Let’s analyze what ICE agents have been doing. If we look at this logically we may possibly come to a conclusion as to the intent behind their actions.
Why did agents use a helicopter to fast rope onto an apartment building in Chicago (Propublica)? Chasing people from the top of a building down gives them an escape route. The correct tactic is to come in the building from the ground level and pursue them up. The raid resulted in no arrests despite claims there were Venezuelan gang members living there.
Why did Johnathan Ross stop his car to deal with a vehicle blocking one lane that other agents drove around (Youtube)? His primary mission was supposed to be to arrest some dangerous brown people. He ended up shooting Renee Good, one round in the windshield while standing beside the car and two into the drivers side window as she tried to drive away.
Why did ICE agents dog pile Alex Pretti and then shoot him while he was on the ground (Huffington Post)? Affecting an arrest is as easy as having him hand over his weapon, put his hands on his head and then turn around.
In the two cases above the government released videos after the fact to downplay the events.
The shooting of Renee Good was preceeded by some fairly light hearted trash talking on the part of the victim’s girl friend. If you can’t take verbal abuse a career in law enforcement is not for you.
In the case of Pretti he had 11 days earlier spit at an ICE agent and kicked the tail light of the agent’s car. If taken to court the judge would have made him pay for the tail light and ripped the prosecutors a new one for wasting his time. The people’s money would also be wasted as it cost more to conduct court for half an hour than to replace the light. He would not have given Pretti a seat on death row.
Why do agents routinely manhandle people? They drag disabled people out of their cars (Independent). They spray people in the face with mace. They tackle people they are supposed to be arresting. All of this is being video recorded and they know it (Youtube).
Announcing what cities they will be operating in and then parading around putting on a big show is a warning to criminals. Any real criminals in Minneapolis left days before ICE moved into their taxpayer funded hotel rooms.
I listened to a right wing mouthpiece on Fox radio trying to say that people criticizing ICE and calling them out for the fascists they are endangers the agents’ lives. He’s dead wrong, he is lying and he knows it. He is trying to get people to self censor – and here’s why.
The reaction to this shit show is exactly why they are using these tactics. The helicopters, shootings, gangland style manhandling of people and parading through the streets in uniform is creating the backlash. This is obviously the intent. The verbal attacks and writings like this blog are a reaction to the strategies. Not the other way around. If anything is endangering ICE officer lives it’s the these strategies that are intentionally designed to create a backlash.
The lives that are really in danger are quite obviously the lives of everyday citizens who’s cities have been invaded by these incompetent show boating clowns.
They had to hire these losers and pay them a $50K bonus to sign up because no experienced law enforcement personnel would do this stupid crap. It’s dangerous and it’s ineffective. The idea is to normalize quasi military actions in the streets to some people. They are to intimidate other Americans into submission or to create a backlash. They will then use that reaction for mass detentions of Americans. And tell the Fox News guy they’ll take away his firearm too.