When a white police officer in Minneapolis
killed George Floyd nearly six years ago, the political repercussions were serious, immediate, and felt nationwide. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement gathered steam. Huge protests – mostly peaceful, but not always – took place across America, as well as in many other countries. “Defund the police” became a popular slogan.
It looked like a high point for liberal politics. But in fact, BLM probably ended up hurting the Democrats, as many voters came to regard the party, fairly or not, as elitists who coddled minorities and treated white working-class Americans with contempt. Maybe this was an attempt at a BLM 2.0 scenario before the midterm elections?
But the recent killings by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents of people observing their raids in that same city of Minneapolis could be more consequential. On January 7,
Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a mother of three, was shot dead through her car window while moving away from federal officers. On January 24, intensive-care nurse
Alex Pretti, with only a phone in hand, was shot 10 times in the back after being wrestled to the ground.
Maybe it wasn’t? Arresting people without a warrant or probable cause is a performative kind of brutal violence. ICE agents do not try to hide their aggression; they want people to see their abusive behaviour. This orgy of violence is deliberate. It is meant to show that the Trump administration is serious about ridding the United States of “
drug dealers, criminals, and rapists.”
Autocratic governments – and some revolutionary movements – tend to use performative brutality to intimidate people who could conceivably stand in their way.
When ICE agents targeted Hispanics or people of colour, most white Americans did not fear for their safety, even if they deplored such tactics. The murders of Ms. Macklin Good and Mr. Pretti changed that. Not only were they U.S. citizens, they were about as mainstream as a white American from the Midwest can be. Neither had a criminal record. Mr. Pretti was even a gun owner.
But the killings upset many other people, too, across the political spectrum. If Mr. Pretti and Ms. Macklin Good could be executed in broad daylight, anyone could. The Trump administration realized fairly quickly that this could harm their chances in November’s midterm elections.
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Former White House strategist and podcaster Steve Bannon suggested Tuesday that he wants to see Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers “surround the polls” during November’s midterm elections.
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Allegations of “domestic terrorism” were dialed back. Mr. Miller
acknowledged a possible breach of ICE “protocol.” Mr. Trump even
called Ms. Macklin Good’s killing a “tragedy.” The man overseeing the raids in Minneapolis,
Gregory Bovino, was demoted and transferred out of Minnesota.
The recent killings in Minneapolis as a result of the White House’s deportation zeal have upset people across the political spectrum
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The shootings were predictable. Sending poorly trained, heavily armed masked men into Democratic cities to kick down doors, shove people into cars,
detain children, and arrest people without a warrant or probable cause is a performative kind of brutal violence. ICE agents do not try to hide their aggression; they want people to see their abusive behaviour.
More migrants were deported under presidents Barack Obama (more than
3.1 million) and
Joe Biden (roughly
4 million) than under Trump (
1.9 million in his first term, and
540,000 so far in his second term). But these Democratic presidents were more discriminating in their methods, and mostly targeted convicted criminals.
There were no stories of children being
used as bait, of half-dressed old men being
dragged from their homes in freezing conditions, of people being
shipped off to countries whose languages they don’t even speak – let alone of U.S. citizens being gunned down in the street.
Experts say Tom Homan’s charge, replacing Greg Bovino’s aggressive tactics, may change the tone, but not the mission
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The Nazis consolidated their power with the help of the Sturmabteilung, brown-shirted thugs who were licensed to beat up Jews, Communists, and other “undesirables.
Many people who might not approve of such tactics prefer to look away, not only because they are intimidated, but also because violent regimes are selective in their targets. So long as one wasn’t a Jew or a leftist in the early years of Hitler’s Germany, one was unlikely to get into serious trouble.
But Joseph Stalin was deliberately indiscriminate. Anyone, even loyal party members, could end up in torture prisons or slave labour camps. People in the Soviet Union lived in a permanent state of fear, which was of course Stalin’s intention. But this is relatively rare. Most dictators, or aspiring dictators, select specific groups to isolate and persecute.
Sources at two government contractors told NBC News they were worried that new warehouses — and the large numbers of immigrants who would be housed in them — would present safety problems.
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