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.

  • epigone@awful.systems
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    11 minutes ago

    is this because we’re listening to all that damn “post-hardcore” music on the patios and at the parks in public?

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    Let them wear masks. It’s an important piece of safety equipment in some scenarios. Lets mandate that undercover/plain clothes officers cannot enforce the law beyond what a civilian could do. They should not be allowed to arrest you, or point a gun at you, or demand that you ID yourself. Only officers in uniform should be allowed to do those things, and they should be required to identify themselves, the department they work for, and display a badge with number to be considered “in uniform”.

  • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    I’d bet theres at least 80% overlap with people that somehow couldn’t breathe in a disposable medical mask during covid

  • D_C@lemm.ee
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    7 hours ago

    I see 2 options here:
    Getting kidnapped and imprisoned now (whether that’s by ‘real’ police or fake)
    Or.
    Shooting the mask wearing weirdos now and maybe potentially possibly getting imprisoned later.

    Out of these two choices I know which I’d take.

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I work in 911 dispatch

      During COVID we had to ask all of our callers some extra questions if they were going to be in contact with any of our units

      Something along the lines of “has anyone there had or been in contact with anyone who has had flu-like symptoms recently?”

      And if they did we added a note to the call indicating that.

      One night I got a call from one of our off-duty officers calling in an accident he witnessed.

      I get all the usual information and start asking our COVID questions

      And he gets really indignant about it “why are you asking me this?” “This is stupid.” Etc.

      Like dude, you’re one of our officers. We’ve been advising you about potential COVID exposures on your own calls, where do you think we were getting that information? This shit is for your benefit, not ours, I can’t catch COVID from someone over the phone (the disease vectors sitting the consoles adjacent to me could be another story)

      And that’s pretty typical of how cops act towards us, the people they rely on to give them information they need to do their jobs, send them backup when needed, etc. blows my mind that so many of my co-workers are absolute bootlickers.

      • redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 hours ago

        This describes half of most departments. The good cops burn out from the idiocy from all sides and end up fire fighters, EMTs, bartenders and roofers. The dumb ones stay and try not to get fired until they can get that penchant.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      “I cAnT bReAtHe!!!”

      Yes you can, asshole. It’s a slight inconvience, but it’s a far cry from not getting oxygen.

      But oh, now that it’s being used to conceil your identity, you’re all fine???

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Now serial killers and pedophiles can larp and kidnap children and adults too.

    All Thanks to ICE!

    DONAKD J TRUMP

    • ijedi1234@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      “Okay, girlie. No sudden moves or I’m putting one in your gut. If you scream, my cop buddies around the corner will be all over you.”

      “But I’m being nice. If you stay quiet and come with me, I’ll smooth things over with the force. We won’t have to break all of your bones before letting you go.”

      “Now get over here. I’m going to take you somewhere special. You’ll love it.”

  • msprout@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    What fucking sucks is that they are criminalizing wearing KN-95s to protests in state laws because apparently they’re so dangerous while simultaneously saying that these guys need masks to protect themselves.

    Why the fuck do the cromagnons in office think I’m still wearing a KN-95? So I can cosplay Blade Runner at work? Because I am a duck furry and this is a subtle way of fursuiting? For the high fashion? Because I am taunting non-mask-wearers? NO, IT IS TO PROTECT MYSELF.

    aaaaaaAAAAAAA

    • FishFace@lemmy.world
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      18 minutes ago

      I dunno about the MAGAs, but I think at this point, with COVID very low in the USA, most people are wearing masks because it sends a signal about where they stand on COVID, not for their own protection. Obviously there are some people who are particularly vulnerable, who can’t have the vaccine for example, for whom mask-wearing will remain important forever (and would likely have been beneficial before the pandemic) but I don’t believe that’s the majority.

      The reason is that mask wearing in my home country went down to zero after most people were vaccinated and the virus became uncommon. But here mask-wearing was never politicised, so without an anti-mask group to oppose it never became a symbol for those who did wear them.

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      The masks have nothing to do with COVID. To protect themselves means to hide their identity so people can’t dox them and harasses them at home.

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    10 hours ago

    At this point, my first reaction to seeing anyone in law enforcement at any level is they are a criminal thugs that cannot be trusted, should be undermined at every opportunity, insulted relentlessly, and if necessary, worse. I know there are some good cops, and not everything they do is bad, but goddamn they do they suck in general.

    • Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip
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      10 hours ago

      I heard this one recently: Take 100 gallons of dirty sewage water and add 1 gallon of clean water. What do you have? It’s not 101 clean gallons of water or even 100 gallons dirty and 1 clean anymore…

      You now have 101 gallons of dirty fucking sewage water.

      ACAB (and soon to be ACAN ~ All Cops Are Nazis)

      • Vinstaal0@feddit.nl
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        3 hours ago

        I get what you are saying, but that doesn’t help the 1 good cop that is actually trying to do their job correctly.

        • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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          1 hour ago

          The challenge today is that their legal job may now require them to do things that are constitutionally questionable and ethically repugnant. So even if they’re good people and upstanding citizens, they may be required to, at any point in their day, to choose between doing the right thing and losing their job.

          They only have to choose wrong once to no longer be the “good cop”.

          Now, because of the way policing works in the US, it may be possible to have an intrinsically good police department. At least until a state or federal agency rolls into town and demands they do something they wouldn’t otherwise do; then they become complicit.

          After all… in any other organized gang, there can be good people, but they’re still going to be found guilty of gang activity due to supporting the others.

      • cubism_pitta@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Works the other way too.

        If I take 100 Gallons of clean water and dump a gallon of sewage into it, would you pour yourself a glass?

      • Fusselwurm@feddit.org
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        9 hours ago

        excuse me, but that is shit logic.

        people are indivisible, which makes them different from a gallon of water.

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          You put a good person in a shit department and they leave or become shit themselves ; either way, they whole group is still shit.

          Humans aren’t a gallon of water, but you’re naive if you think we’re not influence-able just the same.

        • Zombie@feddit.uk
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          3 hours ago

          As human beings, our interests, philosophies, politics, etc, yes.

          As workers in a job, not so much. The analogy works in that scenario. We all conform, to varying degrees, to the groups that we join. Especially when that group is your full time employ, where you spend most of your time and gain most of your money.

          There’s a HBO show called The Wire that is amazing, and I would recommend to anyone to watch, but particularly to yourself because “Simon has said that despite its framing as a crime drama, the show is “really about the American city, and about how we live together. It’s about how institutions have an effect on individuals. Whether one is a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge or a lawyer, all are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution to which they are committed.”[5]”

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire

          Trailer: https://youtu.be/1S5khOZ1wBs

          Warning: it is slow paced, it’s more like reading a book on your screen than watching a traditional TV show, but it’s worth it

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
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          4 hours ago

          Doesn’t matter all cops are bad. Yes there might be a “good” cool but since they can’t or won’t do anything about the bad one they’re bad. And the shitty thing is if someone tries to eat out a bad cop they are the ones who get take the shit. So yes all cops are bad.

        • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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          8 hours ago

          Analogies aren’t perfect, but they usually get the point across. Maybe the “one bad apples spoils the bunch” sits better? Apples are indivisible like people.

          • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 hours ago

            If I buy a bunch of apples and one is bad, then I simply don’t eat the one apple and throw it away. Similarly, if there’s one bad cop I just imprison it based on their illegal actions.

            The thing with the US police force is that enough of them are bastards, and nothing is done against their behavior, that you always have to assume that any one of them is a bastard. If it was only rare single bad cops and they would be immediately removed on first infraction, I’m sure there would not be a problem with the police.

            This is the rational truth and I think it was very simply expressed, without needing to say “All cops” nor “one bad cop makes everything terrible”. There is theoretically no need for generalizations in intelligent discussion. The problem is that many people are too stupid or not interested in intelligent discussion, at which point these generalizations might become necessary simply because of practical limitations. But we should strive to use the more accurate statement if possible.

            • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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              4 hours ago

              You’re missing a critical part of the apples analogy. When apples start to rot, they release ethylene gas which is a plant hormone that accelerates aging in nearby fruits.

              So by the time you found the rotten apple, it has already spoiled the bunch.

              • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 hours ago

                I’m not really missing it. It’s just an unfitting analogy. People don’t have to work like rotting apples.

                If one single person is being stupid we punish them/cast them out. The problem with people is that a large amount are being bad.

            • Auli@lemmy.ca
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              4 hours ago

              They are all bad. Cause the good ones can’t or don’t do anything about the bad ones. And if they do they usually hurt themselves for some reason. So since the good cop can’t or won’t do anything about the bad one it makes them bad.

              • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 hours ago

                Yeah obviously at this point that is true. I’m just talking about the general system, saying it doesn’t need to be all bad absolutely. At this point, if we’re talking about the US, they’d need a complete reform.