Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

This really is a full service blog.

“woke” is the new caravan.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / This Is How Republicans Are Going To Get People Killed

This Is How Republicans Are Going To Get People Killed

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This happened:

A hearing in El Paso County in Texas went from ordinary to “unprecedented” last week when half a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at a courthouse where an undocumented woman was seeking a protective order against the boyfriend she accused of abusing her.

The woman, a citizen of Mexico who was living in El Paso had been driven to the courthouse by a victim’s advocate from the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse where she had been living.

She left under arrest.

This is a disgrace, and an incredibly dangerous one.

Most obviously: anyone w/out documents facing a threat from their partner, former or present, has just been told that the legal system, cops, anyone, are no longer available to them. They’re on their own. They’ve got a target on them, as their abusers now know that they can act without fear of official action.

Some of them will die. One third of the murders of women in the US are committed by an intimate partner.

Increasing the pressure to stay in an abusive relationship tees up more victims.  Making it harder — or impossible — to seek official help locks people in danger.

The chilling effect extends beyond the home.  If reporting a crime puts you in contact with officialdom; if agreeing to testify does so…and so on. You get the idea. The risks of trying to engage public safety resources have just shot up for immigrant and minority communities — from an already no-fun base.

ICE, Trump, and the Republican party:  accessories before the fact to harm, murder and misery.

Every day, down every avenue, these folks have got to named, shamed, and fought.

Image: Unknown artist, A Very Bad Man — on the trial of Ephraim K. Avery for the murder of Sarah Maria Cornell. 1833.

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  2. 2.

    Arclite

    That’s some fucked up shit right there. Again the Trumpies either not thinking things through or no caring. Not sure which is worse.

  3. 3.

    Timurid

    This press conference… HOLY FUCbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzztttttttttttTHIS IS FINE, COMRADE.

  6. 6.

    Ian

    I want to know which jackass informed ICE this was happening. They must of had a tip off to be there in the first place.

    And what judge didn’t immediately cite those officers for contempt of court?

  10. 10.

    TriassicSands

    Speaking of sociopaths, I’m watching/listening to Trump right now. The man is a moron. Are any of you aware that Trump won the election? Is there anyone out there who isn’t aware that Trump might get along with Putin and he might not?

    “We had a bad court. We had a bad decision. That’s the only thing that was wrong with the ban. The rollout was perfect.”

    He’s busy insulting one reporter after another.

    “Russia is a ruse.”

    He is unaware of anyone in his campaign having any contact with Russia.

    “I am the least anti-Semitic person” you’ll ever see. And the least racist. — Trump

    I have to go throw up. — TriassicSands

  11. 11.

    Timurid

    So repeated public appearances in which the President appears to be drunk, high or otherwise impaired just aren’t that big of a deal?
    Nobody cares that he has literally forgotten how to count?

  14. 14.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Timurid: Love how he shut up and insulted the Jewish reporter asking about an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents. Trump is such a swell guy. /s

  15. 15.

    Humboldtblue

    We face a similar issue locally and it has to do with the marijuana black market. Sexual assault, trafficking and unreported abuse particularly of young women at remote grow sites is a problem and our DA who has strengthened and provided much greater resources for sexual assault cases, victim programs and witness assistance, has repeatedly run into very heavy resistance from some victims to come forward.

    “I was raped by a trimmer, but he works on my dad’s/BF’s/Best friend’s grow” is a common refrain and the DA, bless her heart, has repeatedly said that she’s after the rapist not the grower and that two need not conflict. The most vulnerable among us need our help now more than ever.

    Last week ICE agents accompanied the county drug task force on a raid that busted two Mexican nationals with a few pounds of heroin and that has the local Latino community scared witless

    Also, Portland had a pretty good showing in closing restaurants today in support of immigrants.

  19. 19.

    TriassicSands

    Reminder: The petition calling on Trump to release his taxes is over 936,000 signatures. If anyone out there has not signed it yet, go to WhiteHouse dot gov, find the “We the People” petitions and sign every petition that you think has value. Remember, Trump has told us that “no one cares” about his tax returns. A million signatures would say otherwise.

