One of the most loathsome feelings I remember when I was an 11 or 12-year-old in the early years of Lebanon’s civil war was instinctively slinking down in the back seat of my mother’s red VW Beetle as she would drive up to a checkpoint manned by goons in ski masks, as they always were. Regular Army soldiers never were. Police officers never were. But these degenerates were. They had sidelined army and police, usurped their power and imposed themselves on us.
It didn’t matter if it was our own Christian militias, the ones supposedly protecting us, or the militias on the other side, the PLO and its Lebanese Muslim allies, who were actively killing us, though since we rarely dared cross into enemy territory–you could end up with your throat cut if the guy at the checkpoint was having a bad day–it was usually our own Christian degenerates my mother had to deal with. For all we knew some of them had been pimply adolescents on her kids’ TV show a couple of years back. Some of them still were.
They could have been and likely had been choir boys, as we all had to be. But they were all goons. High on impunity, dangling their AK-47s and using their index fingers like gavels, pointing us this way and that, vulgarly flirting with my mother or talking to her like she was their slut not because they had to but because they could, because harassing and insulting and demeaning was their way to stroke their sullen masculinity. They behaved like brutes because they knew they had the power. They knew they could abuse it. They knew we could do nothing about it as they abused us. And they were on our side.
Because that’s what the combination of weapons and masks does. It doesn’t matter who you are. They erase accountability. They erase your name, your person, your humanity, your reason to have a shred of respect. They turn you into a scumbag drunk on power. If you’ve never had the professional training of a police officer or a sheriff’s deputy, if you’ve never walked a beat, reassured a scared neighbor or maintained a modicum of dignity while arresting a suspect, and you’re masked, armed and empowered, you’re a lost cause.
That’s what masked federal agents pretending to police our streets are. You can excuse their mission. If we as a nation have decided that we must deport undocumented, criminal migrants–it wouldn’t be the first time: the Obama years were no cakewalk for the undocumented, rivaling Eisenhower’s cruel war on “wetbacks”–then they must be deported.
But we’ve not decided that it’s OK if 95 percent of those rounded up, shackled and humiliated in front of their kids and families, or with their kids and families, have no criminal record. We’ve not decided to be thugs and killers about it and outdo in criminality the alleged crimes of the deported. We’ve not decided to ape Honduran paramilitary tactics to deport Hondurans –ignoring as we do the reason why Hondurans and other Central Americans are desperate to escape to the United States in the first place: because the United States, the Obama administration not excluded, supported murderous right-wing regimes that made life hell for millions. Some of the wretched refuse trekked north to what they thought was still a golden door. You would have done no less if you were in their shoes. Not only do you not mind them being deported and rendered to other countries’ prisons. You defend the killing of your fellow-citizens who get in the way, though usually from the masked cowardice of anonymity.
After Renee Nicole Good was executed by a trigger-happy ICE agent on a Minnesota street earlier this month, our president blamed the victim as members of his cabinet called Renee Good a terrorist out to kill federal agents. Video evidence quickly disproved that. Days later when a posse of masked ICE agents executed the Good Samaritan Alex Pretti on another Minnesota street, this time firing 10 shots, the president and his sycophants declared Pretty a terrorist out to massacre federal agents with a 9 mm gun. Copious video evidence proved that Pretti was not brandishing a gun but a phone, which ICE agents have reason to fear more than guns. He had a permit to carry his 9 mm, which he never took out, never reached for and apparently never thought about.
It was an ICE agent who saw it on Pretti’s hip and took it. As the ICE agent was walking away, another one fired the first shot at the unarmed Pretti, who had until then been under the control of several of the masked men, prompting other goons to join the carnage and fire away. The same trove of video evidence shows the posse acting with the discipline of weekend militia morons brawning it up in the woods of Northern Idaho. I saw my old Lebanese Christian militiamen reincarnated, and I thought, again feeling like a worm in the back of my mother’s Beetle: Fuck them. I’d have spat in their face, too, and done more than break their taillights, had I the courage. I was not that courageous.
After the Trump base’s claims that Pretti was out for blood crashed, the next line of attack was that Pretti had no business being near an ICE scene armed. And so in one fell swoop, the maga radicals have declared that the First and Second Amendments have been repealed, at least when they apply to a leftist Minnesotan nurse.
