The stories of brutality and violations of people rights by the thugs that now make up the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) forces keep appearing daily. It is now apparently the case that those groups are attractive to violence-prone individuals who relish the chance to throw their weight around while wearing masks and assault anyone they dislike knowing that what normally would have landed them in prison is now fully protected by the Thug-in-Chief in the White House and his minions who occupy most of the high levels of government, including the attorney general Pam Bondi
But even through this dense mass of what would be criminal behavior if done by anyone else, some news stories still stick out, like this one where an attack dog was used to deliberately injure someone.
A US senator has condemned the Trump administration after she alleged that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “attack dog” mauled one of her constituents.
Democratic senator Patty Murray of Washington state said Wilmer Toledo-Martinez suffered “horrific” injuries while ICE agents detained him in November.
“An ICE agent lured Wilmer out of his home under false pretenses, posing as a construction worker who claimed to have hit Wilmer’s car and needed him to step outside to verify, “Murray said in a statement. “Another agent, accompanied by a dog, was hiding nearby and released the dog on Wilmer shortly after he stepped outside.”
…“Following the attack, Wilmer was left shaking and dizzy, and at one point his vision went black, yet he was denied medical care for hours,” Murray said.
“He was eventually taken to a hospital, where he received stitches for his injuries. He was prescribed antibiotics and additional medication, but the antibiotics were not provided immediately, and the other medication was never provided.”
…Photos provided by Murray showed deep cuts to Toledo-Martinez’s side.
“This should shock the conscience of every one of us,” Murray said. “I do not want to live in an America where federal agents can sic attack dogs on peaceful residents with impunity and face no consequences.”
…News of the attack came as police in Vancouver, Washington, said they were investigating an incident during which an ICE agent appeared to run over a man’s foot during an arrest. Oregon Live reported that an ICE agent struck Jose Guadalupe Paniagua Calderon, 27, with his own vehicle during an arrest.
On Friday, US congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of Arizona said she was “sprayed in the face” by a chemical agent during a protest against a federal immigration raid at a Mexican restaurant in Tucson.
In a joint statement, Tucson’s mayor, Regina Romero, and its vice-mayor, Lane Santa Cruz, both Democrats, said the enforcement operation in their city had “rapidly escalated into violence against the public”.
Follow the above link for a photograph of the victim’s injuries as a result of being mauled by the dog
Senator Murray’s hope that “This should shock the conscience of every one of us” is unrealistic. It will shock some of us but many in the Trump’s MAGA cult will cheer such acts because for them, it will provide some kind of vicarious thrill, seeing it as showing Trump’s toughness, though violence perpetrated by armed thugs against ordinary people is a sign of cowardice. There seems to be a vicious streak that runs through them that gets a release when they see other people, especially those who belong to a different tribal group than them, being treated cruelly by government thugs.
It’s going to get a lot worse than that.
Real life is so much worse than horror movies, because it’s real. If only there were repercussions for these fuckheads.
JigsawSuperman, where are you when we need you?It already has gotten a lot worse than that.
ICE/BP have already shot a few people and killed one. (Plus at least 23 people who have died in ICE custody under unknown but substandard conditions.)
The woman in Chicago shot 5 times at close range by ICE has been released with no charges filed against her.
The ICE thugs were the aggressors and Martinez didn’t do anything except almost die.
The shooter really should be charged with attempted murder for an unprovoked, potentially lethal attack.
There is no way a loon like that should be an officer with a gun.
https://roncobb.net/img/cartoons/rac/jj5036-on-Mode_Of_Operation_Officer-rac.jpg
Not for the first time I ask -- where is the fabled ”good guy with a gun”?
This kind of shit is literally what the 2nd amendment is FOR.
re sonofrojblake @5: Do you actually think that a “good guy with a gun” firing on ICE agents would live more than a few seconds? If they hit an ICE agent, they would be gunned down so fast by the rest of the ICE thugs just to make the point that ICE is in charge.
@johnson catman #6
Going to defend sonofrojblake here. Firstly, the whole intention of the second amendment was armed local militia to resist government oppression, but as s. says, that basis was replaced long ago by the meme of the “good guy with a gun” that’s been used to defend the amendment to the masses in the face of school shootings. That idea has always been tenuous, but as s. points out, the current climate exposes it as sheer delusion.
@johnson catman, 6:
file thirteen has (thanks!) amply demonstrated that the point I was making sailed over your head, but that aside:
I said “good guy with a gun”, because I thought that the fact said good-guy also had an above-room-temperature IQ went without saying. HL Mencken was right about going broke, it seems.
Here, let me hold your hand: a good guy with a gun and even a child’s grasp of tactics would know to engage from:
(a) range
(b) concealment
(c) ready egress
You presumably pictured someone marching up to within ten yards of a group of ICE agents and drawing a Smith & Wesson .45 revolver from a low-slung holster and blasting away, or some other such nonsense? The rest of the ICE thugs can’t make any kind of point if they
(a) don’t know where the shot was fired from and
(b) are shitting their pants and trying to find cover because of (a), as well as the fact that they’re definitely NOT trained to expect incoming fire because they’re glorified mall cops.
re sonofrojblake @8: Not what I pictured at all. Do you not think that if an ICE agent was shot from a concealed position from range with a ready egress that the entire present administration would not go into full manhunt mode to find the individual or group that planned it? Look what they did after the C.Kirk shooting.
Well, yeah, when you have a combination of massive amounts of money, an unrealistic recruitment quota, and the rather blatant marketing going on, it’s exactly to be expected that the people you’re going to get are either people who don’t have the skills or ethics to be anything else, or people who have already been kicked out of one or more police forces for making them look bad.