Disturbing scenes keep spewing from Minnesota of federal ICE and border patrol agents performing a brutal brand of street theater.
The images have made our federal government seem like an occupying force of marauders.
An older man was marched from his home, undressed, on a freezing day. A woman heading to the doctor was dragged from her car, her window smashed. A bewildered 5-year-old boy was snatched up with his dad. Protesters have been routinely pepper-sprayed in the face point-blank.
And, of course, there was the shooting death of Renee Good, a mother, in her SUV.
In the midst of all this, ICE now contends that their masked, commando-garbed agents can barge into homes without a judge’s warrant, 4th Amendment be damned.
Buddy Carter, a GOP congressman running for U.S Senate, apparently had a brainchild: Hmm, some of that would be great in Atlanta.
Carter last week wrote a piece for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution headlined: “We need a greater ICE presence in Atlanta to keep the city safe.”
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
“We’ve seen the success of federal intervention in other Democratic-run cities,” Carter wrote. “Since President Donald Trump deployed ICE agents to Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge, 3,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested — including murderers, rapists, gang members and perpetrators of fraud.”
(Stats show less than a quarter of immigrants in custody have criminal convictions.)
Barely hours after Carter’s editorial appeared, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was killed in Minneapolis by a fusillade of gunshots from nervous, or angry, ICE agents.
Federal higher-ups immediately lied, as they did after Good’s death, saying Pretti was a domestic terrorist, had brandished a weapon and came to “massacre” law enforcement.
His crime, however, was filming ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis and coming to the aid of a woman flattened by those same agents. He had a holstered pistol which probably heightened the fear and mayhem, causing one of the half dozen agents in the scrum to yell “Gun!”
Immediately, some of their twitchy comrades repeatedly fired bullets into the prone and apparently disarmed man.
I messaged Carter’s team for comment and heard nothing. I wondered if he backed off his call for the federales. But, it’s clear that he and fellow Congressman Mike Collins are desperately trying to get President Donald Trump’s endorsement in their primary this spring.
Also, Carter is employing another conservative tact: It never hurts to beat up on Atlanta.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Part of the MAGA strategy is to act like a troll, as Collins did right after Good’s death, tweeting, “Good morning. Don’t try and run over an ICE agent today.”
I guess a little snark after the shooting death of a lefty pays dividends with the MAGA crowd.
These days, it’s all about the performance. Five years ago, on Jan. 6, Trump, the ultimate showman, was able to marshal the people into a mob and turn them against their government.
Now he’s trying to turn the government against the people to agitate them into becoming a mob. That would allow him to mobilize more authoritarian forces of that government against his foes.
It’s funny that he warned Iranian mullahs against killing protesters when his administration doesn’t seem too perturbed when they do it here.
After Good’s death, I called former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, who is now a law professor. One of the bullets fired by the ICE agent went through the windshield, a shot that could allow the gunman to argue he feared for his life.
However, Morgan noted at the time that the two shots fired through the open driver’s side window could be more problematic for the agent, that they would not be considered “defensive” shots. A private autopsy says she was shot three times but the fatal shot has not been determined conclusively yet.
An FBI supervisor in the Minneapolis office quit her job after seeing that higher ups wanted to whitewash Good’s killing, the New York Times reported.
It goes to reason the administration will try that again in this death.
“This one needs a thorough investigation; the public is not going to trust the Department of Justice,” Morgan told me Monday. “It appears the only thing that will bring justice … is through the state prosecutors there.
“The videos show the federal government is lying on this. And the DOJ lying is a scary thing.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Catherine Bernard, a Republican attorney from Atlanta with a libertarian streak, worries about the militarization of policing, a trend “that has created rules of engagement that are looser than for soldiers overseas.”
Dressing cops and federal agents like they are ready for door-to-door fighting in Fallujah “creates a scary feedback loop,” she said. “People react differently to military-style police and that changes the whole situation.”
It’s been the opinion of many that Trump likes these drastic optics.
“Trump’s M.O. is to force his opponents to a more extreme position,” she said, adding the recent killing has brought about a topsy turvy turn in some pols’ verbiage.
“Now you’re having people saying you can’t bring your gun to a protest,” she said. Before, it was left-wingers saying that. Now, many 2nd Amendment-loving right-wingers are blaming Pretti, a licensed gun owner, for having his holstered pistol with him.
Funny how that goes.
“The whole question of when do we obstruct government is a complicated one,” Bernard added. “When my side is mad, it’s time to take to the streets.”
“It’s a real mess and I fear for our country,” she added.
So, no, Buddy, we don’t need ICE surging in the streets of Atlanta. Please don’t make us “safer.”
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