Kyle Rittenhouse, the vigilante teenager who provocatively brandished an AR-15 in the middle of a Wisconsin demonstration protesting the killing of Jacob Blake in 2020, killed two people and wounded a third. He was lionized by the right and acquitted of all charges at trial, a correct verdict if you only consider the moment of threat against Rittenhouse–he was chased, and at that moment he was reasonably under threat–but an atrocious verdict if, as is now a Supreme Court standard, you consider all the circumstances Rittenhouse created that led to the killings.
Rittenhouse is still lionized while Pretti is demonized as our mania for guns and our equally disturbing mania for violence is now in a duel with constitutional rights that don’t change based on ideological weather. Even conceding that Rittenhouse had the right to shoot to kill, his behavior can be attributed to that of a stupid hotheaded teen playing Dirty Harry. We expect more from our federal agents. We are getting far less. There is no question now that Minnesota in particular and the country at large is under siege from ICE, an instrument of state terror stocked with amateur weekend warriors not one ski mask’s different from those goons I once knew in Lebanon.
Give me my local sheriff’s deputies’ professionalism over these scumbags anyday. At least my deputies don’t shoot to kill, even in the numberless times they’ve had reason to. They don’t wear masks. They don’t wear pretend cowboy hats. They’re not performing for their cameras and the president’s sadistic gratification, as those goons are.
The veteran and conservative columnist David French has a no-brainer suggestion: “Take off their masks. End their immunities. Limit their jurisdiction. Restrain their tactics.” I would also add that any ICE agent hired in the past year has no business playing cop on our streets. That every agent should wear a bodycam. That the era of ICE as a law unto itself, trampling the Constitution as it pretends to protect it, go the way of the protofascist Gregory Bovino. That might be some way to ending the Rittenhousing of America, though I doubt it will. Not with a salivating Rittenhouse as president.
Pierre Tristam is the editor of FlaglerLive. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
FedUp says
Sadly, had these two people who lost their lives stayed home where they belonged, or God forbid, were at work instead of out grandstanding over something they have no control over, they’d be still alive. Truth hurts no matter how much MSM twists the facts.
But you liberals will never understand, and you certainly couldn’t walk in the shoes of an ICE Agent. Instead, you’ll bash them, and all that is good for America, then “Monday Morning Quarterback” everything hiding behind your keyboard, not having a clue what these agents go through day in and day out. What a bunch of pathetic, weak-minded individuals who need to mind their own business and allow ICE to do their jobs without scrutiny.
Now you “sheep” go ahead and do what you do best, bash me from your keyboard safe haven, because most of us know you’ll never be among the “lions”. Cowards.
Sherry says
@ fedup. . . I believe you may not realise just how poor you are. As I previously posted:
My granddaddy taught me to never argue with Cowards and Fools. That is why I try to choose those I engage with carefully. While I strive to have compassion for those who lost their moral compass during childhood, my time is much too precious to help them find it.
The true measure of a person is based on the “value” they bring to others during their lifetimes. Certainly, many who comment here are unaware that they are actually “poor”. . . just like their Lord and Master trump:
* Poor in Character and Principles
* Poor in Mental and Emotional Health
* Poor in Honor
* Poor in Seeking Truth and Creating Trust
* Poor in Building Loving Relationships
* Poor in Wisdom
* Poor in Caring for the Disadvantaged
* Poor in Caring for the Planet We Share With Others
* Poor in Self Esteem
All of these human endeavors/characteristics are much more valuable than “GOLD”!
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
What’s your favorite flavor of shoe polish?
Laurel says
Orange.
Sandra Sites says
Sheep and cowards? Rich coming from someone who posts anonymously. Be brave enough to state your name.
Sandra Sites
Mothersworry says
These pussies that you worship are nothing but a glorified street gang. Check with any CV or LEO, they know what they are. Real ICE members are embarrassed by these clowns. How would you like to go into combat with these wannabes? First round that goes by you’d find yourself alone as they retreated, but I bet you would run faster than them.
DaleL says
@FedUp, your post is that of a “sheep”.
