1
Support for this instance is greatly appreciated at https://sdf.org/support
2
3
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
For those who don't know the image source, it's from Kung Fury, a short comedy (half hour) on youtube. Fully recommend for over the top parody of bad 80s action movies.
16
7
Progressive Caucus Vows to 'Oppose All Funding' for ICE Without 'Systematic Reforms' | Common Dreams
(www.commondreams.org)
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19793
The leadership of the nearly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus said Tuesday that it will "oppose all funding" for US immigration enforcement in any upcoming government appropriations bills without substantial reforms, a position laid out as federal agents unleashed by President Donald Trump continued to terrorize communities across the country.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the CPC, said during a press conference alongside other caucus members that "demanding accountability is not radical." Omar represents the district where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross last week.
"Calling for systematic reforms is not extreme," Omar continued. "This is the bare minimum required to restore safety and justice back to our communities."
Omar, a frequent target of Trump's bigotry, said the CPC's official position is to "oppose all funding for immigration enforcement in any appropriation bills until meaningful reforms are enacted to end militarized policing practices."
"We cannot and we should not continue to fund agencies that operate with impunity, that escalate violence, and that undermine the very freedoms this country claims to uphold," the congresswoman said. "ICE has no place in terrorizing Minneapolis or any American community."
The CPC's press conference marked an intensification of a fight over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding that erupted in the wake of Good's killing in Minneapolis last week. ICE, which is part of DHS, currently has a larger budget than that of a dozen national militaries, thanks to a massive infusion of funding approved by congressional Republicans and Donald Trump last summer.
NBC News reported Tuesday that "Democratic opposition has already frozen a DHS measure that was slated to be added to an appropriations package getting a Senate vote this week."
"Congress may have to fall back on a stopgap bill to prevent a funding lapse for DHS," the outlet added. "That’s where things get trickier for Democrats. If House Republicans pass a continuing resolution on their own, which would keep DHS running on autopilot, Senate Democrats would again have to choose between accepting it and forcing a partial shutdown."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democratic appropriator in the House, said Tuesday that she does "not support increasing funding for ICE" and is "looking at policy riders in the homeland security funding bill to rein in ICE."
"ICE is terrorizing our communities, and I have called on masked, armed ICE agents to leave our towns," DeLauro added.
An Economist/YouGov poll released this week found that, for the first time, more Americans support abolishing ICE entirely (46%) than oppose it (43%). Democratic support for abolishing ICE is currently at 77%, according to the survey.
In an appearance on MS NOW, Omar said that "we want this terror to stop."
"People are angry. People are frustrated. They're confused. They don't understand why this chaos is necessary," said Omar. "And they certainly do not want this level of militarized ICE and border agents just roaming the streets, harassing and terrorizing their neighbors."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
17
18
I believe Donald Trump was sent by God. Reply: why? Did he run out of locusts?
19
Isn't this the big selling point of the bazingamobiles?
20
21
22
5
Selective sisterhood: How imperial feminism chooses which women deserve a voice
(english.almayadeen.net)
23
67
Pro-trans pediatric group wins $12 million as judge slams Kennedy's "retaliatory" cuts
(www.lgbtqnation.com)
24
11
Federal Agents Keep Invoking Killing of Renee Good to Threaten Protesters in Minnesota
(theintercept.com)
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19977
Amid heated protests in Minneapolis following the killing of Renee Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross, federal agents have repeatedly invoked Good’s death to threaten the lives of observers and demonstrators in Minnesota.
In multiple confrontations in the Minneapolis area, agents repeatedly referred to civilians learning their lesson — in an apparent nod to the use of deadly force in Ross’s killing. In a video posted to Reddit, a masked ICE agent can be heard repeatedly admonishing a driver to “go home to your kids.”
“Stop fucking following us,” the ICE agent screams.
Phil Maddox, a local resident, told The Intercept he recorded the video on Sunday morning during a quick drive around his neighborhood to keep tabs on federal agents in the area. After briefly following one unmarked car, he said another car boxed him into an alley, and he found himself surrounded by agents, including at least one with his gun drawn.
As the video continues, Maddox pans his phone camera to reveal another agent standing by the passenger-side door with a handgun drawn. Stomping back past the car, the first agent continues his tirade, telling Maddox that he won’t “like the outcome” if he follows the agents.
“You did not learn from what just happened?” the ICE agent asks. “Go home to your kids.” Maddox said he immediately interpreted the question as a threat.
“They’re saying, ‘Get in our way and we’ll shoot you,’” Maddox said. “‘We have immunity, we can do what we want, and you should fear us.’”
Understanding what “learning your lesson” means as a warning goes beyond Maddox.The phrasing has been widely interpreted as a threat by protesters, activists, and advocates on the ground in Minneapolis.
“That’s a veiled threat, 1,000 percent,” Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for the immigrant rights group Unidos Minnesota, told The Intercept. “They can’t exactly say it, but the way they reference Renee Good — they’re using that to strike fear.”
