In a rainy Japanese forest, a samurai is murdered and his wife is raped. At the trial of the accused, several eyewitnesses, including the wife and the accused man, relate completely different versions of what they saw. This is the narrative of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 cinema masterpiece “Rashomon.”
Opinion
Kurosawa’s film explores the phenomenon of multiple people seeing the same event, yet coming to very different conclusions about what they saw. It also examines the reasons for this disagreement about the truth among rational people.
“Rashomon” is good reference material for us when we think about and react to the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, and the competing narratives that have arisen about what really happened.
During the course of the film, each witness and their individual backgrounds and beliefs are described, and questions are asked regarding those external effects on the witnesses’ perception of the crime. Each witness comes from a different level of the class system in post-feudal Japan, and each has their own experience with power and justice in their society.
Each witness is also motivated by personal imperatives like how their neighbors will perceive them after they testify, what they can gain from the outcome of the trial and what they will put at risk by telling the truth. Personal animosities, affections and grudges also weigh heavily on each person’s testimony.
Even a mystic Shinto monk, who claims to channel the voice of the murdered samurai, is called to testify, and that testimony widely diverges from all the other perceptions of the event. In “Rashomon,” even the victim has his own unique understanding of what happened to him based largely upon a lifelong devotion to the samurai code of Bushido.
No cell phones or body cams digitally recorded the murder in that rainy forest, so there’s no record, other than human memories, of the event. In fact, I don’t recall a single example of technology in the whole movie. No telephones, televisions or automobiles, just human beings with their widely varied ideas about the truth of what happened.
But there exist many recorded images of Renee Good dying at the hands of an ICE agent, and it seems like a new recording emerges daily with a different angle of the killing. Video recordings don’t lie. A camera has no cultural bias nor a political bone to pick. It just captures an event that can be viewed over and over again.
And yet, with all of the photographic and video evidence available to us, there is still an argument raging over what really happened in that cold Minneapolis street. The videos and pictures, which should have answered everyone’s questions, seem to have instead intensified the debate.
Why is that?
Because each person seeing the video isn’t seeing it objectively, but rather through the subjective lens of their own lifetime of experience, cultural and religious teaching, political bias and all the other factors coloring the witnesses’ testimony in “Rashomon.” In short, we see what we want to see.
That is precisely how different viewers of the same video can claim it offers different “proof.” The ICE agent was the aggressor. Renee Good was the aggressor. It was self-defense. It was murder. And so on.
The viewer’s societal and political biases paint the picture the viewer wants to see. In the case of this killing in Minneapolis, millions of different viewers reach wildly different conclusions for different reasons based on the same visual evidence.
Cognitive traps such as these biases are incredibly difficult to overcome because they make up so much of how we think of ourselves as good citizens. But they cloud the world before our eyes, and make objective truth hard to see. And I don’t mean just what happened on the street in Minneapolis, but everywhere around us.
I don’t believe in a magic wand that can instantly correct our collective myopia and remove the scales from our eyes, but I do think that, once we understand that our biases distort what we see, then we can take steps to correct our own vision.
And once we see more clearly, we can act more intelligently.
I think Renee Good’s last words 30 seconds before she died tell us more about the incident than any camera could.
Kristi Noem was in a hurry to paint a picture of Ms Good as a “domestic terrorist”. President Trump was quick to defend the killing as an attempt to run the officer over, so he fired in self defense. A picture is worth a thousand words….just as the actual footage from the Jan 6th “peaceful demonstration” proves beyond a doubt that it was indeed anything other than a peaceful gathering, so does the videos circulating surrounding this shooting. Officer Ross positioned himself in front of the vehicle. Why would you do that? Prior to that he had walked around the car with his cell phone presumably taking a video. After the shooting he walked to the victims car, signaled for 911, said something on his phone, walked back to his vehicle and left. Not one ICE officer attempted to give emergency first aid. This whole fiasco is such a tragedy. I wasn’t there, I can only watch, read n draw my own conclusions. I do respect Homan for at least being professional enough to wait to see the outcome of the investigation before drawing any conclusions. I do believe it should be a joint investigation between the FBI and MN BCA, however that is not going to happen, and so there in is the real rub.
BTW, the quote from 1984, George Orwell is so spot on.
Some of the comments here amaze me. After spending 21 years of my life in this countries uniform I am thoroughly disgusted by what I defended. Some in the comments want all the Jan 6 folks dead, some wat all the current protesters dead… what in the world is wrong with you? I cannot fathom that depth of depravity. I hope you have to not ever sleep with the deeds of your words.
