Two Illinois National Guard members told CBS News they would refuse to obey federal orders to deploy in Chicago as part of President Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement mission — a rare act of open defiance from within the military ranks.
“It’s disheartening to be forced to go against your community members and your neighbors,” said Staff Sgt. Demi Palecek, a Latina guardswoman and state legislative candidate from Illinois’s 13th District. “It feels illegal. This is not what we signed up to do.”
If you’re in military do not say you are not on their side. Let it be a surprise
Bringing the discussion out into the open though could encourage others to do the same.
You’ll need both.
Yeah, it’s the same reason dog whistles are so popular with Nazis. In order for a fringe group to grow and gain new members, the people inclined to follow it need to feel like there is tacit support.
And check out that CIA field sabotage manual that’s all over the Internet
Absolutely this.
As much as I admire these 2 guardsmen for speaking out, they’re fucking idiots for doing so.
All they will accomplish is to be booted out of the guard.
Partisans don’t speak up. They act, quietly.
I’m not so sure about that. They’re literally only saying that they won’t follow illegal orders. Speaking out about not following illegal orders is probably the only way they can show dissent without being retaliated against. “What, you’re going to punish me for saying i wouldn’t do something illegal? The you’re admitting that you made an illegal order”
Someone still needs to say it publicly. You could have half the people in the deployment feeling that what they’re doing is wrong, but it’s not really an environment that encourages open discussion, let alone questioning orders. The person you speak to in confidence may share your feeling. Or they could be a closet murder hobo excited at the chance to hunt people for real. Is it worth finding out when you have bills to pay? A family to feed (and protect from harassment)?
Public dissent lets people know that they’re not alone. And hopefully outs the murder hobos when they go into an impotent rage.
Every act of resistance is important.
I don’t disagree. But the people speaking publicly and trying to change things should be the commanding officers.
A general refusing to deploy troops, or even better, actively siding with local citizens, would have a far greater and significant impact than what these two have done.
General staff resigning achieves nothing. They are the ones who should be resisting the attack against the American people.
“I was only following orders” is not a valid legal defence
if the people at the bottom are brave enough to speak out, it puts alot of pressure on the people at the top to be brave as well.
The whole point of soldiers and basic training is to mentally break people so they do anything they are told.
Tell me you’ve never been to basic without saying it.
You aren’t taught to follow any order. You’re taught to follow lawful orders. There is a big difference.
So killing students at Kent State was lawful, and bayonetting others at UMN?
Whew…good thing they changed that law.
There was no order to fire in that incident. The guardsmen opened fire because they were"scared for their lives". That narrative has been questioned because it isn’t plausible but no one ever gave an order to shoot.
Edit: I didn’t see you mentioned UNM bayonetting too but after looking at that one it seems like that also didn’t have an order to bayonet people. If you approach a soldier with a bayonet out who is there for riot control you might get stabbed. It’s not right but it’s a fact. That’s just the self defense mentality of soldiers.
It’s the main reason you shouldn’t use soldiers in policing actions because generally we are trained to kill, not to talk nicely to people. But it’s also why you train soldiers to only follow legal orders.