Ely Bauer

This was written by someone, not me. But sums it up pretty well, what was she thinking? I’m a mother, so I’m going to comment right now. I will say this exactly the way a mother thinks it, raw, direct, and without pretending this is complicated. A 37-year-old woman. Three kids. Middle of a work week. The father of those children is dead. She is the parent left. The one job she has above every cause, every protest, every headline, is getting home to her kids. And what is she doing instead? She’s out of state (other reports claim she lives there), in the street, in her car, blocking federal agents who are doing their job. Not alone! Her partner is right there filming her like this is some brave little documentary moment. Around them: sirens blaring, people yelling, pure chaos, manufactured chaos, so agents can’t do their lawful duty. Her window is down. She hears the orders. She understands the orders. She ignores the orders. Then she puts the car in reverse. Still doesn’t comply. Then she puts it in drive, NOT park! She moves forward into the agent. That’s not “confusion.” That’s not “panic.” That’s decision after decision after decision. Now put yourself in the agent’s shoes for half a second. A driver is already in an unlawful act! refusing commands in a hostile, chaotic scene, and now that driver uses a vehicle to move toward you. You get a split second. You don’t get the luxury of “Maybe she’s just stressed.” You have to assume the worst, you have to think of protecting other people like the partner at the window, because if you assume the best and you’re wrong, you don’t go home or someone else. So the agent fires after she makes an intentional and aggressive move toward him, because he has no idea what her intentions are, and she just demonstrated she’s willing to escalate. Now… imagine her three kids. At school. Sitting there like any other day. Not knowing their mother is out playing street-hero games for criminals in the middle of a work week, with the two adults responsible for them! She didn’t think about them. She didn’t think, “If I get arrested, who picks my babies up?” She didn’t think, “If I get hurt, who raises them?” She didn’t think, “If I die, they have nobody.” She thought about protecting criminals. She thought about interfering with federal agents. She thought about the camera. She thought about the crowd. She thought about the moment. There is no amount of evidence, money, tears on TV, or news spin that can make this make sense. As a mother: NOTHING about this makes sense. At minimum, she knew her actions could get her arrested. At minimum. And she still chose it. She chose strangers. She chose chaos. She chose lawlessness. Make it make sense, because the only thing I see is three kids who just got abandoned by the only parent they had left, not by accident… but by a series of deliberate choices.