Armed and masked ice agents using strong arm tactics have been marauding our communities in recent months, and over the past few weeks the Twin City Metro area has been their main target. The are looking for alleged illegals, focusing on immigrant neighborhoods and people of color. At times they're using lethal force to apprehend their victims and sometimes violent chaos will ensue. All of this is sending shockwaves throughout the Metro area, and many are frightened and actually terrified they may become the next victim.
And the optics are horrifying. Wrestling people to the ground, launching tear gas tear gas canisters, bashing doors down, detaining children, sometimes using firearms and in one instance killing an innocent protester.
The tragic images of Renee Good being shot and killed by an ICE agent, viewed by millions, has been etched into our consciousness and forever will symbolize the government's use of excessive deadly force. She was not an immigrant, but a white American citizen. Inconceivably, she was branded a "domestic terrorist" by government officials- an obvious propaganda tactic to shield the ICE agent from any culpability. The Justice Department (or perhaps Injustice Department would be better) refused to investigate, and the State was shut out from conducting their own independent investigation. There is no evidence that Goode was a threat to the community-no cache of weapons found, no bomb making equipment nor any manifesto that she planned to terrorize the Metro area.
So, who are the real terrorists and does the community truly feel terrorized? Of course they do. Many are afraid to leave their homes, children are not being sent to school, businesses are being shuttered and many are fearful that they will become the next target for detention and deportation. Even individuals who have complete legal status are afraid they may be abducted.
These fears are rippling through the Metro area, even into predominantly white communities which are typically considered safe. However, ICE agents are sprawling through these areas as well and often being housed in nearby hotels. They are easily spotted in public, and many feel threatened by their presence and the possibility of a hostile encounter.
These fears are not limited to the Twin Cities Metro area. Many other communities throughout our country also are worried that ICE might show up and wreak similar havoc. Millions are on edge and worry that authoritarian oppression is looming. And such fears go beyond our border into other sovereign countries, whose citizens fear they may become victims of U.S. military action and be subjugated to U.S. domination.
There have been other times in history when nations were ruled by dictators who terrorized their populations in order to pursue their political goals. While many may feel the comparison to Nazi Germany and Stalin's Reign of Terror is inappropriate and absurd, and certainly what's happening here pales in comparison, but some of the ideology and tactics are eerily similar. Undesirables were detained, sent to camps, with their fates unknown. Some survived while others starved or were put to death. Here, it's not only Renee Good who was killed, but others have perished on the streets and in detention facilities, often under suspicions circumstances. And government accounts of these deaths cannot be trusted. Recently, the government maintained that a detainee in Texas died from "medical distress" but an autopsy conducted by the local County ruled it was a homicide (https://share.google/3bW2cfzJATxI2SE9l) Of course this is not the Nazi Germany and true gulags do not exist, but the unnecessary death of even one individual is tragic and reprehensible.
Since our government has invoked the notion of terrorism, and many of our communities do indeed feel terrorized, who should be held responsible? ICE agents certainly bear responsibility for their actions on the ground but are they simply following orders (presumably legal) from above? Have they become dutiful pawns of the government's true objective -ridding our country of people of color?
Authoritarian terrorism almost always originates at the very top. These despots manufacture policies to strengthen their control over the populace and to further their political goals. And then they order their subordinates to do the dirty work, sitting back and deriving vicarious pleasure.
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