooting.”