It is the pathetic, weak-minded individuals who stay home. Who refuse to stand up for their Constitutional rights. It is every American’s right to peacefully protest (1st Amendment). It is every American’s right to keep and to carry firearms, in a well regulated manner (2nd Amendment). It is every American’s right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures (4th Amendment).
Further, by going masked, without visible identification (In disguise), I.C.E. agents may be in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was enacted to enforce the provisions of the 14th Amendment.
SEC. 6 of the law states: “And be it further enacted, That if two or more persons shall band or conspire together, or go in disguise upon the public highway, or upon the premises of another, with intent to violate any provision of this act, or to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise and enjoyment of any right or privilege granted or secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United Sates, or because of his having exercised the same, such persons shall be held guilty of felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined or imprisoned, or both, . . .[and] shall. . . be thereafter ineligible to, and disabled from holding, any office or place of honor, profit, or trust crested by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
starrydigirl says
Spitting in an Ice Agent’s face isn’t ‘peacefully protesting’
James says
Bravery purchased for $100K a year.
Laurel says
So it’s the “sheep” who fight for our rights in the streets as “cowards,” and it’s the good little “lions” who stay home. It’s the ever so brave who need masks. Talk about a “twist”!
FedUp has no clue how lucky he is.
Well, Pierre, some people will not get it, until it’s got them.
Joe Grenil says
Just for the record, they’re not fighting for our rights. They are fighting against the government for people who are here illegally.
Laurel says
Joe Grenil: That may be for Trump’s record, but it’s not the truth. The government is fighting against the American people. Go back and look at the photo. Do you see anything there that’s not quite normal? I mean, do they really need camo? Do they really need more pockets than a camel being driven through the desert? Do they really need masks and no ID? Do they really need unmarked vehicles? Do they really need weapons, and more gear than our local police? Do you think that maybe they need a little more training than 47 days?
Now, after you have gone back and looked at the photo, go to the library and read about history.
For the record, you really need to think it all out.
PaulT says
Actually Mr Greenil that’s not correct.
They’re defying and recording the excesses of a militarized government taskforce who are acting like violent thugs, hiding behind masks while terrorizing city after city..
And you’re on the losing side of the argument. Even Trump and now Noem have called their dogs to heel and Noem has announced that future encounters will be recorded by the agents’ bodycams which ICE and CBP previously refused to use.
As to the narrative, it’s a lie. If you really believe they’re just ‘clearing the streets’ by deporting gang members and violent cr9minals you’re a dupe brainwashed by the pro authoritarian media.
Richard Trotter says
Laurel pandering to Pierre like it lends some justification to their babbling liberal non sense. Hollow rhetoric and failed policies, the liberal playbook.
Sherry says
@richard trotter. . . “If” you want any credibility at all in this discussion, please stop trolling and post “credible evidence” for your ridiculous claims. Otherwise, you will define yourself as a hate filled person with nothing to say.
Richard Trotter says
Sherry, it’s not my fault my views do not align with the liberal handbook, which is clearly all you know how to comprehend or quote. People like you crack me up. Quoting the same old coined phrases from the liberal handbook in a desperate attempt to establish credibility.
Laurel says
Hi Pierre, you really look good today, thought I’ve never met you! I know you live on the ICW as a neighbor of mine. Really cool! I’m babbling to pander to Trotter. Is it working? Gosh, I hope so. I would hate to disappoint him, with all his logic and facts. “Liberal playbook”! I clutch my doorknocker cross around my neck as I read such brilliant assumptions!
Richard Trotter says
Thank you for proving my point
Laurel says
Richard Trotter:
Funny!
Do tell, please produce this “liberal handbook.”
I’ll produce for you the right wing handbook:
“Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical and political manifesto by Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party. The book outlines many of Hitler’s political beliefs, his political ideology, and his future plans for Germany and the world. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926. The combined volumes encompass roughly 750 pages. Emil Maurice, SS member No. 2, was prominent in early transcription, then most of the editing was done by Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess. Hitler began Mein Kampf while imprisoned at Landsberg Prison following his failed coup in Munich in November 1923 and trial in February 1924 for high treason, in which he received a sentence of five years in fortress confinement. Although he received many visitors initially, he soon devoted himself entirely to the book. As he continued, he realized that it would have to be a two-volume work.
