Stasi-minded ICE was designed to destroy trust in policing.
Its major purpose is not immigration enforcement, it is mistrust and fear.
I came to a realization last night on an alarming point. The whole point, the real underlying authoritarian mission of ICE as it has been redesigned by the Nationalist regime, is the real-time and wholesale destruction of actual law enforcement.
Is immigration really their big concern? Hell, no. It is just an issue that polled well, and it is easy to sell fear and rattle the low-information voter with that issue. The issue is a matter of convenience for the Nationalist agenda. It is just a test bed. Claim immigrants will end America by next Thursday morning, scream loudly and repeatedly, rinse and repeat. Then see how far you can take it. See what norms (like having a real search warrant signed by an Article III judge instead of an internal memo) you can throw out. See how quickly you can build an authoritarian police state a la the East German Stasi. Then apply to issue after issue after issue until the police state captures the state and its institutions themselves.
Authoritarian regimes hate the rule of law and fixate on unbridled military power. Since the early 1800s, it has been known through the study and work of Sir Robert Peel, the creator of the Metropolitan Police Force in England, that civilian law enforcement and military engagements are two entirely different things. Policing is not warfare, and it never should be.
I bought and watched (twice) A24’s Warfare on Fandango.
What a fucking brutal movie. The first watch was very upsetting and triggered a bit of my PTSD. But it is a direct, gory, and honest look into modern warfare. It is over-the-top violent. The damage to the troops, civilians, and even the homes in the area is utter devastation mixed with unbelievable chaos and battlefield horrors. Watch that movie or Saving Private Ryan and then ask yourself, is this how you want American policing to function? If your answer is yes, that is how law enforcement should work, you are probably mentally ill or just a fucking imbecile, and/or you are a Trump-lovin’ Nazi.
Law enforcement is something different. Even in the military, there is something specifically different. In the Army, the Military Police is its own regiment, and CID is its own command. Only a couple of percentage points of the total number of soldiers are MPs. The selection process to get into the MPs is not extraordinarily high or anything, but it does require a higher-than-average military aptitude score. What weeds people out (and gets them re-MOS-ed to 11B - infantry) is the pistol marksmanship, report writing, and scenario training.
Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, the former commander of European forces and the Seventh Army, spoke about the force structure of the military versus the small component that is the MPs/MPI and CID special agents. Even in the military, policing is a very special function performed by a specially trained regiment. Not even the Army wants the policing on base to be a wartime operation; in fact, it is quite the opposite.
Name a single Army general who sent a grunt to a crime scene and told him to lead a criminal investigation. I’ll wait. [Insert the Jeopardy theme music here.]
Why do authoritarians love to militarize law enforcement? There are a few reasons, but the big reason is that announcing a problem is no longer a mere criminal-level event. Instead, pick a panic-filled loaded word for autocratic word play: insurgency, insurrection, invasion, terrorism, war. You can’t escalate a bank robbery or a commercial burglary into a war out of the blue, or someone may suggest you belong in a straitjacket and you should be housed in a padded room after a massive dose of Thorazine.
Dear Leader Porn Star Humper and his evil minions, like Stephen Miller and a few assholes in the House, adore threat escalation language. A murder occurred, but they called it an invasion and then immediately doubled down on the harsh and over-the-top language by completely misstating the crime statistics for Nationalist effect. Crime did not happen, or a horrific felony did not occur; it was an (Cue the panic!!!) invasion destroying our way of life. A criminal was not identified, a domestic terrorist in league with a large group that included overseas connections (always to George Soros by the way) is mounting an attack against America. Even when there is zero evidence to back that up.
The threat escalation is hyper-specific. Brown, black, and liberal require threat escalation and all the bombastic bullshit that goes with it. The white international drug lord with murder-for-hire on his rap sheet is a misunderstood angel deserving of a pardon and your sympathy. The banker/financier who defrauded and bribed a governor, then got a pardon, then went on to commit more crimes, all good. No terrorism, insurgency, insurrection, or invasion. Just misunderstood felons abused by an overly zealous DOJ. Oh, the former FBI agent who facilitated the bribery between the banker and the governor also got a full pardon. Are you getting the con yet, America?
Threat escalation was plain as day, but many people missed it. This used to be the field uniform for an ICE investigator.
Now they are in more combat gear than a U.S. Army Ranger in Afghanistan.
That was a clue, folks… The gear told you the mission they were really looking to do, and that was never actual law enforcement.