I have spent years dreading the destruction that military trained personnel will perform in this country once they get done harassing citizens in others. This country was founded on providing for the General Welfare and the Common Defense, not conducting world wide operations that benefit bomb/bullet makers who have no regard for human life (see General Smedley Butler). The last justified war the US fought was WWII and I know you did not participate in that action.
It disgusts me that my tax dollars pay you a pension for life and then you have the gall to say we are the depraved ones. It was military trained personnel that agitated the “cannon fodder” into storming our US Capitol on January 6th in the only attempt ever to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Do you think the statements made by Renee and the ICE agent may shed some light on their state of mind and intentions? Renee right before she was killed: “Hey, I’m not mad at you dude.” ICE agent right after he killed her: “Fucking bitch.” Dave Gustafson
The Hindhu parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant is what I immediately compared Minneapolis to. Same same.
I’ve watched the Minneapolis ICEcapade videos a couple dozen times , with and without expert analyses and forensics , slo-mo, freeze frames, and the protocols similar to what is used by the tech guys in the booth who adjudicate really close contested NFL football plays. I know what me and everyone else saw in the multitude of witness vids, including the ICE agent’s own body cam.
The updated parable become deaf dumb and blind MAGA and the Wooly Mammoth.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into history and became truth.” – George Orwell, 1984
ICE was armed; Ms. Good wasn’t. She was murdered; ICE agent was unharmed.
Conclusion: by exercising the power of the goon squad, the ICE agent was obviously within his rights; by being shot in the head, Ms. Good was obviously to blame for her own victimhood.
Very well said
It’s telling that the trolls defending the actions of ICE are also the ones who defend the cowardly traitors of January 6th.
Good little lemmings….slurp slurp
Chuck, neither Renee Good or Ashli Babbitt (Jan.6) deserved to be shot.
Both officers should face prosecution.
Do you agree?
Nope. Ashli Babbitt should have been surrounded by dead traitors as she disobeyed numerous officers of the law before she got what she deserved. Renee Good was fleeing a taxpayer funded thug that should have never been on her street and was executed for that act.
Spoken by someone who has never ever been in harms way. From either direction.
Chad, I watched the video of Ms Babbitt being shot. One officer facing multiple individuals who had just broken a window and she was crawling thru, pandemonium, shouting, agitation. That officer feared for his life…..did she deserve to die? Of course not. Should the officer have just let the mob destroy public property, perhaps sustain personal injury? Of course not. So is there a right n wrong here?
Quite awhile ago, after one of the myriad school shootings occurred, I realized that the wisest way for me to think about the who, what, when and where, was to not listen or watch anything about the event. This was because within minutes, the media (TV, radio and social) all were reporting so many different theories and claimed to even know who the shooter was. Separating myself for this allowed me to actually wait for facts to appear and lead ultimately to the right person.
As pointed out in your opinion piece the immediate release of the videos available at the time, the politicians picking their sides were just overwhelming and impossible to avoid. Everyone picked a corner immediately and no one has moved one iota since their initial reaction.
The mayor of Portland, OR was speaking after the immediate reaction of the streets of Portland after the Minneapolis shooting by begging everyone to remain calm and wait for the facts to come out. No one did.
What I see is that the GOP voted to defund science and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in order to hire a Federal Gestapo with no accountability for a clear execution. These ICE thugs are Nazi Brownshirts, not Samurai. I love our form of government as some actors are “more accountable” than others and in this case the GOP owns this shit show.
If Harris had been elected then Renee Good would still be alive and that’s a fact. One can quibble about the first missed shot, but the 2nd one was unnecessary and an out right execution. In your tale, you describe a trial where everyone gets a say, but in this case the executioner is being protected by the most powerful man on the planet and he has no honor or code except to enrich himself, no matter the lives lost.
Greg, this nation is nearly 40 TRILLION dollars in debt.
The politicians dont cut a thing in order to pay for something else.
If Kamala Harris had done the job she was tasked to as VP (“stem the movement of so many people”), maybe we wouldnt have MASSIVE overreach dealing with 11 million people that flooded this country in 4 short years.
What happened to Renee Good happens often across this country, almost to the point that one might believe officers are trained to put themselves in a perceived position of danger to justify using lethal force to stop someone fleeing.