Author Adolf Hitler
Subject Autobiography, Political manifesto, Political philosophy
Publisher Franz Eher Nachfolger GmbH
Published in English 13 October 1933 (abridged), 1939 (full)
Followed by Zweites Buch
Text ‘ at Wikisource”
You can read more at Wikipedia.
Trump is known to have had Mein Kampf at his bedside.
There is also:
“Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project) is a political initiative published in April 2023 by the Heritage Foundation with the goal of reshaping the U.S. federal government by consolidating executive power in favor of right-wing policies. It constitutes a policy document that suggests specific changes to the federal government, a personnel database for recommending vetting loyal staff in the federal government, and a set of proposed executive orders for the U.S. president to implement those policies.”
Also, more of Project 2025 can be read at Wikipedia.
Now, your turn. I have no idea what the “liberal handbook” is so I’d like to know what you are referring to. Please share, since you are so familiar with it.
Laurel says
Oppps, “though.” Gee, I got so excited I got ahead of myself. Carry on.
Where do these people come from?
Sherry says
Dear Laurel. . . as my wonderful hubby says. . . perhaps they come from the septic tank of humanity
Sherry says
As previously posted:. . . “babbling liberal nonsense”. . . prove me wrong richard trotter:
In recent years, the Trump administration has enacted numerous policies and executive orders that critics and advocacy groups argue have significantly curtailed civil, reproductive, and environmental rights.
CIVIL RIGHTS AND EQUALITY
DEI Programs:
*A day-one executive order in 2025 mandated the termination of all federal diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs and offices.
* Federal Contracting: The administration rescinded Executive Order 11246, a 1965 order that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating in hiring.
* Disparate Impact Analysis: Federal agencies were ordered to stop using “disparate impact” analysis, a tool used to identify and challenge policies that are neutral on paper but disproportionately harm marginalized groups.
*Language Access: The administration declared English the nation’s official language and repealed requirements for federal agencies to provide meaningful access for people with limited English proficiency.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
* Gender Identity Recognition: A 2025 executive order mandated that the federal government only recognize “biological sex” as assigned at birth on official documents like passports.
* Transgender Military Service: The administration moved to ban transgender and non-binary individuals from serving in the military and paused gender-affirming care for active members and veterans.
* Healthcare Protections: The administration eliminated LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination provisions under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
* Education (Title IX): Federal guidance was amended to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity from protections against discrimination in schools.
REPRODUCTIVE AND HEALTHCARE RIGHTS
* Abortion Access: Executive orders were signed to revoke prior protections for medication abortion and emergency abortion care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
* Birth Control Mandates: Rules were expanded to allow more employers to refuse to provide birth control coverage based on religious or moral objections.
*Medicaid Funding: Proposals were introduced to prohibit Medicaid and CHIP funding from covering gender-affirming medical care for minors.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH RIGHTS
* Clean Water Protections: The administration repealed the 2015 Clean Water Rule, significantly narrowing the number of water bodies protected by federal law.
* Climate Regulations: The administration withdrew from the Paris climate accord and replaced the Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which did not set firm caps on carbon emissions.
* Scientific Data: References to “climate change” were scrubbed from various government websites, and environmental justice offices were shuttered.
IMMIGRATION AND LABOR RIGHTS
* Asylum and Citizenship: Executive actions sought to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and restrict the right to asylum.
* Union Rights: Collective bargaining rights were eliminated for tens of thousands of federal employees under the guise of “national security concerns”.
* Alien Enemies Act: The administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to facilitate mass deportations, which critics argue allows for arrests without due process.
richard trotter. . . I believe you may not realise just how poor you are. As I previously posted:
My granddaddy taught me to never argue with Cowards and Fools. That is why I try to choose those I engage with carefully. While I strive to have compassion for those who lost their moral compass during childhood, my time is much too precious to help them find it.
The true measure of a person is based on the “value” they bring to others during their lifetimes. Certainly, many who comment here are unaware that they are actually “poor”. . . just like their Lord and Master trump:
* Poor in intelligence and education
* Poor in Character and Principles
* Poor in Mental and Emotional Health
* Poor in Honor
* Poor in Seeking Truth and Creating Trust
* Poor in Building Loving Relationships
* Poor in Wisdom
* Poor in Caring for the Disadvantaged
* Poor in Caring for the Planet We Share With Others
* Poor in Self Esteem
All of these human endeavors/characteristics are much more valuable than “GOLD”!
