A mayor. A congresswoman. A judge. A senator. And now, the New York City Comptroller and candidate for mayor. There is a response to the government’s actions against all of them, that no one is above the law, which is both objectively false and subjectively simplistic. Each of these situations was different, involved different legal issues and raised different questions of culpability.
But they all share one common theme: the government, primarily ICE but also the other alphabet agencies whose function has been reduced to ICE’s anti-immigrant handmaidens, is actively pursuing state and federal officials who get in their way. Often, as was the case with California Senior Senator Alex Padilla and now Brad Lander, with the use of some degree of force.
Fans of Lander will applaud his bold stand for immigrants, but I’m not exactly his fan. He was inviting a confrontation and got what he wanted. He locked arms with the person the ICE agents sought to arrest and refused to let go. He demanded a “judicial warrant,” which is neither needed for a lawful arrest nor created any duty on the part of the agents to satisfy his demand. They do not have to prove to Lander’s satisfaction that their actions are lawful.
But as much as Lander may have invited confrontation, the ICE agents immediately resorted to force against Lander. Lander wasn’t preventing the agents from arresting the immigrant, but wasn’t making their job any easier either. He did not use force against the agents, thereby compelling the agents to use force against him. And ultimately, the agents leaped to arrest Lander, put him against a wall and cuff him, within seconds.
Many of the MAGA faithful thought this was great. Here was a guy trying to prevent the ICE agents from doing a job they mindlessly adored, deporting illegals, and here were ICE agents taking him down for getting in their way. Like the left, the right love them some government agents being all forceful and aggressive when they support what they’re doing, and hate them the same government agents when they don’t. Hypocrisy is not exactly unknown to the unduly passionate.
But why was force used? Why was Senator Padilla thrown to the ground and cuffed? Why was Lander thrown against a wall and cuffed? When did these federal agents become superior to all other public officials such that they no longer have to exercise discretion when it comes to the use of force against them?
The foot soldiers of the Trump administration, from Miller to Noem to Homan, strongly favor the use of force against officials they deem their adversaries. It isn’t enough that their agents exercise restraint, de-escalate, and resolve situations without resorting to the use of force. If anybody gets in their way, provided they’re not a FoT (Friend of Trump), take them down with as much force as needed. Don’t hesitate. Don’t wait. Just do it.
As much as one could argue that these people sought confrontation, sought a viral moment to prove their mettle against the evil Trump regime, and therefore deserve no sympathy for having gotten what they asked for, that fails to address the question of how federal agents, primarily ICE, are now of the belief that they can do whatever they want, violate whatever constitutional rights they want, employ whatever force they want, with impunity.
Consider the actions of ICE agents when the person at issue isn’t a public official and never made the front page of the New York Times.
No matter how much you hate “illegals,” are you good with ICE arresting and violating the constitutional rights of citizens in the process? Are you cool with it as long as it isn’t you or anyone you care about?
Federal agents should not use unnecessary force against anyone, public official or groundling, when force is unnecessary and unjustified. But when they feel free to do so against public officials knowing that it’s going to go viral, going to make the front page of the New York Times, the message is clear. They will use force whenever they damn well please, and there’s nothing you can do about it. When the tables turn, will this still thrill you to the core? Do you really want federal agents, or any law enforcement personnel for that matter, to be empowered to use force just because they can?
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Don’t punish me with brutality
Representative Ilhan Omar just said it: “The United States is turning into one of the worst countries in the world.”
I hate it when you mak me defend Trump. But, I’m trying to find the unreasonable UOFs in the matters you cite.
The Long Island case shows the young man was uncooperative and was released when his identity was established. What’s the problem? There seems to be an assumption they were stopping random brown people, but that flies in the face of the fact he was released when ID’d.
Padilla’s conduct was clearly designed to disrupt and disturb. He started ranting literally mid-sentence as Noem was speaking, had no visible ID and firmyl pushed back on Noem’s security. Noem is a vacuous poseur, but I don’t know what you reasonably expect her security to do. Also, he absolutely was not thrown to the ground. He was carefully taken to his knees and laid down, with support. It’s all on video (but not the fractional video his staff raced to release). Look for the 1:08 long version on YouTube (or, ya know, let a guy post a link, Scott).
As a white guy in Los Angeles with a half-Mexican son, half-Mexican step kids, two extended families of Latinos and innumerable brown friends, I find a lot of this troubling. I heard last week of an 18yo US citizen who was jailed by ICE, and released only after a lawyer got involved. It turned out he had decided to be uncooperative, like the young man above. This, raises questions of PC and evidence I find troubling.
I recently remodeled my home and discovered our contractor basically only hired illegals. They were almost exclusively decent, hardworking, (at least modestly) skilled young men. We fed many of them and hired them for extra labor. But they undoubtedly crushed labor market rates in the local trades. I have spoken to some of them and they are quite concerned.
But there is no way back from Biden’s intentionally negligent open border and California’s multi-billion dollar MediCal deficit that doesn’t involve unpleasantness. I would prefer a more surgical, delicate and subtle approach. Unfortunately, delicate and subtle people chose to find ways to delicately and subtley undermine the rule of law for decades.
(Reliable) statistics are hard to come by, but several sources have estimated the total undocumented population of the US from 2008 to 2023 as varying from 10 to 12 million over that time frame, from 12.0 (2008) to 10.1 (2020) (fairly monotonic decrease) to 11.7 (2023). So i don’t understand how “Biden’s intentionally negligent open border” pushed us over a cliff to the point of no return.
This demonstrates a scary bad grasp of law. Take the LI car stop. What was the PC for the stop? ICE can’t stop cars because they see someone Hispanic-looking inside. They can stop for traffic violations either, as they lack local enforcement jurisdiction.
Then ICE can’t open the car door because they feel like it, and the guy inside is constitutionally entitled to be uncooperative with ICE agents engaging in flagrantly unconstitutional conduct. Citizens don’t have to produce ID upon demand in the US just because agents demand it. They can tell the agents to pound sand. That’s their right as an American. Do you hate America?
Do you not grasp any of this?
“ Lander wasn’t preventing the agents from arresting the immigrant, but wasn’t making their job any easier either.”
Yet in the previous paragraph, “ He locked arms with the person the ICE agents sought to arrest and refused to let go. He demanded a “judicial warrant,” which is neither needed for a lawful arrest nor created any duty on the part of the agents to satisfy his demand. They do not have to prove to Lander’s satisfaction that their actions are lawful.” His refusal to let go of the suspect was probable cause for obstructing (interfering if you prefer) the agents’ attempt to take the suspect into custody. His actions made force necessary.
Senators crashing press conferences throwing a hissy fit, a judge who actively tries to help an illegal alien evade arrest, a congressperson assaulting federal agents and now a New York politician, and candidate for mayor, interfering with an arrest. All legitimate crimes, and video evidence in all but one case (and there may be CCTV video of it).
Either no one including politicians are above the law; or the political class have become a modern day nobility immune from the laws applicable to the commoners.
[Ed. Note: It was not obstruction and use of force was neither necessary nor lawful.]
It never ceases to amaze me that the cop perspective is that anyone who fails to comply with them, completely without regard to the lawfulness or propriety of their demands, gets what he deserves. Cops aren’t gods. Cops don’t get to command the rest of the nation upon pain of force. Cops do not get to do whatever they please and demand everyone else in America comply or else.
Everything is not all about cops and cops do not get to use force whenever someone annoys them.