This past weekend there were hundreds of demonstrations across the United States after Renee Good, an American citizen and mother of three, was shot dead by Jonathan Ross, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, in Minnesota.

The anger has permeated throughout the NBA as well. Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers, the head coaches of the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks respectively, described Good’s death as “murder”. Kerr also attacked the Trump administration’s attempts to portray Good as a terrorist.

“It’s shameful that the government can come out and lie about what happened when there’s video and witnesses who have all come out and disputed what the government is saying,” Kerr said.

Meanwhile, a fan at the Minnesota Timberwolves home game on Thursday yelled “Go Home ICE” during a moment of silence for Good. Many in the crowd responded with cheers.

Most rational thinking people, then, seem to be in agreement on the subject. And then there’s Stephen A Smith. The ESPN hot-take machine seemed to align himself with the Trump regime’s assessment of Good’s death. Here are his exact words.

“I saw the video on numerous occasions and seeing what transpired from a lawful perspective as it pertains to a law enforcement official, don’t expect him to be prosecuted. He was completely justified,” Smith said.

“From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did you have to do that? If you could move out the way, that means you could have shot the tires. That means you could have got a few feet away after you shot the tires. And if you were unsuccessful in doing that, you could have got her down the road.

“You didn’t have to do that. She wasn’t driving down the road coming at you 90 miles an hour. She was parked in the middle of the street, and rather than get out the car, she wrongfully tried to drive off and wrongfully disregarded a law enforcement official, which is exactly what ICE is, and, as a result, lost her life because of it.”

Making the argument that a woman who posed absolutely no immediate threat at the same time deserved to be shot in the face is as disheartening as it is illogical. Like so many of the Maga crowd, who don’t seem to take as harsh a line on the January 6 rioters who definitely didn’t comply with law enforcement when they stormed the Capitol, Smith’s rhetoric appears to be blaming Good for her own death when he emphasizes she “wrongfully disregarded an order”.

Understandably, this brought on a swift condemnation of Smith. Don Lemon called him a “disappointment”, while former ESPN personality Keith Olbermann called for his firing. Veteran broadcaster Soledad O’Brien said that Smith simply does not understand many of the issues he speaks about once he strays from sports. “Stephen A Smith consistently jumps into issues, whether it’s politics or social issues, or in this case a legal issue that looks at how law enforcement is supposed to react, with zero knowledge or expertise and happily weighs in,” she said.

In response, Smith said his words had been twisted and reported out of context. “I’m talking about legality when I’m talking about justification, nothing else,” Smith said. “Everything else about it is wrong. Morally and ethically wrong.” But he still maintained much of his original position. “In the moment when you are dealing with law enforcement officials, you obey their orders so you can get home safely,” he said one day later in a lengthy segment designed to clean up his original remarks. “Renee Good did not do that.”

The problem is that just because something is a law does not mean that it is just. Yes, law enforcement officials often escape punishment because of qualified immunity. But, as Chuck Modi, my co-host on The Collision: Where Sports And Politics Collide, points out: “If you’re going to make that point, the next thing out of your mouth should be that that is a terrible law. And he didn’t say that.”

If Smith doesn’t condemn the law, the message he is sending is that, in his not so humble opinion, the law is OK. It’s important to remember that every law is not a good law. The Jim Crow laws were legal. Slavery was legal for much of America’s history. Stating that something is legal, without any further exploration, isn’t enough.

Smith is beginning to sound like another media figure he has long attacked: Jason Whitlock. Both have echoed Maga talking points, positioning themselves as the Black faces figures on the right can point to and say, “See, he agrees with us, so we can’t be racist.” It’s why Maga platforms welcome them so readily – they are seen as allies, on their side, the “good ones”.

Smith and Whitlock are not unaware of any of this. “Stephen A Smith has done the math,” O’Brien told me. “This is what you have to say if you want to have the audience that he is trying to build. A rabid audience that will stand by you. And that audience has a financial value. I’m past being disappointed.”

My hope is that one day Smith and Whitlock experience the kind of personal and racial reckoning depicted at the end of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, when Manray, played by Savion Glover, looks in the mirror and realizes he can no longer wear blackface and tap dance for a white audience that has rewarded him with fame and fortune. That Smith and Whitlock come to see that the gold coins and head pats from Maga hands are no longer worth the cost, and finally hang up their tap shoes for good. But I won’t hold my breath.