Laurel says
I think Richard will trot away.
Sherry says
@ laurel. . . thanks for my morning laugh!
Trolls like ole richard and other Maga cult trump worshipping diehards simply have nothing to say when faced with credible facts. They are only capable of throwing handfuls FOX BS from their “alternative reality” and “trotting” away. LOL! LOL!
U.S.A Matters says
Even if their perspective seems weird, why, in the United States of America, would we accept that citizens cannot be where they live to stay alive? Grandstanding is protected under the U.S. Constitution, and it’s a point of Pride. Without fighting for that, what do we have to be patriotic about?
Are we not a free nation that values limited government interference, the reverence of free speech and liberty?
What’s perplexing to me is we can be outraged that people show up to protest an unfair election at the U.S. Capital to get arrested or worse, shot, but here…in this instance, we start saying, “No, these people shouldn’t be there.” In their own communities, blocks from their own homes or near their jobs and their kids’ schools.
We’re letting the actual government execute people for protesting–and we’re saying, “Should have stayed home,” and that’s not freedom. That’s not liberty. That’s the exact opposite of the position patriotic Americans stand up to preserve.
What, then, make us a great nation, if we’re okay with people being killed, abused, or subdued by our own government because they believe things that don’t make sense to us politically?
And why do they believe those things? Who of us is being gaslit here?
All of us.
Tony says
FedUp – Just like the insurrection you supported. It’s obvious you have been severely brainwashed by fox entertainment !!!
Callmeishmael says
No, he’s just another cretin racist asshole who’s too stupid to realize he’s a fascist as well.
Gina says
Fed Up:It’s not about Liberals, stop repeating simple minded brainwashed remarks to suit your
agenda Making it about Liberals just shows how weak and pathetic your argument is.
In that case everyone who showed up with guns for the January 6th insurrection to overturn
an election because diaper ass was crying at his loss should have stayed home and
a woman would not have been fatally shot in the face, POLICE beaten to a pulp and the
criminals would not have been put in jail, right? Also some of those criminals who were
pardoned by their cult leader were rearrested for other crimes they have committed
since their release. By the way , multiculturalism is what made and still makes America great
otherwise people like yourself should STAY HOME and not go into any Mexican, Spanish,
Latino, Chinese, Italian, Irish pubs, traditional African American (soul food), I can go on and on
restaurants and just go to Cracker Barrel. Stay in your white culture and stop watching NBA
NFL, and stop brow beating people who are fighting for their freedoms, and hard working immigrants
who are working hard to make a living in this country while they await their legal status. it’s the
muticultural diversity in this country which makes it cool and stop using the word WOKE a word
that was stolen from our Black Culture.
Sherry says
Thank You Gina! Very Well Said!
Standing in the Middle of Palm Coast Parkway says
Thank you for sharing your personal experience in your native country that has been racked by civil wars and regional conflicts and war. I hope and pray for peace and stability to return to Lebanon and the entire Middle East.
ICE agents (including ERO & HSI agents) receive intensive training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, focusing on immigration law, firearms proficiency, defensive tactics, and physical conditioning. Recent adjustments made based in part on the number of candidates applying with previous law enforcement training. ICE agent training was recently condensed from over five months to 47 days (6 weeks) or shorter programs, covering legal authority, arrest techniques, and Spanish language proficiency. Just like other law enforcement academies, FLETC operates pass-fail programs. In late 2025 class, almost 50% of the candidates failed. Candidates must maintain a 70% minimum average to pass and become an ICE Agent.
Joey says
Ice agents are the lowerst of low – just a bunch of losers who don’t know what the Constitution is !!!
Tony Mack says
And how much training did Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, an American convicted seditionist and far-right activist receive before joining ICE? . From 2018 to 2021, he was the chairman of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States…and how many others who stormed the Capitol on January 6th are now ICE “officers”? Some training…
Laurel says
Tony Mack: The Proud Boy types have been training all their lives for this moment, happy as hell, and the interesting part is, when it came (government overreach) they went in the other direction!
What was Forrest Gump’s favorite saying?
