Mike German, an ex-FBI agent, said immigration agents hiding their identities ‘highlights the illegitimacy of actions’
Some wear balaclavas. Some wear neck gators, sunglasses and hats. Some wear masks and casual clothes.
Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics.
It’s a trend that has sparked alarm among civil rights and law enforcement experts alike.
Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. “Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls,” he said.
A major reason police officers wear uniforms is for their obvious identification as a legal law enforcement entity formally trained and endorsed by the state. While it’s generally symbolic, it is at least a basic-ass demonstration of good faith identification/adherence to the law. EVEN IF it’s just performative, it’s still at least saying their actions will be in accordance with the law, and at least implying that their intent is enforcement of that same law.
However, if they not only ditch the uniform, but even literally wear things to mask their identity, the symbolism of good-faith action and intent go out the window. Why would any reasonable person trust such a blatant disregard for clear establishment of authority figures? Furthermore, if such symbolism is reversed in such a manner, how could any reasonable person not assume ill-intent? If they’re taking away even US citizens for an indeterminate amount of time and to an indeterminate place, then wouldn’t it be in the best interest of the people that encounter law enforcement to resist by any means–even lethal means? And to further compound the problem, there were recent high-profile political murders by someone impersonating a police officer. So not only are we unable to trust legitimate police officers while they’re in uniform, we now have(admittedly weak(for now)) evidence that the uniform no longer implies good-faith intent of the person wearing it. Which leads me to one final major issue; if our confidence in officers’ law-bound behavior is shattered, and our confidence in our citizen status to ensure our rights is shattered, and our confidence in police uniforms being fairly reliable identification symbolism is shattered, then what amount of confidence is left in any law enforcement officials when they then wear clothing that is symbolically indicative of someone acting in bad faith with ill-intent? And then local law enforcement, in uniform, protect and assist alleged federal law enforcement in their very high-profile raids.
So, moral reasoning aside, it would be unwise to even engage with any law enforcement or anyone that claims to be law enforcement. They can’t be trusted and their intent is unknown. They are visibly armed with a variety of weapons and are currently engaging in illegal operations systematically–even though the confines of current law effectively gives them legal means to do whatever they want. All that said, it can reasonably argued that it’s effectively a death sentence if you get swept up by someone claiming to be law enforcement, regardless of whether or not they can be confidently identified as such. All that to say: some fed bois are gonna get smoked before the end of the year and they’ve earned it by undermining themselves in the public eye. I have extreme confidence that things will get better in the long run, but as for the foreseeable future, the worst is yet to come.
Tl;dr: Law enforcement abandoning clear uniform identification for bad-faith/ill-intent symbolism logically justifies lethal resistance. There will probably be multiple shootings of feds by the end of the year at this rate. If some alphabet feds get shot, could be claimed as a cases belli for some real bullshit.
This trend didn’t started with ICE officers hiding their face but with the police patrols with “ghost marks”. I remember from years ago seeing memes of those patrol cars compared with European ones, that are full of bright colors, the message of each one as “I’m here hidden to catch you vs I’m here calling your attention to help you*”
* Obligatory All Cops, even the hot Sweeden and Italian cops, Are Bastards.
Even shorter TL;DR: The lack of verifiable face-value LEOs breaks even the shitty social contract we did have, and it’s gonna create problems.
Fascism isn’t some nebulous concept on the horizon. Or maybe hiding around the next blind corner.
It is literally here. Now. Right now.
Wake up call. America has secret police (gestapo) now.
Any person hiding their identity while carrying a weapon should be shot and killed on sight. I am with the GOP on this point.
Mfs think they’re in Watchmen, but it’s Birth of a Nation instead.
If you have to cover up your entire face like this it should be a huge hint that what you’re doing is fucked up
It’s illegal and they know it. This is a vain attempt to avoid punishment once Biff is not in power anymore.
But we’re FREE from the tyranny of forced education and health care, puh-raise JEE-zuz-ah!
Let them wear masks. It’s an important piece of safety equipment in some scenarios. Lets mandate that undercover/plain clothes officers cannot enforce the law beyond what a civilian could do. They should not be allowed to arrest you, or point a gun at you, or demand that you ID yourself. Only officers in uniform should be allowed to do those things, and they should be required to identify themselves, the department they work for, and display a badge with number to be considered “in uniform”.
is this because we’re listening to all that damn “post-hardcore” music on the patios and at the parks in public?
Fascism
I’d bet theres at least 80% overlap with people that somehow couldn’t breathe in a disposable medical mask during covid
80 is unnecessarily pessimistic
The other 20% just wanted to get people sick on purpose.
Genuinely looks like the vigilante hacker from Watch_Dogs
Land of the Brave
Puts on mask to hide identity
I see 2 options here:
Getting kidnapped and imprisoned now (whether that’s by ‘real’ police or fake)
Or.
Shooting the mask wearing weirdos now and maybe potentially possibly getting imprisoned later.Out of these two choices I know which I’d take.
Yup.
I’ll shoot a masked individual trying to abduct me in the face, then deal with the repercussions after I potentially saved myself from being human trafficked or having my organs harvested.
These are the same people who whined about having to wear a mask during Covid.
I work in 911 dispatch
During COVID we had to ask all of our callers some extra questions if they were going to be in contact with any of our units
Something along the lines of “has anyone there had or been in contact with anyone who has had flu-like symptoms recently?”
And if they did we added a note to the call indicating that.
One night I got a call from one of our off-duty officers calling in an accident he witnessed.
I get all the usual information and start asking our COVID questions
And he gets really indignant about it “why are you asking me this?” “This is stupid.” Etc.
Like dude, you’re one of our officers. We’ve been advising you about potential COVID exposures on your own calls, where do you think we were getting that information? This shit is for your benefit, not ours, I can’t catch COVID from someone over the phone (the disease vectors sitting the consoles adjacent to me could be another story)
And that’s pretty typical of how cops act towards us, the people they rely on to give them information they need to do their jobs, send them backup when needed, etc. blows my mind that so many of my co-workers are absolute bootlickers.
Thank you for the difficult public service you do.
This describes half of most departments. The good cops burn out from the idiocy from all sides and end up fire fighters, EMTs, bartenders and roofers. The dumb ones stay and try not to get fired until they can get that penchant.
“I cAnT bReAtHe!!!”
Yes you can, asshole. It’s a slight inconvience, but it’s a far cry from not getting oxygen.
But oh, now that it’s being used to conceil your identity, you’re all fine???
Now serial killers and pedophiles can larp and kidnap children and adults too.
All Thanks to ICE!
DONAKD J TRUMP
“Okay, girlie. No sudden moves or I’m putting one in your gut. If you scream, my cop buddies around the corner will be all over you.”
“But I’m being nice. If you stay quiet and come with me, I’ll smooth things over with the force. We won’t have to break all of your bones before letting you go.”
“Now get over here. I’m going to take you somewhere special. You’ll love it.”
Awwww…nobody ever loves ME enough to want to kidnap…