  21. 21.

    Mathguy

    The BP and ICE sounds like they want to be good little Brownshirts for the shitgibbon and friends.

  24. 24.

    Adam C

    ON THE OTHER HAND, if you want to set up a situation like in Qatar, where migrant workers have their documents stolen by their “employers” and are subsequently treated like slaves, this is a great way to go about it.

  29. 29.

    The Moar You Know

    This really changes the game for anyone in a social work job.

    @? Martin: Not to mention teachers. My wife’s high school, man…there’s some kids there that would rat out every single Hispanic on campus, legal or not.

    And sadly, some teachers who would as well.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    I’ve said it elsewhere: this is exactly what the Republicans want. They want illegal immigrants to be afraid to go to the authorities, because they want to be able to abuse them. It might be domestic abuse as in this case, but the primary one is economic abuse. They want immigrant workers to be afraid to report labor abuses, immigrant consumers to be afraid to report being cheated, immigrant renters afraid to report slum conditions, etc. Shorter: they don’t want to stop immigration; they want to keep immigrants scared and compliant.

  33. 33.

    Shell

    “We had a bad court. We had a bad decision.

    Maybe he thought they were going to be playing tennis.

    Re: The Trump presser. Who was that little shill who asked the puffball question about Melania?

  34. 34.

    PK

    He’s holding a campaign style rally on Saturday. It’ll be an awesome airing of grievances. I wonder how many deplorables will show up?

  35. 35.

    Chris

    @Adam C:

    ON THE OTHER HAND, if you want to set up a situation like in Qatar, where migrant workers have their documents stolen by their “employers” and are subsequently treated like slaves, this is a great way to go about it.

    Yep.

    The right wing, both elite and voter base, love the idea of large classes of people with no rights. The fact that they suffer is a bonus. “Did the Trumpists not think this through or do they just not care?” Well, equally possible is that they thought it through, care, and want These People to suffer.

  36. 36.

    gvg

    mean people tend to be mean in more than one way. A certain strain of conservative, a certain strain of religious approve of domestic abuse of women, excuse rape etc. Actually preventing domestic abuse is pretty much always an up hill battle and if you talk about it too much you may find out some people you thought were nice, aren’t. Not everyone is even brought up to think it’s wrong. Not everyone who is against the muslin ban will even think this is a good example of why not.
    On the other hand I am outraged and upset and this is a reason why.
    and there are also people who are somewhat “immigration needs to be less” who will be outraged by this, so it’s a mixed bag on how people will react.
    I seem to be seeing a number of bigots in positions of minor power letting their inner bully come out. trump is telegraphing no consequences and we are getting inconsistent bad results. I wonder if we can check it by local specific protests to get bad actors fired?

  38. 38.

    hovercraft

    From the boss on down, this administration seems to think that abusing women is a right. While forcing women to keep quiet about abusive partners may not have been the goal here, as far as they are concerned it may be an added perk.
    Everyone knows that women make up stories about abuse all the time just to get back at men, why even Ivana made up a story about Twitler.

  39. 39.

    mai naem mobile

    I am guessing 27 percent of American voters are all for it and cheered when they heard it happening .

  41. 41.

    Smedley the uncertain

    @Boatboy_srq: That has been the case for years. The workers are always under the threat of being reported and deported if they don’t behave.

  45. 45.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Roger Moore:

    they want to keep immigrants scared and compliant.

    Since they can’t bring back chattel slavery, having a compliant and abundant supply of cheaply paid, non-regulated Brown workers is good enough.

  46. 46.

    GregB

    Who knew Trump would go with the “emulate Khadaffi” press conference playbook.

    Meanwhile on the good news front fron NH, the NH House voted down the right to work for less bill with 32 Republicans joining Democrats.

    Down goes the bill.

  47. 47.

    Bostondreams

    THIS blew my mind and enraged me, from that presser, talking about protests at town halls:

    ”They are not the Republican people that our representatives represent,”

    THAT IS NOT HOW OUR SYSTEM WORKS.

