Preserve Renee Good: Build the People’s Archive Before They Erase Her

Federal power is already hard at work rewriting the story of how Renee Nicole Good was killed. The official script insists she turned her car into a weapon; people on the ground and the footage itself tell a different story. The question now is not only what happened, but whether we will let that story be buried or build a people’s record strong enough to outlast this administration’s lies and omissions.

What they are doing to the story

Within hours, federal agencies framed Renee as the aggressor, claiming she tried to run over an officer and left them “no choice.” Local officials, witnesses, and multi‑angle videos sharply contradict that narrative, but their accounts are already being sidelined and fragmented. The federal government controls the formal investigation, key evidence, and the language of “justified force,” and it has every incentive to seal off anything that shows agents boxing her in, issuing conflicting commands, and then opening fire.

This has happened before. State and federal actors sanitize reports, slow‑walk or block access, and then rely on public exhaustion to close the book. What changes the outcome is not trusting “integrity” from above, but determined preservation and circulation of truth from below.

Why a people’s archive matters

Every act of state violence is also a struggle over memory. What future courts, journalists, students, and neighbors “know” will depend far less on what the Trump administration says now than on what ordinary people manage to save, organize, and pass forward. When official files are locked, destroyed, or selectively quoted, it is the scattered pieces—videos, transcripts, handwritten notes, church statements, neighborhood recollections—that keep enough of the event alive for someone to challenge the lie later.

A people’s archive does not wait for permission. It assumes that those closest to the harm—the residents, bystanders, organizers, and grieving communities—have the first and best claim to tell the story. The work is not glamorous. It is downloading, naming files, transcribing, backing things up, and talking to one another. But decades from now, that is the record that will still matter.

Five things you can do right now

If you are close to this, geographically or emotionally, here are concrete actions you can take today. You do not need specialized training. You need a phone, a computer, some time, and a willingness to care.

1. Save every video, from every angle

- Download all clips you see—news segments, livestreams, phone videos—to local storage. Do not assume platforms will keep them up or unedited.

- When you repost or mirror, use descriptive titles and dates: “2026‑01‑08_Minneapolis_ICE_shooting_angle‑3_from‑south‑side.mp4.” Include any known context in the description: location, approximate time, who filmed it if they are public and consent.

2. Capture words, not just images

- Transcribe key eyewitness interviews from local radio, TV, podcasts, and livestreams. Include the speaker’s name (if they share it), the outlet, the date, and a link if possible.

- Save full texts of early news stories, liveblogs, and press conferences before they are “updated.” Take screenshots and export to PDF. Label them with date and time so later readers can see how the story changed.

3. Name and protect witnesses

- When neighbors or bystanders speak publicly, repeat their words with care. Attribute their names correctly, keep their quotes in context, and avoid sensationalizing.

- Encourage people who witnessed anything—before, during, or after the shooting—to write down what they saw, heard, and felt, with a date and time. Even short, imperfect accounts are valuable.

- If you share someone’s testimony, blur identifying details (faces, addresses, license plates) when necessary and follow their wishes about how widely it circulates. The goal is preservation, not exposure for its own sake.

4. Build redundant, community‑controlled archives

- Back everything up in at least two places: (1) your own device or external drive, and (2) a space you trust that is not under federal or corporate control—community organizations, trusted friends in other cities, grassroots archives, or international allies.

- Keep a simple, consistent file‑naming system: date, location, type (video, audio, transcript, photo), and a brief note (“bystander‑east‑corner,” “press‑conference‑mayor”). Consistency now will matter later when people are trying to piece together timelines.

- Where possible, use open formats (like .mp4, .pdf, .txt) that are more likely to remain readable as technology changes.

5. Document context and feeling, not only “facts”

- If you attend vigils, marches, services, or neighborhood meetings, write short accounts: What was said? Who spoke? How did people respond? What chants, prayers, or demands emerged? These details are part of the historical record.

- Invite others to contribute a paragraph or two about what this killing means to them, how they understand the pattern of raids and shootings, and what they want the future to know. Emotional truth—grief, rage, fear, solidarity—is evidence of what state violence does to a community.

- Collect and save flyers, statements from grassroots groups, faith communities, and local organizations. Scan or photograph them so they do not vanish when the physical copies are gone.

Where this work can live

This kind of documentation should not stay on one person’s hard drive. Think in terms of networks:

- Share archives with local organizers, mutual aid groups, immigrant justice coalitions, and legal aid organizations that are already responding to Renee’s killing. They will know which pieces are most urgent for legal defense, public education, and organizing.

- Offer material to faith communities, neighborhood associations, and cultural institutions that are willing to host public or semi‑public collections—physical displays, websites, zines, or reading rooms.

- Connect with people in other cities facing similar violence. Let them mirror your material, and be willing to mirror theirs. A people’s archive is strongest when it is dispersed and interconnected, not centralized and fragile.

> You are free to copy, adapt, translate, and repost these directives. You do not need to ask. Keep the names and words of witnesses intact where they have chosen to speak publicly, and share this wherever people are fighting to keep the truth about state violence from being buried.