MAGA Republicans have done more than any political movement to undermine public respect for and confidence in law enforcement. Under the auspices of a 34-times convicted felon, the MAGA movement has condoned violent insurrection and cheered the pardon of the Jan. 6 vicious mob that killed and maimed police officers. So much for “Back the Blue.”
Over the last 10 months, Donald Trump (with full consent of Republican patsies on the Hill) has refused to prosecute white collar crimes and crypto swindlers, putting Americans’ finances at risk and our government up for sale. Worse, we have seen federal law enforcement persistently abusing power, assaulting unarmed people, misleading courts, and playing hapless victim. None of this engenders respect for the rule of law or support for enforcement personnel.
Trump’s federal immigration goons, who were supposed to deport the worst of the worst criminals, have become rogue bullies. Increasingly, federal judges have proven that they’ve had enough of lawless enforcement and illegal detention of both immigrants and, in some cases, U.S. citizens.
In Chicago last week, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis, after days of testimony documenting Customs and Border Patrol abuse, cracked down hard on its repeated violations of her TRO. WBEZ in Chicago reported:
Federal agents’ use of force amid an aggressive deportation campaign in Chicago “shocks the conscience,” the Trump administration’s arguments “lack credibility,” and a top Border Patrol official lied while trying to justify the use of tear gas, a judge found Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis made those findings while handing down a preliminary injunction that now more permanently restricts federal authorities use of force during the campaign known as “Operation Midway Blitz.” It largely mirrors an earlier order from Ellis, forbidding agents from using “riot control” weapons against people who pose no immediate threat, and without two warnings.
Judge Ellis also observed that the head of the Chicago CBP operation, Gregory Bovino, “admitted that he lied about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village.”
She bluntly also accused the Trump regime of lying about the city:
From Aurora to Cicero, and Chicago to Evanston to Waukegan. This is a vibrant place, brimming with vitality and hope. Striving to move forward from its complicated history. The [Trump administration] would have people believe, instead, that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators. That simply is untrue. And the government’s own evidence in this case belies that assertion.
To any honest observer, the lawbreakers are the ones defying the judge’s orders, testifying falsely under oath, and assaulting residents who pose no threat to them.
Federal personnel charged with detaining suspected immigration law violators did not fare any better in the courtroom of Judge Robert Gettleman, who heard compelling testimony last week about mistreatment, disreputable conditions, and chaos at the Broadview processing facility, which was never intended to be used to house detainees for an extended time.
Gettleman described treatment of detainees at the facility as “unnecessarily cruel.” He heard horrific first-hand accounts of vile conditions and denial of access to counsel for detainees. “Sleeping shoulder to shoulder next to filthy toilets that are overflowing, surrounded by human waste,” the judge said. “It’s just unacceptable.”
Capitol News Illinois reported that immigrants testified “they were pressured to sign voluntary deportation forms in order to escape the facility’s overcrowded and filthy conditions.” Making conditions unbearable to force self-deportation appears to be a feature, not a bug of Trump immigration enforcement.
Gettleman dressed down the government:
“People shouldn’t be sleeping next to overflowing toilets. They shouldn’t be sleeping on top of each other. They shouldn’t be sleeping in plastic chairs. They shouldn’t be sleeping on concrete floors.”
He issued a TRO to force the facility to provide such basic items as clean bedding, potable water, and (every other day) showers.
Broadview has become a symbol of cruelty and recklessness. After both these rulings, “Sheriff’s deputies removed a group of 14 suburban moms, as they call themselves, who were sitting in a circle in the middle of the road outside of the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility as a symbol of civil disobedience on Friday,” the local ABC TV station reported. “Moms from across the western suburbs… are demanding an end to the ‘campaign of chaos.’”
As authorities began to arrest the group of women, another took up the microphone to denounce arrest of protestors who had “exercised their First Amendment Rights in opposition to what this government is doing to our communities.” She implored the feds: “Stop abducting our community members. Stop separating families.” MAGA thugs’ war on Chicago residents and the responses from residents and courts will continue so long as the regime insists on brutalizing the city.
From the horrendous to the farcical, we have also witnessed the “sub”-version of serious law enforcement: the case of the “exploding” sandwich, where taxpayer dollars and court time were chewed up for no good reason.
Sean Dunn, the “sandwich” guy who dared to hurl a projectile (fully-loaded with onions and condiments) at Border Patrol Officer Greg Lairmore was found not guilty by a jury in a half-baked misdemeanor trial. D.C. prosecutors previously failed to indict Dunn on a felony charge—leaving us to conclude that indicting a ham sandwich is easier than indicting a sandwich thrower).
The jury did not swallow Lairmore ludicrous testimony that the sandwich “exploded” on impact. “I could feel the impact through my bulletproof vest,” he testified. (Was his vest was made of tissue paper?) In all fairness, the Trump flunkies in the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office are ones responsible for the display of whining. So desperate to punish a D.C. resident objecting to occupation of his city, the government attorneys wound up with egg on their faces.
Mockery is critical to undermining fascism but that does not detract from the serious damage to the integrity, reputation, and effectiveness of federal law enforcement in this regime. Trump has turned their personnel, undertrained and poorly lead, into a national embarrassment. When not whimpering over costumed protestors or a sandwich assailant, they regularly incur the ire of courts for their abusive and cruel conduct as well as dishonest testimony. Their incompetence is roundly mocked. Trump is sending the worst of the worst.
The situation cries out for congressional oversight, but MAGA House members are in hiding for fear they might be forced to vote on release of the complete Epstein files. As MAGA Republicans abet a cover-up and condone widespread abusive conduct, Americans are left with very little law or order.
I guess this was written before 'moderate' Democrats, including frequent Contrarian guest Jacky Rosen, caved on the shutdown, all on a pinky swear from John Thune that the Senate might have a vote on ACA subsidies in December.
I am sure many of you observed that none of these Dems face an election or a primary challenge next year.
All that momentum from last week's elections, gone just like that.
Will the Contrarian get behind a primary challenge to Schumer? There's reporting that says he was more involved in the cave that he is admitting, which frankly is easy to believe....and to do this only days after this election has done incredible damage to the credibility of the Democratic Party.
(EDIT: to clarify what should be obvious: even if Schumer didn't directly approve of this capitulation, he did not prevent it, once again demonstrating his fecklessness and incompetence as the Senate minority leader)
Time to put Bovino in jail. On state charges.