  48. 48.

    The Moar You Know

    The right wing, both elite and voter base, love the idea of large classes of people with no rights.

    @Chris: Truth. Also, on the enforcement end of it, they’re being VERY sloppy about it and that’s no accident. They want everyone save for Aryan blondes to be a little concerned that they might get pulled over and find themselves the next day in Mexico City or a detention camp, because you caught a bit of a tan on your last vacation.

  49. 49.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    I was really worried about everything after the Election. I stopped worrying, this idiot is going to get us all killed before the year is out.

  52. 52.

    Boatboy_srq

    @Chris: This was the root cause of Southern Secession. Reconstruction did not eradicate it. Atwater and Nixon resuscitated it, and now this mindset runs the GOTea.

  55. 55.

    ? Martin

    @The Moar You Know: Right. Part of our training (which we’ll probably have more of after today) was to remind staff that our policy is to actively not assist ICE. That state and local law provides protections that the Federal government is abusing. It was a reminder to those people that might be sympathetic to ICE raids that they do not work for the federal government and could be fired for supporting them against policy.

  56. 56.

    Patricia Kayden

    @PK: I wonder how many protesters will show up. The man is not loved. As rikyrah’s link to Pew shows, Trump only has the support of Republicans with very few Democrats giving him the benefit of the doubt. I hope protesters disrupt his rally so he gets the message that he is hated by many rank and file Americans.

  59. 59.

    Aleta

    From what I imagine (I haven’t found reports yet) the ICE is extremely indifferent to the danger of seizing and deporting women and others without allowing assistance for them to prepare a place to stay when they arrive at a destination. What is happening to people when they are released from US custody? Are they temporarily put into custody of the other country’s police? Are they given shelter and food while they reorient? If they are taken when they don’t expect it, do we help them obtain their medicine, money and health supplies to take with them? If people have no immediate contacts, are they being dropped on the streets or at churches, at risk to be exploited? I’d like to know more, but without knowing I can only believe the safety, lives and sanity of vulnerable people are being callously ignored by officials working in our name, paid by us.

  62. 62.

    Major Major Major Major

    @lollipopguild: (One of) the sad thing(s) is he’s FUCKING PRESIDENT and could make more in a year looting than he could off his business for the rest of his life, but he cares more about having his name splattered everywhere than he does about the actual money.

  63. 63.

    Humboldtblue

    @Patricia Kayden: Protestors won’t get within a mile of the event, it’s being held at an airport where there is already stringent security in place and with POTUS in the place that will increase to 11.

  64. 64.

    NorthLeft12

    Heard on the CBC that a high school in the Detroit area which has a high number of visible minorities [its called Mexicantown for pete’s sake] is on alert due to rumours of Border Patrol personnel stalking the area in white panel vans. Homeland Security denied that they had any operations in that area.

    Apparently this happened before and the Homeland Security denials were proven to be false.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    @TriassicSands: “No, don’t finish your question, I know what you’re going to say. How dare you insult me by asking about 48 recent bomb threats to Jewish CCenters.” DJT

  67. 67.

    bemused senior

    If you are a California voter, please write your State Senator and Assemblyperson in support of SB 54, sponsored by Kevin De Leon. The following Google Docs link is a (sad) scan of the paper backgrounder about it I brought home from a meeting about supporting immigrants faced with ICE raids. The bill would make it illegal to share personal data from state and local databases with Federal immigration authorities, and similarly make illegal expenditure of any state or local law enforcement resources on behalf of Federal immigration enforcement.

    If you live in San Francisco or San Mateo counties, Faith in Action Bay Area is training rapid response teams to very quickly go on site to ICE raids and video, take notes, and simply bear witness as ICE attempts to arrest immigrants. Then the teams will connect with lawyers to intervene for them and attempt to prevent arrestees from being transported out of state to Texas and Arizona, prior to deportation. FIABA has a page on the book of faces and a website.

  70. 70.

    Humboldtblue

    @bemused senior:

    And also mention Rep. Huffman’s latest bill to protect California’s state savings plan introduced last year and which has now been attacked by Congress on behalf of Wall St. who want those people to give the bankers their fucking money so they can waste it in shitty 401ks.