It’s been going on a long time, Denver paid 1 million dollars to this girls family 10 years ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/29/mother-girl-killed-denver-police-autopsy
Our Constitution has been torn apart. The Rule of Law, has once again, become rule by the gun. We have no first amendment rights anymore, unless our speech conforms to the dogma of the party in power and their sycophantic supporters. The fourth and tenth amendments are summarily ignored as well. The only amendment that seems to have any legal conveyance is the second amendment. The killing that goes on from the wrong people having guns, qualifies in diachronic lore with times one might refer to as “The Wild Wild West”, when most conflicts were brutally settled, one way or another, from the barrel of a six gun. There was little possibility for dialogue, as whomever was the fastest draw, usually prevailed to draw another day. The Rule of Law deferred to rule by the gun. Are we really so divided that our country is sliding back into that violent era? Are lies and propaganda from both sides the out of control vehicles that will transport us to the destruction of Democracy?
There is only one side that ignores the 9th Commandment and the 9th Amendment – it is the GOP, you know the Party with Christians as its base. I was a Republican for awhile, because of the left’s stance on the #2A, but I soon realized that was the only Amendment or part of the Constitution that the GOP supported and they did so to take away the rule of law for everyone, except themselves. That never works out, so I am a Wyoming Democrat that supports all of the Constitution, including the #2A. Psst, Wyoming GOP, you do not have to fight for your rights. like our ancestors, all you have to do is switch parties, but that seems to be a Rubicon that will not be crossed. Ah Pride….
If I recall correctly, weren’t you the individual that said their were paramilitary groups training for action in the near future? Looks like you were correct and they are carrying on the traditions of most war fighters by shooting women, children and the aged first. Ain’t that America. I have a D by my name, but if you think you can intimidate me with your ridiculous Molan Labe or Proud Boys regalia, you got another thing coming. Happy 250th….maybe.
Mr. Hunter: “If I recall correctly, weren’t you the individual that said their were paramilitary groups training for action in the near future?” Just because I pointed out that some Americans were doing that, I did not mean to give anybody the impression I wanna join in. “I have a D by my name, but if you think you can intimidate me with your ridiculous Molan Labe or Proud Boys regalia, you got another thing coming.” I don’t know who you think I am pardner, but it’s damn sure not a republican, a proud boy or even a democrat, though I’ve voted that way quite a lot since 1972. I’m an old man (74) who, although I own guns, is also a man who reads and respects history, which I see being repeated to our detriment almost daily. If you actually read all of my post, which I don’t think you did, you might have realized it has nothing to do with what you have stated in that sentence. It’s actually calling out both sides for their ignorance of history, which I believe is taking us toward the destruction of Democracy. If I may, I would like to make a personal request of my own: “Please read it all again, and hopefully the second time it’s not above you. Otherwise, Rod is spot on when he says: “We see what we want to see”, which I will paraphrase, “we read and interpret what we want to hear”.
Mr. Stocks, thanks for the clarification as I took your comment about the paramilitary training as a veiled threat, which came out in my reply to you. I am firmly convinced that the only way to really communicate clearly and completely is face to face.
I would love to buy you a coffee or a beer and discuss history sometime as I do with Rod on occasion. Thanks again.
Greg, Having been on the Internet since the early 90’s when dial up bulletin boards were the fledgling social media platform, I fully agree that it is pretty easy to misunderstand what is typed out on a keyboard. For me it lacks the eye contact, hand gestures and facial expressions that comprise true personal human communication. On top of that, we can stack the sad reality that many people tend to say things from what I call the depersonalized cyber distance that exists behind a computer screen, that they would never dare say to anyone face to face. Yes, I would like to meet you some day and have a conversation over coffee or a beer. I don’t travel much anymore, but you are more than welcome to stop by anytime, Bill.
Partisan Blindness infects most of this nation. 2 sides desperately trying to retain the power over each other.
What doesnt change is the Praetorians that enFORCE for the “elected representatives”.
Essentially Americans are only outraged at the tyranny they arent in favor of.
Rod- thanks for your editorial in the Renee Good killing in Minnesota. Hopefully, some narrow minded folks will read this and realize that there may be an opinion that differs from their own, though I doubt. The quote, “history is written by the winners,” is a reflection of the point you make. Let’s hope cooler heads will rise above “gestapo” views and better action will result!
Excellent lesson into how things are perceived and the fragility of eyewitness accounts. Also, as to how people are influenced by what others think and believe in.