Miller and the rest of the Nazi douchebags know what they are doing. Every action that leads to misconduct, every lie with the volume turned to 11, and every angry shouting session on cable TV news is designed beforehand and delivered in a mentally ill monotone of a looming disaster where all Americans will die at the hands of the boogeyman. This is all 100% intentional. Again, the Nationalists wrote it down in the Project 2025 paper.
Every step towards an autocratic system right now is focused on driving a wedge of mistrust between average citizens and law enforcement. The gaslighting that ICE is using about proper procedures (when they are not even following their own manual and guidelines), even when videotape clearly shows otherwise. Then, straight out of the 20th Century Dictator playbook, the government is instantaneously clearing itself of any wrongdoing.
It was not simply a rush to defend the agents; it was following the preplanned authoritarian playbook. They sent untrained and unqualified idiots into the street, knowing they could cause serious harm and damage. When the harm and damage occur, Miller always has a lengthy pre-canned redundant narrative to scream into the camera. He follows through with the same pattern, interview after interview. The Nationalist rhetoric instantly excuses any criminality of the administration. From bribery via a meme coin to corruption with Congressional allies of the regime, Tom Homan’s Canva bag stuffed with $50,000 that no one will investigate, to ICE committing assault under the color of authority and murdering people in the street: Miller has a routine already written out and ready to angrily present to the Red Hat Rubes. It is a simpleton’s attempt at hiding the truth before our very eyes. Up to and including a mass pedophilia ring with Trump’s name and pictures everywhere in the Epstein Files. There is a vicious Nationalist excuse that will blame something or someone else for the endless corruption and crimes of the regime. And of course, George Soros is paying for it, whatever “it” is.
It is empty bullshit. It is terribly positioned and presented disinformation, which they thought was the never-ending ace of spades. The disinformation was their trump card (pun intended), unless it all blew up in their faces when ICE began to execute U.S. citizens in the streets and kidnap U.S. citizens out of their own homes. Even abusing the elderly is excused because of all the terrorism they claim is happening.
Why did the regime immediately jump the fucking shark and claim an ICU nurse at the Veterans’ Administration hospital was a domestic terrorist simply because he was exercising his civil rights under the American Bill of Rights?!? It was not a flex, it was a strategy. Get citizens thinking that the cops (not ICE per se, but the local peace officers) have turned against the populace, and the cops (not Trump or Miller or Noem or Bondi or Bovino) were taking away the Second Amendment because someone dared to exercise their First Amendment rights. It is all an attempt to tear down law enforcement, which is far from perfect, but a lot better than ICE’s goombah bullshit. It was an attempt to disconnect local chiefs and sheriffs from the citizenry. If they can get Americans to hate the FBI as much as MAGA and Dear Leader do, even better. Build distrust in actual law enforcement so you could replace it with a half-ass militia turned political street gang. A street gang that does not answer to the city councils, county supervisors, state governors, the courts, or Congress. A street gang that would be run and controlled with an iron fist by operatives in the authoritarian orbit of Dear Leader Porn Star Humper.
Remember, the real law enforcement in Minneapolis went an entire year without an officer-involved shooting despite very high arrest and case numbers. The chief said 900 violent felons were captured and 100s of illegal weapons were taken off the streets in 12 months without a single shot being fired. ICE can’t enforce an illegal U-turn without executing the blond white woman driving the minivan.
Who is doing the real police work in Minneapolis?!?
It ain’t fucking ICE, and as a former Army MP Sergeant and retired civilian peace officer, I can tell you ICE ain’t shit. Disband ICE. Fuck em.
Until next time…
Please.
Think about it.
Postscript #1 - Today’s essay was motivated by Lt (Retired) Goldstein’s email today from the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, an organization I have followed for many years, and I occasionally donate to (they are super anti-drug war, that’s my big issue, ending the drug war)
LEAP Executive Director, Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.), a 21-year police veteran, on the recent ICE shootings in Minneapolis and the broader implications for public trust in law enforcement.
As Lt. Goldstein writes:
“Trust in law enforcement... is collective, built gradually through consistent, credible engagement, and easily shattered by perceived dishonesty, lack of accountability or misconduct… I find it hard to imagine a worse scenario for our profession at this moment.”
I want to make it clear to my readers. I know some cops, far too many in my book, support Dear Leader and his far-right policies. But a large number of cops and veterans of law enforcement disavow this broken attempt at horrid policy. Every friend I have from back in the day hates this bullshit with ICE, never liked the police tanks, and we are sick and tired of the failures of the drug war. All of this bullshit is detrimental to the duty of proper law enforcement.
I wrote a three-piece essay about the problems with this generation of police and why we require, as a society, good non-militarized policing. Please take a few minutes to read those essays as well.
Thank you for being here and reading my work. It is greatly appreciated.