    H.J.Res.66, which passed the House today, nullifies a critical U.S. Department of Labor rule, which went into effect in October 2016, that supports state efforts to establish retirement savings plans. By using the Congressional Review Act process, this vote would also prevent the Department of Labor from reissuing any “substantially similar” rules in the future.

    The Huffman-Bonamici legislation, originally introduced in the 114th Congress, would create a new American Savings Account, a personal, tax-advantaged retirement savings plan modeled after the high-quality plan offered to federal workers since 1986, and make it available to every private sector American worker currently without access to an employer-sponsored savings plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b) plan. As workers switch jobs more frequently, they are less likely than in the past to be covered by a traditional employer-sponsored retirement savings plan, according to a recent study based on Census data.

    “Some of my colleagues claim to stand for state’s rights, but their votes say otherwise: they are using the Congressional Review Act to trample on state efforts to help Americans save for their retirement,” said Rep. Huffman. “America is in the midst of a retirement-savings crisis and we can either help workers save now or the federal government will foot the bill later. The American Savings Act will preserve Americans’ ability to meet their retirement goals. Our legislation, modeled after the great progress pioneered in California, Oregon, and elsewhere would ensure that every worker in America has access to high-quality savings options to provide them an income in retirement.”

  71. 71.

    PK

    @Humboldtblue:

    Protestors won’t get within a mile of the event, it’s being held at an airport where there is already stringent security in place and with POTUS in the place that will increase to 11.

    He’s selling tickets online. Nothing to stop protesters from buying tickets and disrupting the event.

  73. 73.

    ? Martin

    @bemused senior:

    If you are a California voter, please write your State Senator and Assemblyperson in support of SB 54, sponsored by Kevin De Leon.

    I will strongly, strongly reiterate this. This is extremely important.

    I am already under policy to do what the law seeks, but our legal defense of that policy is shaky. It may or may not hold up. A state law to back that policy is critically needed. Consider the role of public hospitals, public schools, publicly funded women’s shelters, and so on. It’s critical that those kinds of social service organizations cannot be used as targets of immigration raids.

    SB 54 should pass, but we should not take any chances whatsoever on this.

  74. 74.

    Jacel

    This is why there are Sanctuary Cities — not to protect violent criminals, but to protect their undocumented victims so they are no longer afraid to report crimes.

  75. 75.

    Tokyokie

    @Aleta: An in-law of my Filipina spousal unit was picked up and deported, and soon ran out of her oral diabetes medications. So yeah, that happens.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @PK:

    Yep. If I were in Orlando, I would get a ticket, put a MAGA shirt over my protest shirt (preferably a bright pink one), and be nice and sedate until the asshole started talking.

    I’d get away with it, too, because I’m a bespectacled middle-aged white lady.

  77. 77.

    The Moar You Know

    He’s selling tickets online. Nothing to stop protesters from buying tickets and disrupting the event.

    @PK: If I may make what I think is a better suggestion: give the money that you were going to spend on the tickets to the ACLU or PP, plus the money you’d be spending on the medical bills after all the nice Trump supporters kicked your fucking head in for daring to disrespect their God-King.

  78. 78.

    Peale

    @Roger Moore: Yeah. I think they moved away from “keeping them afraid” and “what part of illegal don’t you understand” to actually just wanting to remove them all if possible. They want them all gone. Trump didn’t promise anyone a supply of cheap labor. He promised them that they wouldn’t have to “press 1 for English” or worry that their children might prefer tacos to hamburgers. They want life to be miserable so that the mexicans will go home and not come back.

  79. 79.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Feature, not bug. This is about creating an America where brown people are not welcome, and know it.

    @Roger Moore:

    It might be domestic abuse as in this case, but the primary one is economic abuse.

    I disagree with this part. Very few of the voters cheering on these actions have anything to gain economically. This is about abuse, period. It’s about race, driving off brown people so whites are unchallenged, forcing any brown people who remain to be subservient, giving the finger to liberals who try to protect brown people, and causing as much fear, pain, and anger as possible. Both domestic and economic abuse are sideshows.

