per CNN, one of the local ICE leaders is also a pastor at a local church. and today some protestors showed up trying to shame him.
DOJ is threatening something against the protestors. not sure what the basis is, but whatever.
weirdly, the same ICE folks are showing up at other local churches that have, for example, services in spanish.
Seems like resist is the way to go with those two choices
In the UK, we would all go out and protest in London. I have zero doubt it would be a massive protest.
But in the US, they are much more geographically dispersed so divide and conquer tactics can work on the population. From what I can see that is what Trump and his cronies are doing.
The additional problem in the US is that 30% of the population broadly supports what Trump is doing (overtly) with another fraction doing so under the radar. So you are not just protesting against the federal government, but you also have to worry about a material amount of people amongst the population working against you.
I think I covered this in another thread but at this point the only thing I would attempt in the US is a massive march on Washington DC. This would come with risks, but it would be more effective vs protests in various Cities all around the country.
This man is a US citizen
If you don’t click links, it’s video of ICE breaking down the door of an old man’s house and removing him. He’s shirtless, wearing just boxers and shoes, with a blanket over his shoulders and being taken out in cold snowy weather. Reportedly he was detained for an hour then allowed to leave.
They can do this to any of us. No warrants, just knock the door down and grab you.
Studies with obvious results: ICE’s facial recognition app doesn’t always work, despite what they say. This is something that worries me, as every legal document thinks that I am a man but AI thinks I look like a woman, so I have no confidence that ICE’s app would think that I’m a citizen.
We were on vacation a few weeks ago, a cruise. When we returned we had to clear US immigration and they took our picture. I’m not pleased with that, I had no knowledge that they would do that. But, that’s the problem with being in another country, rights are limited. In any event, now the US gov’t has my picture on file.
Consistent with my impression that AI will make people who know what they’re doing more effective and people who don’t more dangerous.
No kings pulled estimates of 7 million, 2% of the US population. Really large historical protests in London (2003 Iraq) pushed near 10% of the London area population.
It does seem helpful to have your government in the middle of a sizable % of the population. Protesting out in the suburbs of a random US city isn’t all that thrilling. It’s a gathering along the main road outside of the US Rep’s local office. Might get their attention but it won’t ever get Trump’s.
The feds are using facial recognition to augment checking the validity of documents (e.g. if the same face shows up with different passports, some questions need to be asked), as well as building the infrastructure to automate processing arrivals and departures (e.g. if a foreign face arrives, but doesn’t depart within the time allowed…).
It’s a little big-brothery, but I think Schengen and the UK have been doing vaguely similar things.
EDIT: I will say that while I’m leery of potential Big Brother applications, such technology facilitates breezing through the Global Entry lines when entering the US.
This is truly a crazy story. And even if he had indeed not been a US citizen, there is no legitimate reason to have 7 heavily armed agents detain an elderly man, nor a reason not to allow him to put on clothing.
Sure there is. Trump and Miller have made it pretty clear that they (and by proxy the US government) think non-whites are subhumans and don’t need to be treated with decency.
To be fair, it is not legitimate.
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And they don’t care.
Maybe protests need to focus on Mar-a-lago. He’d notice if they got really huge there and helped keep business away.
Considering the demographic of the neighborhood our Glorious Leader’s palace is in, and the space available, I suspect that protests beyond a couple of people with signs would be quickly dispersed by local authorities, if not the Secret Service.
Also, considering our Glorious Leader’s mental state, I’d be concerned that a big protest there, especially in a state with a friendly-to-him government, would easily be enough to send the nation into full overt police-state mode.
You need to either get the D’s to control both houses of Congress, or you need more R’s willing to stand up to him to reduce the risk of us going over that edge.
We are living with a President who is probably insane, and the checks that are supposed to exist on his power are apparently mostly nonexistent. That’s unfortunately the dangerous situation the world is living with.
FTFY.
I mean, they exist. They are just not going to be implemented.
More on ICE breaking down the door of a US citizen without a warrant and detaining him:
Preventing ICE from detaining and deporting US citizens is a step too far? WTF is wrong with our politicians?
