I've covered my face with my hands several times today.
One time was a few hours ago when I saw this photo:
Star Tribune photo
That's pepper spray. The person being sprayed is already fully restrained by three men, face down on pavement. I'm sorry to show a photo of torture. But it's important to show that this is not about training or body cameras.
That was part of a very bad day in Minneapolis today. CBP's Greg Bovino is there, and J.D. Vance is coming tomorrow. They gassed large groups of people in two different places in residential parts of South Minneapolis (all caught on multiple cameras). They're doing everything they can to provoke violence against them.
An internal ICE memo leaked that urges agents to carry out home invasions without warrants, or warrants they write themselves. That's what they've been doing here, so it doesn't surprise us.
Between the gas and the home invasions, I think the BlueSky account known as GOLIKEHELLMACHINE has the right of it:
they are actively trying to get these officers killed and have been for some time
The first one of the home invasion cases (as far as I know) was that of Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who came here when he was 6 years old. The door of his North Minneapolis home was broken in by ICE and he was removed against his will. His wife recorded the kidnapping, while she demanded a warrant. Guns were pointed at her. Their child was present.
This is the case I referred to on January 9. that made MPR's Matt Sepic say, "These are police-state tactics." Here's a new Mother Jones story on the case, with more details.
“They took trophy pictures with their personal phones,” [Gibson] said, adding, “like one stood by me on the right side of me. One stood on the left side of me. And they went, like, thumbs up and took pictures with their personal phones.”
The second home invasion case was the one I mentioned yesterday, ChongLy Scott Thao, who was hauled out of his house in just his shorts and Crocs. In 0° weather.
The other case, which I haven't mentioned, wasn't a home invasion, but almost as bad in terms of violated different rights we took for granted. A 23-year-old Somali American woman citizen was picked up from the parking lot outside her apartment building in Saint Paul for no legitimate reason. They said they would charge her with a felony. For what, it has not been reported. It's important to know that she has a history of seizures.
They held her for more than 48 hours (the habeas corpus limit) at a county jail north of the Twin Cities. She had a seizure while there and they took her to a hospital — wrapped in chains so that she, as she put it, looked like Hannibal Lecter. This woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 112 pounds.
She has since been released, through the intervention of a federal defense attorney, but it shouldn't have taken that level of effort. Of course, it shouldn't have happened at all.
Today, Radley Balko had an op-ed in the New York Times (gift link) about the unfettered way DHS, ICE, CBP and the Trump regime have behaved since Renee Good's killing.
It's a demonstration of their power to get away with anything, he says. It's about authoritarianism.
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