Sherry says
@ Tony Mack. . . ICE receives only “47” days of training merely because trump is # 47. Just how asinine is that?
Sherry says
Today’s Poll from The Hill:
Have the recent incidents with ICE in Minnesota negatively impacted your perception of the Trump administration?
Yes, to a great extent
59%
Yes, to some extent
4%
No, not at all
36%
Other / No opinion
1%
Based on 2,236 responses
James says
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/us/politics/ice-expands-power-agents-warrants.html
“Mission creep?”
It seems to me that if anything can be learned from the killing of Pretti, it’s that a gun cannot protect you… only the law can.
And the law is being trampled to death every day.
Just an opinion.
CC says
Fed up has chosen to believe the lies this administration has told about Good and Pretti rather than view the tapes that show clearly that neither one of them was a threat to ICE. Add to that just a few examples of this administration’s stormtroopers: A five year old taken with his father to a detention facility, the little boy in obvious physical and mental distress. An elderly gentleman ripped from his home and escorted outside in his underwear into the freezing weather, the abruptly released with no apologies from the ICE PEOPLE IN MASKS. Police departments cannot wear masks, have name badges and body cams. Police departments need judge issued warrants before storming into houses. We need ICE to follow the same procedures that police departments do.
John Stove says
These ICE “officers” are cowards and are more interested in point blank shooting people, blinding others with “non-lethal” rounds or using a child to trick a parent out of their home. They don’t follow their own rules of engagement or policies and could care less about protections afforded to all of us via the US Constitution.
Stay home and “keep your mouth shut” is not and will never be the American way to live your life and a defense for why people are being shot, injured or illegally detained. Just “comply”?….are you serious? Look at the history of this country and see how this country “complied” when faced with issues that the country felt strongly about.
If (and its a big IF) they followed the laws and acted professionally, I (and most of the country) might have some sympathy for the job they have been tasked with.
Instead they, the administration and the orange face convicted pedophile president will forever be remembered as the imbecilic cowards and grifters that they are.
If you have honor, are doing everything legal and are proud of your work….SHOW YOUR FACE….real police officers, FBI agents, Military do!
Bo Peep says
You guys were in love with masks just a couple of years ago wearing them around while driving alone in your cars. Lol. ICE is here to stay until the job is done.
Nephew of Uncle Sam says
When does the job end? When they’re breaking down you and your neighbors doors.
Whathehck? says
And you are writing this because? You equate thugs and criminals with people protecting themselves and others, the white masked people were not out to kill.
Pierre Tristam says
Law enforcement men armored like tanks and weaponized like nuclear silos are the last people who need added “protection” from masks. Their arsenals alone blare their intentions: they’re not out to protect. They’re out to hurt. And when you’re out to hurt, you sometimes kill, unjustifiably and unforgivably. Justify them, and you’re complicit in sanctioning the immorality.
Shark says
Why don’t they go to the red states where millions of illegal imigrants are – Texas and Florida ?????????????????
Ed P says
They are there. Research Florida’s Tidal Wave. Texas’ operation Lone Star.
CarolS says
Once again, thank you Pierre for another brilliant piece. Your experience qualifies you to speak to the inanity of authoritarianism. You are a courageous journalist who will withstand critisim from the uninformed Fed Ups who believe the force-fed President Steven Miller stomach eject.
Mary A Priest says
Will be watching to see if Pierre wears a name badge so everyone can threaten his family and DOX them
Pierre Tristam says
The commenter honors neither Mary nor priests with a name like that (though I’ve known a few Catholic priests in my unfortunately Catholic youth who’d have been the perverted exception). Unlike cops, judges, ICE goons and even firefighters and their families, my identity and my family’s identity and location have always been public, we’ve been doxed, continue to be, and pay a great deal of money we shouldn’t in an effort to protect against fucked up wish-upon-a-snarl like you. The difference is that unlike goons, we’re not out cracking skulls but informing you, and (ridiculously) giving your idiocy a platform, so you can express yourself, though vileness is not a right.
Sherry says
Thank You Pierre! I’m still wondering if bo peep and now “mary a priest” aren’t just Russian or Chinese trollbots, meant to antagonize. Their AI sounding one liners and names certainly sound that way.
Laurel says
Nah, actually, AI is more logical, and makes more sense than some of these folks. After all, repetition is easy, and doesn’t take thought or study.
