Law Enforcement Fault Lines with Rising Authoritarianism
You probably saw the viral clip of the “polka dot woman” standing up to ICE agents in lower Manhattan as they terrorized and arrested street vendors in Chinatown. This image is emblematic of the sentiment that many feel after heartbreaking scenes across the nation.
Law enforcement entities, specifically local police departments, have been rightfully criticized for prioritizing the protection of property rather than ensuring that communities are safe from internal and external threats.
Increasingly, local law enforcement has fallen into the crosshairs of ICE agents and operations that threaten the sense of public safety. This has been made clear in communities across the country, where videos like the ones below have emerged, showing that public solidarity looks very different but shares the same basic message – unapologetic opposition to an authoritarian takeover.
The ICE agents behind this mass deportation campaign are facing the emotional toll of their actions in real time, as made clear in this clip.
You also have American civilians taking creative measures to obstruct ICE officials from persecuting people without due process.
If you feel bad for the young man crying, don’t worry – protestors also have shown up to entertain. Just see this clip when U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited an ICE facility in Portland.
This upswell in people power is prompting law enforcement leaders and officials to speak up for the safety and protection not only of their own officers who have faced indirect physical attacks by ICE agents, but also the people more broadly.
Superintendent Larry Snelling, Chief of Police for the Chicago Police Department, spoke up after 27 documented videos went viral (see clip below) of officers who were accidentally hit with tear gas from ICE officials. “The federal agents had employed chemical agents. They deployed chemical agents while our officers were there. Those who will tell you that our officers weren’t there, say that to the 27 officers who were affected by the chemical agents that were deployed [by ICE].”
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on October 24 that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals “wanted more time to decide whether to rehear arguments on the matter” of National Guard deployment to Portland. Three weeks before that decision was made, a clip went viral when the top military leader in Oregon spoke up in a state legislature hearing to address concerns from lawmakers and the public about National Guard deployment amidst the ongoing, unprecedented extrajudicial malfeasance from ICE.
“Oregon National Guard, men and women, are [there] to serve two purposes. One, to defend America, and two, to protect Oregonians,” says General Alan R. Gronewold, top military official leading the Oregon National Guard. “And so by serving this mission, they will be protecting any protestors at the ICE facility.”
Military and law enforcement, regardless of your political position on abolition versus reform versus more of the same, are meant to serve and protect the people in an ideal world. It’s obvious we are NOT, nor have ever been, in that world.
Racialized policing, as well as generational and structural barriers to justice, create the conditions for mass incarceration. In this moment of uncertainty and a genuine threat to democracy, it is incumbent on law enforcement and the military to not only enable the conditions for peaceful protest, but also to resist fascism themselves when they are inevitably called upon to harm civilians.
