***. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others…One does not establish the dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” [ George Orwell: “1984” ]
This post presents excerpts from. “ICE Exists to Enforce One Man’s Will” {Radley Balko; New York Times; 1/25/26]. Read this – and pray. – that YOU. have an American democracy on January 20, 2029.
19]. “We can still stop these abuses of power, but we need to be clear about what we’re facing. This is no longer a conversation about law enforcement or immigration policy. This is about authoritarianism.”
4] “The lies this administration is telling about Ms. good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power.”
10] “…the administration has embraced fear tactics long associated with totalitarian regimes. Until now, law enforcement officers in the United States rarely masked their faces….it’s just been accepted that masked policing isn’t consistent with democratic society.”
***. “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” [ Mahatma Gandhi ]
12] “The administration has resurrected tactics that professional policing groups have deemed dangerous or counterproductive….Federal agents have shot into cars at least 10 times since September. This, too, is prohibited by most big city police agencies, in part because it’s too easy to mistake a driver’s intent.”
17] “In refusing to investigate Ms. good’s death, the Department of Justice is, at a minimum, indicating that it doesn’t believe that preventing similar deaths is important. But the real explanation may be more sinister. Since she was killed, we’ve seen multiple videos in which immigration officers refer to her death to threaten people lawfully observing or recording them. The real motivation appears to be make all the other Renee Goods out there, the liberal so-called wine moms watching over immigration raids, wonder if they might be next.”
***. “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” { Edmund Burke }
1] “I have been covering policing for more than 20 years and have read and parsed a lot of these statements. The Department of Homeland Security’s response after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis this month is something else entirely.”
2] “The Trump administration’s response to ms Good’s death made no such concessions….There was little empathy for her family…pronounced the shooting not only justified but an act of heroism..”
3] “It isn’t just the lying; it’s that the lies are wildly exaggerated and easily refutable…..”
5] “…since the protests in Ferguson, Mo., America has engaged in a high-stakes dialogue about police abuse and accountability….What Mr. Trump is doing with federal immigration forces has rendered those debates obsolete.”
6]. “The surge of federal forces into Minneapolis …isn’t about law enforcement at all. It is about an administration declaring. – explicitly, at times. – that the purpose of federal law enforcement isn’t to uphold the rule of law or promote public safety but to enforce the will of a single man.”
***. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
[ Theodore Roosevelt; Republican; 26th U. S. President ]
7] “Administration officials quickly declared those shootings [Parias & Martinez] justified. – and righteous. – with hyperbolic language similar to that used after ms. good’s killing. Those claims would also later be disproved..”
8] “..nearly all of the administration’s responses to deaths in custody, shootings or other accused abuses have used maximalist language to venerate immigration officers, dehumanize their victims and villainize anyone who doesn’t support the Trump administration.”
9] ‘..after federal agents dragged Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen, from her car and arrested her, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson referred to her as an agitator who was obstructing immigration operations. In fact, she was trying to get to a doctor’s appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center…”
11]. “Instilling fear is a drawback only if your goal is public safety. this administration has made it clear that it doesn’t want marginalized communities. – immigrants, Somali U.S.citizens, residents of Latino neighborhoods and so on. – to feel safe.”
13] “Videos from cities where Mr. Trump has sent federal agents have shown agents attempting to stop fast-moving vehicles with techniques that most police departments prohibit or reserve for rare confrontations…”
*** “Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” [ Edward Abbey ]
14]. “It’s clear that immigration officials are routinely breaking the law.”
15]. “We’ve seen the unlawful arrest and incarceration of Somali refugees who have legal permission to be here, warrantless raids on private homes and reports of detainees be denied access to lawyers.”
16]. ‘..Todd Blanche, said on Fox News that there will be no federal investigation into her killing. The administration has already said the F.B.I. will not share the evidence it collected with the local police so they can conduct their own investigations. This is the very definition of a cover-up. It’s just being done in lain sight.”
18]. “It’s one thing to tank or slow-walk an investigation. It’s quite another to publicly declare that no investigation will happen…and then announce that you’ll be investigating the victim’s partner and supports instead.. Both paths are unethicl and corrupt….The administration’s actions…are a declaration that there will be no accountability and that it would prefer to instill fear rather than trust.”
*** “It is not infrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, – to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are pooer or weaker than themselves.” [ Samuel Adams ]
With Justice For All 