During the agents’ violent attack on a delivery worker Saturday morning in DC, bystanders repeatedly demanded the agents share their badge numbers. One of them—his face fully obscured by a black balaklava—eventually shot back, “Do I have to answer to you?”

“You guys are ruining this country. You know that, right?” one bystander said to the agents at one point during the incident. An agent, ironically clad in a rainbow face mask, replied “Liberals already ruined it.”

_

Last week on stage at the Netroots conference in New Orleans, I spoke with Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-IL) about ICE: specifically that she believes it should be abolished. It’s a stance that’s considered far left, but after witnessing ICE and other federal agents in DC this week, abolishing ICE should be the baseline Democratic position.

“ICE is a terrorist organization,” Ramirez told me. “It needs to be defunded and needs to be abolished.”

  • indomara@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Absolutely. There is a movie about a housekeeper during the holocaust who hid Jews in the basement of the commander’s house she worked in. When he eventually found out, she bargained with him, said she would be his mistress if he would say nothing and let them live.

    After the war, when the dust settled, the commander was turned away by his wife and children for sheltering the Jews, and it was the Jews themselves he had allowed to live who took him in.

    There were many people living everyday lives that had drank the coolaid and saw the extermination of the Jews as absolutely necessary and considered anyone who disagreed a traitor. Those people went on to raise children and teach them that sick way of thinking.

    • kreskin@lemmy.world
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      55 minutes ago

      I find it disturbing that the 11 million other people killed in the camps are so seldom mentioned. A reasonable person who watched US media and wasnt interested in history might reasonably assume only 6 million jews died. Not 17 million human beings total. Anyone know the breakdown of the other 11 million without looking it up? No one knows.

    • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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      17 hours ago

      Honestly, it sucks that execution of ICE as a class has to be considered: it isn’t unlike the cruelty they inflict on people who didn’t deserve to be abused nor killed.

      That is where the distinction lies: deservedness.

      Advocating for almost the same thing is icky. I cannot be said to be innocent, for supporting this method to end the madness. 😞

      • Cargon@lemmy.ml
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        5 hours ago

        If they can commit heinous acts for the Greater Evil why can’t we do a fraction of it for the Greater Good?

      • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        The difference comes down to who makes up the class. What criteria is used. In this case it is personal choices that landed them on it, so I really don’t see anything morally wrong here.