Using “cities as training grounds” is potentially lethal
I’m old enough to remember police actions against residences that went very, very badly. In Philadelphia (1985 MOVE bombing; six adults and five children killed, 250 left homeless). In Waco, Texas (Waco siege; over 80 dead, including at least 20 children and four ATF agents).
What happened Tuesday night in Chicago gave me shivers. It was worse for residents when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a South Shore apartment building (New York Times):
“It felt like we were under siege,” said one bystander, Darrell Ballard, 63, showing videos on his cellphone of officers entering the apartment building in the dark.
A U.S. Border Patrol official involved with the operation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said that the effort involved nearly 300 federal agents from various agencies. The agents came from various directions around the building.
The operation that night targeted an apartment complex that federal officials said was frequented by members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The Border Patrol official said that snipers rappelled down from helicopters on top of the apartment complex, as a precaution from potential violence. Federal authorities said that at least 37 people without legal immigration status were arrested.
Video:
Sorry, that was from The Blues Brothers (1980).
ABC 7 Chicago follows up:
“My building is shaking. So, I’m like, ‘What is that?’ Then I look out the window, it’s a Blackhawk helicopter,” said witness Dr. Alii Muhammad.
[…]
ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later.
“They just treated us like we were nothing,” Fisher said.
Fisher said she came out to the hallway of her apartment complex on the corner of 75th and South Shore Drive in her nightgown around 10 p.m. Monday only to find armed ICE agents yelling “police.”
“It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face,” Fisher said. “They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? And I told them, ‘No,’ I didn’t.”
Fisher said she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.
Donald Trump and Kristi Noem think Fisher should be grateful, I’m sure, that her building wasn’t bombed or burned to ashes. Oh, but what a missed opportunity for dramatic TV!
“Get out of Chicago,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said this week. “You are not helping us.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson agrees (Times again):
Democrats in Illinois have also spoken out against Mr. Trump’s plan, which he revealed on Tuesday while speaking to a roomful of military leaders, to use Chicago and other American cities as “training grounds” for future wars. “We’re going to straighten them out one by one, and this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Johnson said in a statement on Wednesday that he rejects any attempt to militarize American cities.
“Chicagoans are not test subjects for the president to train our military,” he said. “The brave men and women who sign up to serve our country do not want to be deployed against their neighbors.”
Someone needs to inform our president that using American “cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military” is not only improper, unprecedented, but illegal. And for its residents, innocents and not, potentially lethal.
As our proprietor wrote, “They want to use the military to violently suppress all dissent in America’s big cities where they believe their political opposition is.”
The Trump administration will blame the victims for their own deaths.
Update: (h/t MCP) Block Club Chicago has a story with pictures of the damage done to 7500 S. South Shore Drive.
“The raid saw people’s apartments turned upside down, citizens held for hours and their neighbors taken away to unknown places. Belongings were stolen from apartments after the agents left the building open.”
“ICE really just a gang,” said resident Dan Jones.
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