I think you’re both correct, but I’ll add one more thing: they were the middle school bullies who enjoyed terrorizing smaller and weaker kids. They had to grow out of that when they began high school, where at 13 or 14, they were the smaller and weaker kids, compared to 17 and 18-year-olds. By the time they got to the top grade, other interests prevailed (playing sports, girls, scoring beer, girls, getting a car, girls).
But they never totally lost their taste for bullying. Now, they’re offered a chance to return to those days of middle school, when they could bully with impunity, where teachers and principals dismissed their acts with “boys will be boys,” and where beating up the smaller and weak was fun.
So, they get to return to those days, only this time with guns and pepper spray and flash-bangs, and an Administration that will dismiss their acts, just like those teachers and principals did. Only this time the dismissal will be, “domestic terrorists will be domestic terrorists, so patriots must be patriots.”
I don’t know how patriotic ICE members are. I guess a few are. But I think most of them joined up, just to be a middle-school bully again, so they can kick the shit out of the smaller and weaker again, without consequences. Just like in the old days! It was fun then, and with the added weaponry, it’ll be even more fun now.
As I said in another comment, the most important takeaway from the kerfuffle over the “one of us, all of yours” slogan they displayed in their recent media presentation is not that it happens to mirror, whether deliberately or inadvertently, similar messaging from previous fascist regimes.
The critical takeaway is the psychology that the slogan reveals. The historicity, or lack thereof, is interesting but ultimately irrelevant. We must recognize the mindset.
Us vs You, across an unmistakable and impregnable boundary. There are those who matter, and those who are worthless and disposable. On their side, those who must have power, and on the other side, everyone else from whom power must be taken by any means necessary, separated by a razor-sharp, rock-hard wall.
And that answers the question above. They literally could not possibly give less of a shit if a bunch of shrieking vermin are complaining and condemning them. Hell, it’s practically a medal of accomplishment.
Not sure if this should go here, but I didn’t want to start a new thread.
ICE agent shoots man in leg as Minneapolis protests flare
Department of Homeland Security alleged that an individual who came into the United States illegally from Venezuela in 2022 had attempted to evade arrest and was shot.
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal law enforcement officer in Minneapolis shot a person in the leg Wednesday night, the Department of Homeland Security said, as tensions between protesters and immigration enforcement officers continued to flare throughout the city following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renée Good last week.
In a statement, DHS said the shooting Wednesday involved an individual from Venezuela who came to the United States in 2022 and was in the country illegally. The person attempted to evade arrest by driving their vehicle away from federal law enforcement officers, crashing it into a parked car and then running away on foot, the agency said.
As an officer caught up with the person, two other individuals began attacking the officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, according to DHS. The person who was fleeing then “began striking the officer with a shovel or a broom stick,” the agency said, adding that both the officer and the person who was shot were being treated at a hospital.
The Washington Post could not immediately confirm details of the incident or the identity of the person shot.
In a statement, the City of Minneapolis said it was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who had shot the man and urged the agency to “leave the city and state immediately.”
…
Maybe this thread title should be changed to “ICE shootingS in Minneapolis.” If there are any more (gee, do ya think?) I’m going to ask a mod to ask the OP if that would be okay.
I’m really wondering at what specific mechanism could reign in the ICE terror. And how soon.
I doubt anything will get Congress to act. Stunningly shocking that there are not any Rs in Congress with ANY MINIMAL sense of decency.
So I’m hoping for favorable federal court rulings in cases initiated by the states - which get rapidly escalated up to the Supremes. It surprises me that I have not read more about requests for and decisions regarding emergency injunctions or something. I would think this a matter that warranted prompt action. Yet the ICE-instigated terror has been going on for months.
Also trying to get my head around how any R who is not totally batshit insane MAGA feels about this. Even if someone thinks SOMETHING should be done about immigration (Hell, I have long wished for sensible and comprehensive immigration reform), how intentionally oblivious or fucked in the head do they have to be to not say, “Gee, this is really going too far.”
I don’t think there’s an easy way out, but the protests are working. They’re working because they’re turning the public against ICE, and revealing the criminality and brutality of ICE, but they’re also frequently forcing ICE to back off in real time and go find easier targets.
And it’s impossible to know for sure, but I expect this is having a serious psychological effect on ICE agents. Some of them aren’t committed Nazis, some of them just needed the paycheck… some of them will already be having reservations about what they’re doing, and being yelled at by peaceful protesters all day will impact how they see what they’re doing.
I think protesters are on the right track and need to continue.
President Donald Trump warned Thursday that he would invoke the Insurrection Act if people in Minnesota don’t obey the law and continue attacking federal agents there.
Seems an odd law, but some are likely to follow it
This morning my wife said her hope was that at some point - might be decades - the shooter will realize the horror he committed. I don’t know that that will happen. They seem to have done a good job of hiring and inspiring heartless bullies. I sure haven’t seen any reports of any ICE employees quitting…
I haven’t yet taken the time to develop the theory, but I think you’re spot-on about this. There’s a personality type that believes at its core that might makes right. If you intellectualize that foundational belief, you get all the things that drive the current Republican party. It’s a group of individuals who believe that if you aren’t getting what you want, and you have the strength (or smarts, or connections, or whatever) to get it, then you (or your corporation) ought to be able to take it.
ICE is one of many arms of government where the promise of employment is “you can finally just do what you want, and no one will send you to detention because they’re not strong enough to make you.”