  81. 81.

    hovercraft

    @Spanky:
    Putin is not pleased at the moment, his investment is not going as well as planned. Turns out that they should have set up a few more people with some underage hookers, Russians Lament anti-Trump Purge. Who knew that the IC would not simply stand back and allow a hostile power to take over our government?

  82. 82.

    The Lodger

    @scav: Judging from the number of missionaries who were caught in that position, can you say the name isn’t justified?

  83. 83.

    The Moar You Know

    What is happening to people when they are released from US custody? Are they temporarily put into custody of the other country’s police? Are they given shelter and food while they reorient? If they are taken when they don’t expect it, do we help them obtain their medicine, money and health supplies to take with them? If people have no immediate contacts, are they being dropped on the streets or at churches, at risk to be exploited? I’d like to know more, but without knowing I can only believe the safety, lives and sanity of vulnerable people are being callously ignored by officials working in our name, paid by us.

    @Aleta: To answer your very good questions:

    1. They kick you out the door at whatever bus station is at the end of the line and that’s it. Your life from that point on is your problem.
    2. No
    3. No
    4. No
    5. If you end up at a church that’s a great outcome. And rare. And you’re going to be exploited if not worse; if you were unlucky enough to be dropped in Mexico and aren’t Mexican, you’re probably going to get killed or put in prison. Mexico is brutal to their illegal population.

    Talked to quite a few guys over the years who’ve done this dance. Most of them regarded it as the price of working in the US. Where you’re REALLY in serious danger is if you’re female.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    I think it’s about both. Experience says that harsher enforcement against individual immigrants (rather than employers) does little to prevent illegal immigration; it just pushes immigrants deeper underground. Rank and file Republicans like it because it matches their ideas about how the world ought to work- punishment is the most effective way to change behavior- and they like punishment because they’re bullies. But the 1% also likes punishing immigrants precisely because it’s ineffective at stopping immigration but very effective at denying illegal immigrants recourse when they’re abused.

  87. 87.

    hovercraft

    @Bostondreams:

    THAT IS NOT HOW OUR SYSTEM WORKS.

    According to any number of pundits it is. Democrats represent “special interests”, you know the black, the brown, the poor, women, the young, the disabled, the LGBT, and any number of “others”, republicans represent “real America”. Real America does not have to cater to other America because they are the true patriots and the rest of us simply have to accept their rule, when democrats are in charge they must cater to the desires of Real America and ignore their constituencies. Heads they win, tails you lose. MAGA !!

  88. 88.

    Chris

    @? Martin:

    @hovercraft: I don’t know. Complete chaos at the top of the US government doesn’t exactly hurt Russia.

    Depends on how it unfolds. An imploding United States government isn’t exactly a reassuring prospect for anyone else given the nuclear arsenal.

  90. 90.

    bemused senior

    @? Martin: Exactly. By passing the law (and not weakening the definition of who it covers) state and local workers don’t have to be heroes to refuse the info that can target immigrants, they can simply state that they are forbidden by law from assisting. Happy to know the agencies are trying to act with administrative policies that flip the requests up the chain to the lawyers.

    @The Moar You Know: Years ago when my kids were small our caregiver had an abusive partner. He was legal (given asylum from El Salvador) but she was undocumented (another story … she finally got a green card through our sponsorship after a ten year wait). She was terrified of the partner and of going to the police, because she was afraid of deportation with their two kids.

  91. 91.

    Peale

    @Roger Moore: O.K. could you point me to the people at the 1% who are immigrant abusers, though? Take a look at the Fortune 500 and Forbes Largest Private Company list. Which ones of these companies is known for abusing immigrant labor in this country? (Their practices overseas are another story). The people who benefit from undocumented labor aren’t in that class. Maybe three of the 700 companies on the combined list are big users of that labor.

  93. 93.

