This was discussed in the comments yesterday, but I wanted to have a post about it because it sums up some of the absurd overcharging and ICE protection that’s going on in the fascist Trump administration:
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for Congress, has been indicted on federal charges related to her participation in protests outside an ICE processing facility near Chicago in September.
The indictment, filed last week, alleges that the 26-year old Palestinian American candidate and five other individuals “physically hindered and impeded” a federal agent who was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators”.
Abughazaleh, who is running for Illinois’s ninth congressional district to replace the outgoing Democrat Jan Schakowsky, was charged with conspiracy to forcibly impede or injure a federal agent, and assaulting or impeding the agent while they were performing official duties.
It’s bullshit, but I want to discuss something related. ICE is a 100% rogue police force, but none of the Democratic governors and mayors who are going to fight ICE deployment in their states also have a rogue police force. There’s just too much MAGA and thin blue line solidarity in the state and local cops for any governor to count on them to protect citizens from ICE.
I’m guessing that some cops might be moved to enforce the law if ICE has gotten totally out of hand — for example, if they start shooting up residential neighborhoods because residents are blowing whistles when they arrive. But they’ve already tear gassed a children’s Halloween parade in Chicago with little consequence.
Most cops in the US have been throwing a prolonged pout since the George Floyd protests, even though they are awarded copious overtime, extremely generous pensions, and mainly get away with a lot of terrible behavior except for egregious, obvious murder of innocents. So I’m guessing that many of them support ICE.
I was at a state park yesterday and one of the Law Enforcement Rangers was out of his pickup to work on something and left his radio on. It was tuned to some right-wing station that was informing listeners that if AOC is elected President she’ll make everyone do awful things. I was not surprised at all, in fact, I’d have been shocked if he was listening to anything else. That’s the reality we’re facing: no serving and protecting from these guys.