“That’s a veiled threat, 1,000 percent.”
The threats have come amid broader scenes of violence inflicted against protesters in the Twin Cities by roving bands of ICE and Border Patrol agents. Thousands of agents have been deployed in phases by President Donald Trump as part of a massive immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities. Over the weekend, agents were captured on camera pepper-spraying observers and smashing car windows while followed closely by protesters blowing whistles and yelling at them. (The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE and Border Patrol, did not respond to a request for comment.)
“This is a classic situation of overreacting, over-policing, and ultimately use of excessive force,” said Andrew G. Celli Jr., an attorney specializing in police misconduct and constitutional rights. “It’s tragic but predictable that the reaction has been as strong as it has been. And of course, when you have that kind of reaction that gets provoked, then the police, whose job it is to oversee and control crowds and demonstrations — they can sometimes overreact, and so it becomes a vicious cycle.”
On Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that hundreds more federal agents would be deploying to the region, adding to the more than 2,000 agents who made up the surge that began on January 6. The violence continued on Monday as federal agents unleashed clouds of tear gas on a residential street, according to footage posted to social media.
Monday’s clashes set the stage for a lawsuit filed by state and local officials in Minnesota seeking to end Trump’s surge of federal agents, which the administration claims is aimed at combating social-services fraud in the state.
In an 80-page complaint filed in Minnesota District Court, the state of Minnesota, joined by the city governments of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, detailed a litany of abuses by federal agents under the aegis of what the Trump Administration has dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” and the social, political, and economic impact it has had on the state. The suit, led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, demands an end to the operation.
[
Related
We Asked for ICE Bodycam Footage. DHS Claims They Don’t Have It.](https://theintercept.com/2026/01/09/dhs-kristi-noem-ice-bodycam-records-foia/)
“When the federal government itself violates legal rights and civic norms on such a broad scale and public panic is high, state and city governments bear the costs—both tangible and intangible,” the complaint read. “Defendants’ agents’ reckless tactics endanger the public safety, health, and welfare of all Minnesotans. Additionally, Defendants’ agents’ inflammatory and unlawful policing tactics provoke the protests the federal government seeks to suppress.”
More than one agent has been caught on camera in recent days invoking the idea of “learning” a “lesson.” In a video posted to TikTok, one federal agent warns two separate people in separate vehicles that they have not learned the lessons of recent days — an apparent allusion to the killing of Good.
“You don’t fucking learn — what’s fuckin’ happened in the last couple of days,” the agent says to someone as two other agents pat down the occupants of a car. Seconds later, the agent approaches a woman filming from a second vehicle and issues a similar warning.
“Listen, have y’all not learned from the past couple of days?” says the agent, who was clad in tactical gear without any insignia identifying his agency. “Have you not learned?”
“Learned what?” the woman responds. “What’s our lesson here? What do you want us to learn?”
In response, the agent appears to swat at the phone in the woman’s hand.
“Following fucking federal agents,” he says, before the video cuts out.
It was unclear what happened after the apparent swat at the phone, but the original poster of the video later said on TikTok that both she and the woman filming were safe.
Numerous other videos have captured agents violently attacking protesters, including one agent who appeared to tackle a man filming an interaction in the street, another chasing down and tackling a man at a gas station, and multiple agents piling onto a Richfield Target employee in the store entryway.
In multiple instances, agents can be heard accusing protesters of impeding their efforts. Filming the police, though, is not a crime. A majority of courts repeatedly and across jurisdictions have held that there is a constitutional right to record police and other law enforcement carrying out their duties in public places, so long as an observer doesn’t interfere with officials and complies with reasonable orders, such as keeping a safe distance.
[
Read our complete coverage
Chilling Dissent ----------------](https://theintercept.com/collections/chilling-dissent/)
“You can follow them around, you can film them, you can say, ‘Hey, fuckhead,’” said Celli, who is a partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “But I will tell you, after 25 years of representing people who do just that: You will likely get arrested. The Constitution is only as good as the people willing to follow it.”
Adding to the chaos, Celli said, is the fact that the agents from ICE and Border Patrol may be out of their depth when it comes to street-level enforcement.
“These guys are not street cops,” Celli said. “They’re not accustomed to this, and they’re not trained for this. This isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Maddox, who remained calm throughout the recorded interaction on Sunday, said only later did fear set in over what could have happened. He remained angry, however, about the impact that the raids were having on his children and on his neighbors, many of whom are Latino.
“No one feels safer with [ICE] here,” he said. “My kids are scared their friends are going to get nabbed, or that their friends’ parents or relatives or their neighbors will get nabbed.”
The post Federal Agents Keep Invoking Killing of Renee Good to Threaten Protesters in Minnesota appeared first on The Intercept.
⸆⸉
From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.
25
view more: next ›