They’re Executing Citizens in the Street

By: Sean Yates

Much has been said of ICE in recent weeks and months. They grow bolder with every passing day and line crossed – each just slightly further than the last. Many do not see the slowly boiling pot that has become the American experience. I wish I could make them see the temperature rise. Authoritarianism doesn’t happen all at once, it is a thousand lines crossed.

It’s an old joke that the longer an argument goes on, the more likely someone is to make a comparison to the Nazis. The sad part is every day shortens the length now and with authoritarianism at our doorstep, it is a small wonder.

Under Authoritarian governments, many of the people fully believed they were free even as their rights got stripped away. They believed this because they heard it enough times and because their political enemies were being persecuted. Because it felt like winning – as long as it didn’t happen to them.

As long as you were the right religion and color.

As long as you weren’t disabled.

As long as you had your papers on you.

As long as you didn’t have a weapon.

As long as you didn’t speak out.

As long as you complied with injustice.

We all sat in history class at some point around the third grade and wondered why people didn’t do something about injustice as it happened. We imagined ourselves as the slavery abolitionists we read about in history books or as the Allied Forces in WWII because there was no way we would be on the wrong side of history. If we lived in those times, we would fight for truth and justice, all of that stuff kids think about.

These. Are. Those. Times. You no longer need to wonder what you would have done: you’re doing it.

The President is using federal personnel as a national police force to take over cities and “eliminate crime.” ICE is now a secret police force who hide their identities and DHS decided they can enter your home without a warrant. They’re sent from city to city to round up certain groups of people. SCOTUS said they can do it based on the color of your skin, the language you speak, and the place they find you. The President is unilaterally invalidating the legal status of hundreds of thousands so they can be disappeared to foreign countries. They had their papers and it might not matter because he doesn’t like the way they look, how they speak, or where they’re from.

Then there’s the killings. ICE has become so emboldened and violent that they are killing citizens in the street. Citizens shot to death for daring to speak up and protest or carrying a weapon (not using it) as is their constitutional right. It could happen to any of us. The administration has made clear that there will be no justice and no accountability, as they shield the killers, hide their identities, and withhold evidence.

How will history remember you? In the years to come when your kids look to you and ask what you did, what will you say? I will say that I fought for truth and justice.

These days a certain quote often enters my mind:

“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels ... upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop!” – Mario Savio

This cannot go on. We must make it stop.