Balloon Juice

Inspiring story from Jen Rubin.

Lesser Known Undaunted Heroes

Ordinary Americans defend neighbors against MAGA brutality and lawlessness

This space usually features prominent, public figures who have distinguished themselves in their defense of the rule of law, democracy, decency, truth, and other values the MAGA regime attacks. But especially this week, the work of ordinary Americans standing up in defense of their neighbors in the face of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s harassment, brutality, and lawlessness underscored how critical grassroots defiance is to democracy’s survival.

Individual parents, informal neighborhood groups, and larger cross-denominational groups around the country have literally and figuratively interposed themselves between migrants at risk of assault, detention and deportation, and the out-of-control ICE and CBP teams that have instilled fear and chaos in too many people.

Chicago residents showed their mettle by literally blowing the whistle on abusive, illegal, and brutal immigration agents’ conduct. Lynn Sweet and other journalists reported on the fleet of Chicago locals who have been distributing and sounding plastic whistles (or beeping car horns) to warn immigrant neighbors and workers about ICE and CBP raids.

They have used nothing more than cell phones and grit to record and circulate images documenting abusive tactics and potential violations of U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis’s TRO. The wealth of evidence (from citizen and professional journalists)—including stark images of CBP’s Chicago chief Gregory Bovino lobbing tear gas—helped raise public awareness and gave her fodder to interrogate him and other witnesses.

Conveying the crucial roleof infuriated neighbors, The Chicago Tribune recounted the experience of Brian Kolp, a former prosecutor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, who was out drinking his coffee when he leapt into action at the sight of a vicious raid employing tear gas:

He didn’t even have time to put on his shoes or change out of his Chicago Blackhawks pajamas, he said, drawing jeers from one of the agents.

“I was calling them Nazis and Gestapo and telling them to [expletive] off, because that’s exactly what they are,” Kolp said. “Quite honestly, when all this started happening, I thought to myself that if the opportunity ever came my way to have to get involved in one of these situations, I was certainly going to do what I could to make sure that they weren’t openly and flagrantly violating the law or the Constitution. And yet, they just went ahead and did it anyway.”

Indeed they did.

Nevertheless, he was able to document the abduction of three people and turn over evidence (a tear gas canister) of abusive tactics to lawyers representing plaintiffs suing the government. In doing so, he likely energized others to display courage in support of immigrants and those being baselessly mistreated.

It’s all so bizarre now, isn’t it?

Reading about the awfulness of so many things that are happening.   Outraged.  Disgusted.  Grieving for our country and wondering what will be left of it when this storm passes.  Trying to figure out how to make a difference.

What makes it so crazy is that at the same time we have to do all these normal things.  It’s not just that most of us have to do our jobs, whatever we do to support ourselves.  But we have to go to the grocery store.  We have to eat, make our meals.  We have to figure out our finances so we can pay our bills. We have to take care of ourselves.  We still have to brush our teeth and think about whether we’re eating right and exercizing.  Make sure we’re drinking enough water.

For many of us here, it’s the juxtaposition of the craziness with the ordinary that makes it so tough. So very tiring.

No, make that exhausting!

– Take care of ourselves.

– Missing the friends we’ve lost.

– Take care of the people who need our help.

– Fight the hate, but don’t become it.

– Be part of building a coalition that can win, without sacrificing our values.

– Challenge others to rise to the occasion, but don’t attack or undermine them.

But for the people who are most at risk, it has to be 100x worse.

In the spirit of putting our own mask on first, can we talk about how all of this is affecting us, what it feels like to go through this, what we’re doing to take care of ourselves, how well, or not, we are doing as we try to rise to the occasion?

Let’s be in the present in this thread.  If you want to have the same conversations that we’ve had over and over again, or make a laundry list of how X person or X group is failing us, please save it for another thread. Some of us find that exhausting.

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