Yesiree, this is profeshunal law enforcement
Exhibit A from Chicago Tribune investigative reporter, Gregory Royal Pratt:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
These masked men (remember when that meant criminals?) seem not to have been trained to respect the First Amendment. Nor do they seem to know about:
Glik v. Cunniffe, No. 10-1764 (1st Cir. 2011)
Gericke v. Begin, No. 12-2326 (1st Cir. 2014)
Turner v. Driver, No. 16-10312 (5th Cir. 2017)
Chcago sits in the 7th Circuit, so I suppose they believe that makes them free to abuse the First Amendment with abandon.
Independent news site CWBChicago reports on the “Midway Blitz” commander touting the arrest of a rapist who isn’t. He brought his own sketchy Exhibit A.
The federal agent leading the government’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago has wrongly identified a man detained by ICE agents as a rapist who was set free to roam the city while awaiting trial.
The man shown in a photo accompanying Gregory Bovino’s post — firmly held by agents in one of the feds’ trademark “glamour shots” — has never been accused of raping anyone, except by Bovino.
“Why are we in the greater Chicago area?” Bovino’s post began. “To arrest bad people and bad things.”
He went on to describe the man detained in the accompanying photo as “Exhibit A.”
Only one problem for Bovino’s sensationalized Oct. 7 post:
The case Bovino is referring to involves a man named Alexander Ramos. To the best of our knowledge, we are the only news outlet that reported on Ramos’ arrest, which occurred on August 16, not March 30. But we certainly appreciate being considered “national news.”
March 30 is, however, the date that Ramos allegedly lured a 32-year-old woman into his SUV by posing as a rideshare driver outside the Hangge Uppe nightclub at 14 West Elm Street. Once inside his car, prosecutors said, the victim drifted in and out of consciousness as Ramos drove her around before stopping in the 1100 block of North Lake Shore Drive. She awoke to find him sexually assaulting her, and prosecutors said he continued the attack after she resisted.
“With a lengthy and violent criminal record dating back to 2002, why has he been living free as a bird in the Windy City?” Bovino asked on X. “Because of Chicago’s embrace of sanctuary policies, which hurt rather than help its residents. But no more. Operation Midway Blitz is here to rid Chicago of criminal illegal aliens like him.”
Hang on there, commander. Judge John Hock ordered Ramos detained on August 18, and he has been in the Cook County Jail ever since.
The man Bovino’s ICEmen snatched is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, “Columbino Ramos, a completely different man who looks somewhat like Alexander Ramos.”
Certainly there are real professionals in CBP doing their jobs professionally, but then why go to such lengths to conceal their identities?
In early October, a black Chevrolet Express van without license plates on the front or the back left a gated federal immigration facility in Broadview and drove through the western suburb.
The passengers wore Army green typical of U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers. The van had an “inventory” decal on the back, but with faces shielded, no badge numbers and no visible license plates, the pair were virtually untraceable — the latest sign, documented by the Chicago Sun-Times, of the ways in which federal immigration agents are shielding themselves from public scrutiny.
The Sun-Times has documented four such unmarked cars on public streets without proper license plates and no other indicators that they are government vehicles, ever since an influx of federal officers sent by the Trump administration began roaming Chicago in early September. One car had no license plates at all; three had only one plate.
Illinois law requires all registered vehicles to display front and back license plates, without exception, according to the Secretary of State’s office. But the greater concern here, a civil rights lawyer says, is a “severe lack of accountability.”
And that’s just it, isn’t it?
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Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
No King’s One Million Rising movement – Next national day of protest Oct. 18
50501
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
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Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense