By Jon Fetherston
A young man is dead.
That is where this story begins, and that is where our focus should remain.
Monday’s fatal shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Biddeford has shaken Maine and drawn national attention. It is a tragedy that has left a family grieving, a community searching for answers, and a state demanding accountability.
What happened? Was deadly force justified? Could the encounter have ended differently? Was there a failure in training, communication, or policy?
Today, we simply do not know.
That is why Governor Janet Mills, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King have all called for a thorough, independent investigation. They are right. The victim’s family deserves the truth. The officers involved deserve due process. The people of Maine deserve confidence that every fact…not politics…will determine the outcome.
But as investigators search for answers about the shooting, another troubling story unfolded in Biddeford.
Within hours of the shooting, hundreds of demonstrators filled the streets. They had every right to do so. Peaceful protest is one of America’s greatest freedoms, and citizens should never be discouraged from demanding answers from their government.
What they do not have the right to do is intimidate or assault those with whom they disagree.
As I reported on the demonstration for The Maine Wire, I was called a fascist, shoved, spit on, screamed at and struck by a man carrying a skateboard. None of it was because of something I said that day. None of it was because of my reporting. It was because of where I work.
That should concern every journalist, regardless of political affiliation.
Two days later, the anger found another target.
Governor Janet Mills traveled to Biddeford to visit the site of the shooting and pay her respects. Whatever one thinks of her record, it was the responsibility of Maine’s governor to be there.
Some protesters accused her of being there only for a photo opportunity. That characterization is difficult to square with the circumstances. Janet Mills is not running for another office. She wasn’t campaigning. She was doing what any governor should do in the aftermath of a tragedy…show up, meet with the community, and pay her respects. She was simply being human. Janet Mills has been a very vocal critic of ICE for a very long time.
Instead, protesters surrounded her, many out-of-state paid agitators, shouted obscenities and threw objects at her vehicle.
There is an uncomfortable truth buried in those two encounters.
Janet Mills and I agree on very little politically. We have spent time on opposite sides of many of Maine’s biggest debates.
Yet in Biddeford, we were treated exactly the same.
She was doing her job.
I was doing mine.
One was a Democratic governor.
The other was a conservative reporter.
Both became targets of the same anger.
That should force all of us to ask a difficult question: Have we reached a point where political labels no longer matter because anyone who fails to satisfy an increasingly angry movement becomes the next target?
If so, that is a dangerous place for any democracy.
Political disagreement is healthy. Passion is healthy. Protest is healthy.
Violence is not.
Intimidation is not.
Treating every disagreement as a battle between good and evil is not.
America cannot function if reporters are assaulted for doing their jobs, governors are harassed for paying their respects, or citizens assume the worst about anyone who thinks differently.
The investigation into Monday’s shooting must continue without interference or political pressure. If mistakes were made, they must be acknowledged. If policies need to change, they should be changed. Justice demands nothing less.
But justice also requires patience.
Facts take time.
Truth takes time.
We dishonor both when we replace them with outrage.
A young man lost his life in Biddeford. That tragedy should unite us in the pursuit of answers, not divide us into competing camps convinced they already know them.
Somewhere along the way, America stopped talking to one another and started shouting past one another.
Communication has broken down. Trust has eroded. Too often, we judge one another not by our actions, but by the labels we wear or the organizations we represent.
Biddeford should be more than another political flashpoint.
It should be a warning.
Because when a conservative reporter and a Democratic governor can both become targets of the same anger while simply doing their jobs, the problem is no longer simply about politics.
It is about a society that is forgetting how to disagree without hatred.
The investigation will determine what happened on Monday.
It is up to the rest of us to decide what happens next.
Maine…and America…can and must do better.
Excellent commentary! No excuse for the way you and Janet were treated.
Well said and absolutely correct. Having lived and worked in various foreign countries for many years, all I can say to the people of Maine who condone this radical behavior and hatred towards your country ,be very careful what you wish for. American laws do not apply in foreign countries. Travel,experience what it is really like, then you might find common sense again. We can only pray reality sinks in.
Great read, thank you. After watching the clips of the ” debate ” with the possible Democrat senate candidates I doubt if ANY of those are elected it will make life in Maine better. Just speed up the circle down the drain.
The poet Yeats put it best: “ and the middle shall see to hold.”
What Mills learned today is something which (hopefully) those of us are the right already know, as the middle ceases to hold, each side becomes more radical and more demanding of ideological purity. The French revolution is a good example of where this leads…
Well, I find disturbing is that the governor is no longer safe on the streets of a Maine city. No doubt she has increased her security detail after this incident — I remember when anyone could walk into any door the statehouse, and I always went in the door closest to the river because I enjoyed walking through the animal exhibit that was there.
