Patriot Brief
Viral claims that ICE ran over a protester in Tennessee collapsed once dashcam footage was released.
Activist outrage again raced ahead of facts, fueled by an already inflamed anti-ICE climate.
The episode highlights how law enforcement is routinely demonized before evidence is examined.
This is how misinformation works now: fast, loud, and indifferent to reality.
Within minutes, the accusation was everywhere — ICE agents had run over a protester in Tennessee. The verdict was rendered before anyone bothered to ask what actually happened. Activists and influencers amplified the claim not because it was verified, but because outrage was the objective.
Then the facts arrived. And the story fell apart.
Dashcam footage released by the Tennessee Highway Patrol showed exactly what social media had ignored: no one was run over. The individual clung to the vehicle, lay down, stood up, and walked away. The patrol’s statement was blunt and unambiguous. The viral narrative was false.
That should have ended the story. It didn’t.
The reason this kind of claim spreads so easily is obvious. ICE has become a political symbol rather than a law enforcement agency in the public imagination. In the current climate, accusations don’t need proof — they just need the right villain. Once that box is checked, facts become optional.
This is especially dangerous given the moment we’re in. Tensions are already high following the tragic death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, an incident that is still being investigated and debated. People are angry, emotional, and primed to believe the worst. But that emotional volatility doesn’t excuse abandoning basic standards of truth.
ICE agents and other federal officers operate under constant scrutiny, often in hostile environments, making split-second decisions that will later be dissected by people who weren’t there and don’t understand the legal boundaries involved. They don’t get the luxury of narrative control. By the time evidence surfaces, the damage is already done.
That’s the real harm here. False accusations don’t just mislead the public — they actively endanger officers by inflaming hostility and eroding trust. When every encounter is framed as proof of malice, it invites escalation, not accountability.
None of this is to say law enforcement should be immune from criticism. Serious incidents demand serious investigation. But investigation is not the same thing as ideological prosecution. Turning every protest encounter into a referendum on an entire agency is reckless, and doing it with demonstrably false claims is worse.
What happened in Tennessee should infuriate anyone who still cares about truth. It’s a case study in how quickly a lie can harden into assumed reality — and how quietly the correction gets ignored.
ICE agents are not cartoon villains. They are law enforcement professionals doing difficult, often dangerous work under a microscope of political hostility. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make communities safer. It just guarantees that the next false accusation will spread even faster.
From Western Journal:
The accusation detonated online in minutes: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had run over a protester in Tennessee.
The claim spread with the familiar certainty of a verdict already reached, amplified by activists and influencers who didn’t wait for facts because outrage was the point.
On Sunday, an anti-ICE protest in Memphis garnered all sorts of attention due to, as WREG reported, “a viral video circulating on social media that appeared to show a trooper hitting a demonstrator.”
Given the inflamed tensions between the left and ICE following last week’s tragic incident involving a Minneapolis woman who died after driving her car toward an ICE agent, it’s little wonder this blew up.
There’s just one (rather significant) problem with that narrative: It collapsed as soon as authorities released dashcam footage that highlighted the truth of the matter.
Take a look at the video, courtesy of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and see for yourself if ICE did indeed run over a protester:
Well. Would you look at that.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol flatly stated, “Claims circulating on social media that a person was hit by a THP trooper in Memphis are false. Video shows the individual holding the vehicle, lying down, then standing up and leaving on his own.”
The post added, “Peaceful protest is protected. Entering active roadways is not and risks lives.”
This specific debacle should be utterly infuriating for anyone who cares even a shred about things like the truth. And it should be doubly infuriating for anyone who can actually be bipartisan long enough to realize that ICE and other authorities are simply trying to do good.
ICE and other federal law enforcement agents operate in an environment where every split-second decision is judged in hindsight by millions who weren’t there, don’t understand the law, and often don’t care about nuance.
They are tasked with upholding the rule of law in communities that increasingly resent their presence, even when what they’re doing is legal, necessary, and aimed squarely at protecting public safety.
This isn’t theoretical — it’s the day-to-day reality of men and women who wake up each morning knowing they will face hostility before they ever reach their first assignment.
The backlash following recent incidents makes that point painfully clear.
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