Marilu Mendez said when ICE vehicles began following her and her husband Monday and then surrounded their car on Tallman Street in New Bedford, she took out her cell phone and started recording.
Her video shows a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforement agent using a large hammer to break the back passenger window of their car.
Marilu said the agents were focused on her husband, Juan, but kept calling him “Antonio”, the name of another man who lives in their building.
Juan Mendez is now being held in a detention facility in Dover, New Hampshire, with a hearing scheduled for May 7.
If you’re outside USA
- stay there
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- share everywhere
If you’re inside understand there is no going back from this, you will not be able to vote your way out of this. Go to the protests this weekend.
I read somewhere Donald is trying to make it illegal to protest. Sooner or later he’s just going to rip that Constitution up and he’ll be like, “now Dems… you’re in a Constitutional crisis.”
Go to the protests this weekend.
More is needed. I’m not a history buff, so I don’t know the exact number of times peacefully protesting has worked in authoritarian regimes, but…
Sure, but I think it’s about momentum and building blocks. Can’t ask Joe Schmo to get to the guillotines right now…not even sure I personally agree with that anyway…but we as an American society have gotten very, very comfortable with a life full of conveniences. I think a lot of people are seeing things falling apart not sure what to do. Attending a peaceful protest is really energizing and hopeful for folks that are looking to take any sort of action. You see so many other people feeling the same way you do and it kind of snaps you out of something and you realize you care and your neighbors care. Yes fighting directly against an enemy is needed but a lot of revolution and resistance is also caring for your community and taking care of one another when systems fall. I think there’s a quiet power in just showing up for one another. Why put out the doom message that step 1 is not enough, when it’s going to require step 1, 2, 3…and so on.
They recently rioted in Iran. Huge riots all over the country. The dictator just killed people indiscriminately by the hundreds and thousands until the riots stopped.
Riot downtown? Just bomb the square, that’ll shut 'em up!
Peaceful protests rarely lead to anything against authoritarians on their own. They do tend to gather a lot of people though, who will over time get less and less peaceful.
And won’t feal alone or isolated
This is true, but with an important qualifier: Those people choose to become less peaceful. There’s no unstoppable march of history to cause these things; it’s real people like you and me who make them happen. If you want to escalate then you must spread that desire in your community and get them to escalate. The fact that I’m barely hearing a peep about any kind of strike is very concerning for American democracy.
Edit: By the way I said escalate, but there’s no reason that escalation must be violent. Striking and mass occupations (think occupy wall street) are very effective methods of peaceful resistance, but they’re still a far cry from protesting on a weekend.
They also hurt a lot more of their own. We need a critical mass ready to strike or they’ll just pick off the weakest. I’m gonna be asking around about strikes at this weekends protest.
Even starting with a 2 day strike, one where we could plausibly be “sick” and not lose our livelihoods would be a good step.
“Peaceful” protests (they invariably involve clashes with the military or police) do work (see: post-communist Eastern Europe, Ukraine and the Arab Spring) but when you compare something like Euromaidan to 50501 you’ll see a very clear difference in boldness even despite both being nonviolent.
I’d rather tell people to get out of the country if they can or focus on getting out of the country
As an old leftist who has become disillusioned, i wish the young generation would stop wasting time like we did and skip the protesting bit and go to guillotines. I feel like every new generation discovers the same injustices and jumps the same hoops, then they get jobs and homes and kids and that ends, new generation comes, repeat. We never actually make it past protests before we become unable to do anything more
The billionaire class has made it so that you can’t be an activist and live a normal life. If you’re struggling to feed yourself and your kids working two full time jobs, when are you going to find time to protest? And are you willing to do so at the expense of your kids going hungry? Most people are not, I think.
People can’t even stop using reddit or twitter, I don’t think they can even comprehend a fight for their freedom.
Yes, its time for a bit more than protests. We need to start relying on Jury Nullification
Jury nullification only helps if you get an actual jury.
Maybe it would be more helpful if the old leftists who wasted too much time protesting started putting their lives on the line instead of insisting their children should do it for them.
Oh I’m ready, but then you get shit on for not being a nice little peaceful protestor
So many people are so convinced that other people should commit suicide by cop and not them.
