Folks could still recognize the real ICE agents, because they’d be the ones wearing fake-tactical gear while kicking down doors, shooting people, and kidnapping people.
We could all do a lot of stupid shit. Some of us have productive lives that have scant time for cosplaying revolutionary. Now, excuse me, I’ve got some Expedition 33 to play.
Are we supposed to dress up like ICE agents so we can go out and shoot people like they do? No thanks.
Are we supposed to dress up like ICE agents so we can walk around in public and not do anything bad? That might make people think ICE agents are okay.
Are we supposed to dress up like ICE agents so we can hurt their reputation by doing things that are worse than real ICE agents are doing? Sorry, but I don’t want to commit any crime so horrible even an ICE agent would hesitate to do it.
Are we supposed to dress up like ICE agents until we get stopped by the police and arrested for impersonating ICE agents? That’s just going to start the story going that there are fake ICE agents running around and real ICE agents who are committing crimes will use it to protect themselves.
The tacticool Meal Team 6 militant right has been doing this for years! Only problem is they then end up killing additional folks (see Rittenhouse). I don’t think it’s a good idea for the saner left to take up the nutjobs tactics.
Honestly? Infiltrate them. Record them. Learn their plans, if they have any.
These are poorly-trained, poorly-organized masked thugs. Infiltrating their ranks would be trivially easy.
Not that getting arrested is good, but if ICE knows there are people walking around impersonating them it’ll scare the crap out of them, make them paranoid, and hurt their morale. Whether or not that’s a good thing is an interesting question.
I sincerely want to know what those people (like in the photo) are thinking. Not some left-wing interpretation, but really. They had to buy that stuff. “Would you like your AR-15 in black?” “No I need tactical camo. You never know!”
They go home a night, and …what? Suck a six pack and fall asleep in front of NCIS reruns? Imagining Ziva is their girlfriend?
And the woman (I’m fairly sure) on the right? How low is her self esteem, that she wants to cosplay with the he man women haters club?
Camo gun, camo mask, camo vest…and a HAWAIIAN SHIRT?? That guy is too cool for school! Plus web belt carriers for all the twinkies!
The far-right has enough conspiracy theories about false flag operations. I’d rather not encourage them with evidence of people actually trying to impersonate “them”.
I do think it would be hilarious to show up in, ah, opposing uniforms. Instead of tacti-cool, show up in tacti-spicy. Neon camo, badges that say FIRE instead of ICE, lots of flame motifs.
I think we’ve passed this point. We don’t need to gather evidence of what ICE agents are planning on doing. We’ve got videotapes of them committing murders.
What we need to be doing now is arresting ICE agents and presenting the evidence in court.
The sincere/steelman interpretation is probably that they just think it’s cool (see: tactical). Same reason that some people get their gun in hot pink, or any other color.
What that says about their taste I will leave up to the reader to decide.
The “Thin Floral Line” flag honoring waiters and bartenders who work at Tiki themed bar-and-grills.
I guess that’s my core question. Why do they think it is cool to preen around pretending to be military, instead of becoming actual military? Yes, the military doesn;’ want them. Then why don’t they realize they aren’t actually cool? (why doesn’t Musk realize that? These are the questions that confound us.)
I know, I’m danger close to doing what I don’t want, giving my own “liberal interpretation”, but I am genuinely curious. But Is topped dressing up as someone I’m not a long time ago. I once actually bought a surplus navy flight jumpsuit, because it was cool, but then I realized I could never wear it, seeing as I am not a naval aviator.