ICE’s Military-Style Raid Of A Los Angeles Flea Market Netted Only Two Arrests
from the fascism-doesn't-need-to-work-to-be-effective dept
There are a few thousand military troops in Los Angeles now, thanks to Trump’s Martial Plan. Local law enforcement officials pointed out they had the situation under control, what with most of the violence (what there was of it that isn’t police violence) limited to a few blocks in downtown LA.
The rollout of National Guard troops remains a point of judicial discussion. The imposition of Marines on Los Angeles has already resulted in military troops doing what appears to be cop work, which is something they’re definitely not allowed to do.
But having more dudes duded up in camo is definitely turning heads. Last week, a whole bunch of warfighter-looking officers invaded a Los Angeles flea market, turning a normal swap meet into downtown Fallujah.
Now, we have the answer to a question no one should have needed to ask? How many officers does it take to effect two (2) immigration-related arrests?
With a Department of Homeland Security helicopter circling, several dozen heavily armed, masked ICE agents dressed in military tactical gear raided one of the most popular swap meets in Southern California, which caters to a predominantly Latino crowd, over the weekend.
[…]
An estimated 60 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen on the flea market grounds, which also houses a music venue.
Sixty officers and a helicopter. The optics of turning a local flea market into something that more closely resembles military actions in foreign countries. The absolute shock value of storm-trooping a domestic marketplace. And what did the administration get from this show of force?
It’s unclear if federal officials expected to detain a lot of individuals at the event, but despite their large numbers, only two people, a woman and a man, the latter of whom told an onlooker he’s Colombian, were seen in handcuffs as they were escorted away.
Not to nitpick, but it’s perfectly clear the government expected to detain a lot of people. That it didn’t shows how desperate federal officers are to meet constantly escalating deportation quotas. But, in this case, the optics are the end game. This administration has pretty much declared war on any state Trump perceives to be governed by his enemies.
And this underwhelming outcome was confirmed by the DHS, which appears to believe this is an acceptable cost-benefit ratio.
“ICE administratively arrested two individuals. Both entered the United States near Yuma, Arizona in March 2022. They were placed into removal proceedings and released from custody in 2023. They will now remain in custody pending the completion of removal proceedings,” the spokesperson added.
Yet again, we’re being shown the administration isn’t actually interested in removing truly dangerous immigrants from this country. All it wants to do is remove any (non-white, mind you) immigrants from this country and is willing to break laws to do it.
There was no specific target here. This was nothing more than the government utilizing its endless resources to troll for high-profile arrests. The government had no reason to believe the swap meet was host to dangerous criminals. It just sent 60 troops/officers and a helicopter to a place where there were a lot of people who looked kind of foreign.
The administration, of course, won’t see this as a failure. The primary purpose is a show of force in a “hostile” (using Trump’s words) city with the secondary intended effect being the promotion of a constant climate of fear. In any rational sense, the impromptu raid was a failure. But when the goal actually isn’t deportation of dangerous people, every loss is still a win.
Filed Under: dhs, donald trump, ice, los angeles, mass deportation
Comments on “ICE’s Military-Style Raid Of A Los Angeles Flea Market Netted Only Two Arrests”
I find it hard to believe that there were only two people with brown skin in that entire flea market.
Send the Marines
When someone makes a move
Of which we don’t approve
Who is it that always intervenes?
U.N. and O.A.S.,
They have their place, I guess
But first send the Marines!
We’ll send them all we’ve got
John Wayne and Randolph Scott
Remember those exciting fighting scenes?
To the shores of Tripoli
But not to Mississippoli
What do we do? we send the Marines!
For might makes right
And till they’ve seen the light
They’ve got to be protected
All their rights respected
Till somebody we like can be elected!
Members of the Corps
All hate the thought of war
They’d rather kill them off by peaceful means
Stop calling it aggression
Ooh, we hate that expression!
We only want the world to know
That we support the status quo
They love us everywhere we go
So when in doubt
Send the Marines!
This is an act of terror perpetrated by the executive branch and the military targeting a civilian populace.
“Show me your papers” is something the constitution says United States military personnel are not allowed to ask people in the United States.
Supreme Court justices are refusing to sign their names to the worst precedents for civil rights since dredd scott.
Be awake and aware, it’s just a matter of time until we get “Kent State Shooting #2 : Fascist Boogaloo”.
Re:
That’s exactly it. It’s entirely designed to scare people into submission, or worse yet, scare any non-white person out of the country.
The cruelty is absolutely the point.
Re: Someone has to die before it's a folk song
The scary part is that we don’t get popular support until the harm is visceral. And considering detaining Latins to gulags is not enough, it may have to be a young white woman… or a massacre.
I have non-zero hope that we’ll have learned our lessons from prior instances like George Floyd. We will see.
As much as anything, it’s about normalizing sending masked thugs into opposition strongholds.
Republican Rule
Republicans are turning America into a third world country one city at a time. If they can make people poor enough, they might even be able to bring back manufacturing. I mean to compete globally they will have to live on 6 or 8 dollars a day, but its better than being beaten in the streets by the gestapo.
Re:
They can get the cheap labor but they’ll have to do something about the supply chain. The US doesn’t have access to the materials we’d need to make anything. They’d also need to boost education to get the big dummies useful to make anything useful.
Like they say: “one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic”.
But Trump would say: “one million arrest is a statistic, one arrest is a success”.
Re:
I agree, but only if the one arrest is his.
i don’t think this is very efficient, and surely not saving anyone money. Trump and ICE need to be DOGE’d.
The Question
The question that must be asked, is: how many ICE officers got fleas? It was a flea market that was disrupted – one would expect the ICE officers and surrounding goons to get infested. If they didn’t, we should demand our money back.
I wonder how many people were stopped and hassled and intimidated in addition to the two people they took away.
Not the i̶m̶m̶i̶g̶r̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ droids you're looking for.
Wow. Swap dudes in camo with white armor and helmets, and you have some scenes right out of Mos Eisley.