A month ago, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were two anonymous names of living breathing people. Whose names now we all know as they are no longer living and breathing because some ICE dipshits executed them in broad daylight, in cold blood, caught on multiple videos.
They’re both white US citizens. Their crime was being in the general vicinity as said ICE dipshits hassled those who are neither.
A crime that apparently carries the death penalty, according to the Orange Thing as well as to the dog-killing piece of shit running DHS and to the bald Nazi ghoul that is deputy chief of staff and to the couch fucker, among others.
In response, we all know the names Renee Good and Alex Pretti, saying their names and affirming their humanity in protest all over the country.
Because fuck everything about this shit.
There’s detention camps in our country, in 2026. Those not sent there go to ones abroad where they’ll never be seen again.
There’s a secret police force whisking people away to these places without trial or anything resembling due process, and murdering people in the streets for trying to keep their neighbors from being abducted, for trying to record what’s happening to make sure the world knows.
And Congress? The legislative branch who’s supposed to counter nonsense like this as part of that whole checks and balances thing?
The House voted to keep funding DHS… this past fucking week!
They saw the snuff film that was Renee Good’s murder and thought “awesome, let’s have more of that”. And more of that they got, in the form of federal agents proudly counting Alex Pretti’s bullet wounds.
Support for all this among the general population is in the tank. But some approval for ICE’s bullshit remains, even now. Why? Is it they believe the lies that these two were attacking the ICE thugs? Do they get all their information from those spouting these lies and that those saying otherwise are just brainwashed woke liberals or whatever? Do they have some stake in these operations? Are they afraid of what will happen if they don’t support them?
I think it’s all of that to some degree. I think also it speaks a little bit to how we got here.
For anyone to support ICE’s brutal tactics, they must be completely utterly convinced that simply being present in the country without proper authorization is in itself a mortal sin, deserving of the harshest retribution. Something you would only give the slightest shit about, let alone express this rabid hatred, because someone wanted you to because it was convenient for them. As I said before, immigrants are not the problem; the ones trying so hard to convince you of this are the actual problem.
It goes beyond immigration. We’ve been fed decades and decades of local news breathlessly peddling fear of crime, particularly that committed by non-white youth, skillfully tapping into the general public’s contempt for teenagers and for people of color. All for the ratings. All convincing the public that, despite all data indicating crime is way down in recent decades, we’re under siege and need beefed up law enforcement to protect us, to be tough on crime.
They’re basically this line from Mr. Burns in Season 3 “Bart the Murderer”.
So anything remotely resembling law enforcement gets more and more funding, with elected officials petrified of doing otherwise and getting pegged “soft on crime”. Such that our cities have militarized police forces rather than better funding for schools and vital social services so to more easily kill innocent unarmed black people and pretend they’re heroic for it.
But it’s okay. They’re just targeting… them.
A lot of support for beefed up police and border enforcement comes from the idea that, even if they just use the Constitution as a napkin, at least those on the receiving end are “those” people, not “us”. These goons are on “our” side.
Until they aren’t.
That’s the simple fact about bullies. They are never your allies. They might convince you of that, so you look the other way when they torment others, that those they torment deserve it and should have acted better. But sooner or later, you’re in their sights. And you’re the one who should have acted better. Because all along, you were their victim just as anyone else, only you were also a useful idiot.
A useful idiot who disastrously undermined our vital national document enshrining our rights just because a couple of Spanish-speaking 20-year-olds outside the grocery store made you uncomfortable.
The saying “land of the free because of the brave” is usually referring to the military, but it applies too to those with the courage to swallow any irrational prejudices and understand that our rights and freedoms apply to everyone, even those you’ve been conditioned to distrust and exclude. Because no one is free unless we are all free.
A courage displayed by the great people of Minneapolis these days.
A courage sorely needed in our legislative and judicial branches, as we’re sure as shit not seeing it in the executive.
A courage required for anyone entertaining any ideas about running for or staying in office this year. Because if you’re just going to spout mealy-mouthed concerns about ICE “needing better training” or even praise them, even after all goddamn this, no one needs you, get the fuck out.