PaulT says
These are (supposed to be) law enforcement officers. As such they have certain responsibilities as to how they treat the people they encounter, and they should be held accountable, like other law enforcement personnel.
Unfortunately, due to leadership by extremists like Gregory Bovino there’s a different culture for ICE and CBP agents. The theme is intimidation, the masking has a lot to do with fear, not agents’ fear they’ll be dovved hut in the eyes of the public who are being harassed by masked, unidentifiable men. Although we’re told DHS agent are immune from prosecution, the masking, lack of ID, lack of body cameras is designed so they can use excessive force without being held legally accounrabl for their actions. Which is why observers with cell phones are so important.
As to the claim they’re highly trained, that’s just bull. Police academy graduates train for 6 months before continuing to be trained by the sheriffs and police departments who hire them. ICE agents are recruited by a cash bounty (up to $50K) then train for 42 weeks before they appear , masked, on American streets.
And the fable that they’re protecting us from dangerous criminals is a joke. Rececent internal ICE memos authorize these untrained bully boys to arrest (without a warrant) anyone they suspect of being undocumented. Can you imagine, in a country of immigrants?
This is a sweep to meet a quota set by Stephen Miller and the tactics and violence and randomness of who they’re ‘grabbing’ and ‘disappearing’ have intensified because even in their masked brutality ICE can;t meet Miller’s and by extension Trump’s quota.
Skibum says
Just look at that ridiculous photo of the three federal law enforcement agents. What exactly are they preparing for? Readying to fight dangerous Somali pirates off the coast of the Horn of Africa? Nope, just going out into the streets of American cities. Not going after Taliban fighters or Al Qaida terrorist cells in Afghanistan or Iraq? Nope, just prepping to beat down U.S. citizens they happen to confront if they appear to have too dark skin or accents that “no Americans” should have.
Never in my entire law enforcement career have I ever encountered a more militaristic, aggressive, undisciplined, poorly trained mob of misfits than the masked mush brains with badges and guns surging into American cities to harass, intimidate and threaten whoever they happen to come across… all to make the convicted felon in the WH and his Hitler protégé Steven Miller smile with glee at ridding this country of even 5-year old “criminals”. It is so disgusting and personally embarrassing that I just want to vomit!
Sherry says
Yet more complete horrific BS from ICE! Let’s see those ICE “Body Cameras”! :
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón had tried to flee while handcuffed and “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release.
But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old’s brain, said three nurses familiar with the case.
“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” said one of the nurses, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”
Zuffalina says
May I suggest reading Prophet Song by Paul Stanley. Booker Prize a couple of years ago.
A slightly futuristic, dystopian tale of Ireland devolving into totalitarianism. Civil society breaking apart is lingeringly and brutally drawn with the insightful parallels to the crises in our recent history.
Seek it out.
marlee says
To Fed up……
If ICE disagreed with YOU and slammed you to the ground, would you complain?????
Ray W. says
35 comments of all kinds and counting. Another recent article about ICE actions drew well over 100 comments of all kinds.
People all over the world have seen government-sponsored snuff films and they didn’t like what they saw. People all over the world heard members of the professional lying class that sits at the top of one of our two political parties use phrases like “domestic terrorist” and terms like “assassin” and they didn’t like what they heard.
Americans of all sorts are moving away from the current administration. Not all. But a significant number of moderate Republican and Independent voters are repulsed by what they saw and heard.
If Minneapolis becomes a Zeitenweide, an epochal turning point, many moderate Republicans and Independents will for the first time vote against a party they once supported. Some of the most entrenched Republicans will become ever-more vocal as they watch their party lessen before their eyes. Vitriol will increase. Demands will become more strident. The most entrenched will blame everyone and everything other than themselves. We are already seeing this happening on the FlaglerLive site.
One commenter claims to be glad that Alex Pretti is dead. Numerous commenters say that he deserved death. Fantasies about the importance of Americans staying home and keeping their mouths shut proliferate.
I have long maintained that we are early in a wave of political violence. We have not yet reached the end of the beginning of the wave. It may take decades for the wave of political violence to pass. It will pass only when enough people have had their fill of the people who foment the violence.
Who knows the end result?