Renee Good’s Family: How to Explain State Violence to a 4-Yr-Old

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As Luke Ganger testifies on Capitol Hill, a grieving family exposes how federal use of force is reshaping Minneapolis—and America’s conscience

By TRH World Desk

New Delhi, February 4, 2026 — When Luke Ganger walked into a Capitol Hill hearing room, he did not come armed with statistics, legal jargon, or partisan talking points. He came with a question his four-year-old daughter asked him—and one the United States has yet to answer.

“How do I explain to my child what federal agents are doing to our city?”

Ganger was testifying alongside his brother Brent on behalf of their sister, Renee Good—known to her family as Naya—a woman he described not as a symbol, but as a human being: a sister, daughter, mother, partner, and friend. Someone whose life, he said, was lost “in a violent and unnecessary way.”

The family’s distress, Ganger told lawmakers, is not just rooted in grief but in disbelief. In the weeks following Renee’s death, they clung to the hope that her loss might at least spark change. Instead, what they witnessed on the streets of Minneapolis felt “completely surreal.”

“This is not a bad day. Not a rough week. Not isolated incidents,” Ganger warned. “These encounters with federal agents are changing the community—and changing lives forever.”

His testimony cut through the abstractions that often dominate debates over federal use of force. This was not a policy argument; it was a moral reckoning. A father explaining to Congress that his child believes there are “no bad people,” only mistakes—and that her faith in that idea is now colliding with armoured vehicles, riot gear, and armed agents patrolling her city.

Ganger emphasized: his family looks like America. They vote differently. Worship differently. Sometimes not at all. Yet they remained united—especially now—refusing to let political identities erase shared humanity.

That unity, he said, reflected Renee herself. A woman remembered for carrying “peace, patience, and love” wherever she went.