The Statehouse police department didn’t even exist…
I so miss the ‘80s….
Thank you Jon and Gov. Mills. This a huge human tragedy. Paid protestors?
Kick their asses out of Maine. Maybe Maine will return to the way it used to be.
Jon. Be careful.
I was MORE than shocked to hear the Democrat gubernatorial candidate, Hannah Pingree, advocate that people “KEEP FIGHTING” to “KEEP ICE OUT OF MAINE.” Yes, she acknowledged that an investigation must be conducted; however, it is irresponsible and dangerous to use words that will incite a mob. As well, we are a nation of laws, and ICE does have an important job to do. Pray that Bobby Charles becomes the next Governor of Maine!
Israhell is an illegal settlement of mass murdering, rapist, land grabbing, satan worshipping, jerk offs.
PS
ICE is a poorly trained brown shirt federal police farce with very little discipline. Just a matter of time before flock cameras and ICE are turned on the idiot Trumpers.
If people don’t think this is orchestrated then we’re being terribly naive. It’s well past the time to go after the paid agitators and those who are financing the chaos. Otherwise, it won’t end.
The same people that celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination now enraged over this killing. That’s the thing. No consistency. To them all lives do NOT matter. There is a total lack of moral clarity. It is faux compassion.
America and israhell are terrorist states.
Keep your powder dry. Stock up on stored goods (food, water and meds).
Please fly your idiot foreign Ukraine flag. That way I’ll know who to come and take my supplies from when civil war 2 starts.
I’m not your friend. I’m @Real_American
Well written!
“A Constitutional Republic, ma’am, if you can keep it.”
Very well said.
Where is the reporting on how troubled the ice agent who shot the young man in Biddeford is? How about the poor training ice agents receive?
The truth is that if local law enforcement turned over the criminals to ICE then none of this would have happened. The DEMOCRATS cause all of this and now they want an investigation to blame someone else
@Proud anti-Semite
Why are you here, why are you not living in a hate America / Israel country. Probably because they would hate you as well.
How about a public service announcement educating all people how to behave when stopped by law enforcement.
What to do with the violent agitators ? Give those of us who are totally fed up a green light to handle it.
A quote I can’t attribute comes to mind, ” severity is the antidote to irresponsibility”.
A member of the media and a politician being disrespected, and you are surprised? Talk about needing a wakeup call!
Excellent letter. What amazed me about the day-long demonstrations was not the presence of retired old boomers, but all the young working age people who stirred up much of the violent rhetoric we saw. Who’s paying for them to spend days putting on these theatrics?
I have the solution for these Soros/CCP paid protesters:
Skunk piss squirt guns. Brings them to their knees, and last for days.
First of all, you can’t tell me that these “protestors” are not paid employees of ppl like George Soreass, second, it scares me to think that at some point, the average working person is going to get fed up and take a stand against these “Protestors”, and it’s not going to be pretty.
I’m old enough to remember when if someone whacked another with a skateboard or threw any projectile at the governor, in the presence of multiple police officers, there would be arrests.
The people pictured in the press at the “riots” in Biddeford Saco and OOB
Are not any one I know. I have lived here since 1959. These people are not Mainers. Please investigate.
This article brought a sense of understanding regarding this tragedy. If we study the REALITY of facts with intention to resolve (instead of reacting on emotional adrenaline) we may become more tolerable as humans… leading to hope for a troubled state and country. Thank you Jon for your courage to pursue the truth.
Hear! Hear! Shout it from the rooftops, political harassment and intimidation have no place in a democracy. Fostering political division by shaming and blaming those who disagree with you are leading us down a troublesome track indeed. The announcement forthcoming that the Maine Wire has grown a conscience and will henceforth stop fanning the flames of hate under the guise of investigative journalism is welcome news. Since its inception the Maine Wire’s entire business model has been to rile up its readers to blame immigrants and especially democrats for all of the world’s evils while offering choice tidbits to support grand conspiracies. While I agree wholeheartedly with the message of this piece the level of hypocrisy taken to write it with a straight face shows either unprecedented arrogance or willful ignorance of what the Maine Wire’s is. Take the closing comment lamenting “a society that is forgetting how to disagree without hatred”. Finding an article here that takes this high road are few and far between, and one only need to read the comment section of most articles here to witness the echo chamber of hate being promoted and fostered here. See how this is done? No hate, no name calling, just a debate where we can agree to disagree. But to not see the Maine Wire as exactly the type of “journalism” destroying our nation is beyond tone deaf.