Ever because the Second World Battle, there’s a phrase that has been used to explain the worst kinds of police terror: Gestapo-like ways.
It’s a phrase that may be overdone. Not each extra of regulation enforcement is akin to the actions of the Gestapo, Adolf Hitler’s political police who used violence and intimidation to beat down the opponents and victims of the Nazi regime.
However there are definitely occasions when it does apply. The ruthless cops who bludgeoned peaceable Civil Rights marchers in Selma on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 is one instance. The police assault on demonstrators exterior the 1968 Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago could be one other.
For sure, it’s correct to characterize the present conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers as Gestapo-like. Despite the lies being told by Trump administration officials, ICE is not targeting only criminals and “bad hombres” (in President Donald Trump’s terminology). As evidenced by incident after incident, day after day, it’s an irrefutable proven fact that, in finishing up Trump’s roundup of alleged undocumented immigrants, ICE brokers are using brutal pressure, racially profiling and violating constitutional rights as they chase down peaceable folks at their workplaces, their houses, on metropolis streets, at purchasing malls and out of doors of church buildings.
An appalling instance is the Latino man in Los Angeles whose automotive was surrounded by ICE storm troopers exterior a Residence Depot a couple of days in the past. They pulled the man from his car and took him away, leaving his 1-year-old girl in the back seat. The person is an American citizen, born in California, in line with his mom, who says she can also be a citizen. The kid acquired dwelling safely, however her father has disappeared into the darkish netherworld of ICE custody, like hundreds of other victims.
This incident will not be an outlier, it’s a widespread instance of the unlawful ways being employed by the poorly skilled, pseudo-cops of ICE who’re a shame to all of the disciplined, courageous cops in America.
There are various nations all over the world the place good of us are terrorized by violent goons within the service of authoritarian regimes. Till this 12 months, america was a pacesetter in condemning and opposing such regimes. Now, the USA is one in all them.
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