Fascist Takeover Attempt of California

I haven't written a concerted post about the actions of ICE and the Department of "Homeland Security" — primarily in California — which become more fascist by the day.

Yesterday they laid seige to an agricultural facility in Ventura County. One worker was killed after trying to flee and falling from a height. Others were critically injured. A number of others were held for eight hours or longer, and only let go after they agreed to wipe their phones of photos and videos they had taken showing what had happened in the raid — being forced to destroy evidence. (This info is based on a statement from the United Farm Workers.)

Tonight, the Service Workers International Union California released a statement saying a California State University faculty member (a U.S. citizen, if that matters) was assaulted and is still detained in the raid. The faculty member, Jonathon Caravello, was there as an observer, and one statement I saw said he had tried to aid a woman in a wheelchair who had been teargassed by ICE.

On the same day as the Ventura raid, other masked, purported ICE henchmen went to a clinic in Ontario, California, to grab a man at a medical clinic. The staff asked for a warrant and tried to use their bodies to prevent ICE from taking him. They were unsuccessful.

ICE acting director and human thumb Tom Homan went on Fox News today to say, "People need to understand ICE officers and Border Patrol don't need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them ... based on their physical appearance."

Which is the very definition of racial profiling. 

Tonight, however, a federal judge ordered DHS to limit these “roving patrols” in LA because officers are racially profiling people by demanding their papers based on race (including speaking Spanish, having an accent, being at a specific place — like hanging outside Home Depot where day laborers congregate, or doing a specific type of work. 

We'll see how long that stands up as the case moves up the federal court system to the Trump-patsy Supreme Court.