Mike German, an ex-FBI agent, said immigration agents hiding their identities ‘highlights the illegitimacy of actions’
Some wear balaclavas. Some wear neck gators, sunglasses and hats. Some wear masks and casual clothes.
Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics.
It’s a trend that has sparked alarm among civil rights and law enforcement experts alike.
Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. “Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls,” he said.
Sure, but that doesn’t mean people are making things up. One thing is tolerating weirdness and another is getting caught up in it and targeted.
I think that is all too frequent throughout the entire fediverse; just the topics change.
I have blocked entire popular communities on many servers to not get caught up in that.
There are some topics I just have to type a few keystrokes and I manage to attract controversy. And I do not understand why. What’s the big deal? Why do people hate me? And some instances are just weird to me, but others love it and find them important. Some instances are more in touch with my own weirdness.
I think if I have learned anything by my adventures, is not to demonize any instance used by a large group of people, but recognize there are different types of oddballs lurking there, waiting …