    PK

    @The Moar You Know:

    If I may make what I think is a better suggestion: give the money that you were going to spend on the tickets to the ACLU or PP, plus the money you’d be spending on the medical bills after all the nice Trump supporters kicked your fucking head in for daring to disrespect their God-King.

    Well I was never going to and never will buy a ticket to a Trump event. I could not stand to be surrounded by Trump supporters. In my corner of the world, I don’t know anyone who supports Trump or voted for him. Many of my neighbors are republican, but I’ve not asked them who they voted for so that I’m able to interact with them in a civil way. None of my friends nor family voted Trump and that’s a great solace for me.

  94. 94.

    Boatboy_srq

    @Peale: Fortune 500 usually has enough public sector engagement that their HR practices are under decent scrutiny. The problem is the wannabes, the “self-made” entrepreneurs… people like, you know, the pResident.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @Peale:

    Is Tyson Chicken on the list? They’ve been caught recruiting and using illegal labor multiple times.

    Basically, any company whose primary business is agricultural is using illegal labor.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @Peale:

    Also, Fortune 500 companies are the ones who would be abusing H1B and other work-dependent visa holders. Not “abusing the system,” abusing and exploiting the actual visa holders.

  98. 98.

    Sentient AI from the Future

    @PK: with the recent focus on airports (e.g. Muslim travel ban) I have been wondering about security. All the airports I’ve seen recently have long stretches of perimeter fencing punctuated by the occasional gate, the better for maintenance crews to access them.

    I wonder, hypothetically, what the response might be to a group with a few angle grinders or not cutters to cut the locks and a few junky cars just driving out onto the runways and sitting peacefully waiting to get nonviolently arrested? I wonder if this has ever happened before in a nonviolent, peaceful protest?

  99. 99.

    ruckus

    @Arclite:
    Problem is, they are thinking it through.
    Your mistake was to think that if they thought about it that they wouldn’t do it. You are normal, you think about not being an asshole. They are not normal.

  100. 100.

    Ella in New Mexico

    This was outrageous.That it happened just down the road from me makes it all the more outrageous because I’m far too familiar with not only the issue of undocumented immigrants but the issue of how undocumented women are constantly being held hostage by their abusers with the threat of calling “la migra” on them if they seek help.

    Her POS abuser tipped them off that she was filing a protection order, so they picked HER up at the courthouse. Now she’ll go back to Mexico to face the man that beats her with no protection from any laws whatsoever. THAT’S WHY THEY COME TO THE US–WE HAVE LAWS TO STOP THIS ABUSE!

    So much for these ICE raids “only going after criminals”. They are going after easy targets. They raided several low income trailer parks in my town where undocumented folks are known to find housing and arrested a total of TWO people: one for an outstanding warrant for something we are not being told the content of, and one person who simply was present and could not show legal status.

    Over the course of the 12+ years I worked as an advocate for victims of domestic violence, the Border Patrol and law enforcement, through training and close relationships (particularly after the passage of the Violence Against Women Act which mandated and funded such) became our client’s best friends. it was generally accepted by law enforcement and the Border Patrol that abusers of undocumented women use threats like this as the ultimate kind of power and control over their victims, and that going after these victims instead of their -often more seriously- criminally offending perpetrators would only lead to more violence and crime that went unreported, including serious child abuse and neglect. And so, until this month, they generally left fleeing undocumented domestic abuse victims alone.

    But not under this President, a court documented wife-abuser himself.

    Thing is, ICE agents are not all mean assholes. I know quite a few of them, and really, they’re a cross section of society who often just wanted a decent Federal job doing something good for their country. But they’re pretty much like guard dogs: their purpose is to follow orders and defend whoever is their handler. Under normal circumstances, we want them to be that way. But if their handlers are thugs, they’ll attack innocent people.

    Trump and the Republicans in Congress are taking otherwise decent people and making them betray innocent people who once could count on them for protection. It’s an abuse of those agents to make them cross over from picking up criminals to arresting pitiful domestic violence victims. One of them I know who left the BP a few years ago and is now a nurse where I work told me today that he expects we’ll see quite a few people leaving the force if this kind of crap keeps up “because this is not what they signed up for”.

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