RIP Willem Van Spronsen
Well we don’t get a home, jobs are being replaced with AI, and no one can afford children. So we can avoid those roadblocks lol
Do none of these folks have guns?
Then she and her husband would be dead I suppose.
Is that worse than El Salvador?
Its the same as El Salvadore
Or not.
There’s two things here to consider. And it’s very important that this conversation starts amongst more people, and more communities.
These Nazis are coming for communities that they think are easy targets, that will give no real resistance. But what happens if that changes? What if in a flip of a switch, unorganized but deliberate violence is purposefully used to address these actions? That when they came, hypothetically, and they broke the glass, they were immediately met with fatal gunfire?
And of course this too would happen in succession other places in similar instances. When the Nazis came their foot soldiers were struck down. What would then happen?
Two things can both be true. They could be scared and forced to back down, which to some degree may be valid. But I think the worse latter would happen, which could also be good but dangerous— because these are “federal law enforcement” so they will claim they will enact the insurrection act in order to bring soldiers to heel in the cities and places and to assist the Nazis.
And this is where the chess pieces move towards an end game situation. Either the people then continue to resist the Nazis with force if need be, and then hopefully get the soldiers to realize this is bullshit and have them turn as well— which they might— or the people will cower and they’d offer up the offenders and compatriots in order to believe they’d save their own skin while simultaneously signing all their death warrants.
Folks need to understand that protesting is now a nonstarter. You have to protest and resist peacefully in every mass setting you can. The system needs to be dragged to a halt economically for the pressures to start hurting those that can make this stop in a nonviolent way.
But if this fails, violence becomes the means of resistance because it becomes the monopoly change agent. Either it will be used upon all of us, and we all inevitably die under tyranny, or it’s used by us to take back and some of us may perish but under freedom.
These games and actions have happened in other cultures and societies at different times in the past. Some with the good results some with the bad.
But rest assured if you sit behind your keyboard and do nothing. If you prepare to sacrifice nothing. You are all but guaranteed to lose everything.
But what happens if that changes? What if in a flip of a switch, unorganized but deliberate violence is purposefully used to address these actions?
If you resist arrest, you’re definitely MS-13.
Also, and this cannot go without saying often enough but… how many times have you had to kill someone in self defense? Not, like, in a video game or a power fantasy, but IRL?
Was the first time you did it easy? Like, did you feel anything when you pulled a trigger or swung a weapon and saw someone’s life end?
“Just do unspeakable things to your oppressors” is such a cringe, fantastical take, because it assumes this population of hardened killers who simply haven’t had the need to indulge in blood-drenched super-violence.
You don’t just flip a switch and start killing people. We aren’t all secretly Rambo.
True, but nobody knows what you’re good at until you try. You’d be surprised by people and what they’re capable of. Some of the best soldiers I saw in the army were gangly dorky looking dudes that had never fired a shot before training. In fact, those guys are easier to train than “good ol boys” because they haven’t picked up any bad shooting habits.
In fact, those guys are easier to train
Trained by whom?
Your premise was that this violence was unorganized.
Man you guys have forgotten how the US treated black people when we armed ourselves.
Live free or die.
And Trump would use this to further fuel his “violent criminal terrorists” rhetoric.
It doesn’t matter
Y’all say stuff like this like he needs fuel. Like he won’t just make broad claims that are blatantly lies. Why do y’all keep thinking he needs ammunition? He makes his own. Don’t worry about giving rhetoric to a fascist. Instead worry about giving fascists bricks to the face.
Because this would be actual hard “evidence” of all the bullshit they’re claiming much like the few cases where an illegal immigrant has killed a US citizen that they keep blasting about as if that represents the majority of immigrants.
It’s dangerous because it’s more than just the lies and rhetoric that they’re currently pushing. Furthermore, I don’t see this scenario playing out well for the people doing the shooting as they’re just going to get murdered by ICE or the police once found and then it will be an easy justification for this corrupt administration to escalate and do the same to every other person they want to detain and ship out of the country. It’s a surefire way to win a “battle” but lose the “war.” More tactful approaches are needed at this time.
When the first ICE terrorist inevitably catches a bullet, what happens next?
Rinse and repeat!
How long until the media stops being allowed to tell us these things?
Tho ones who need to hear this already don’t.
Or are chearing it on. When they say “I think Trump is doing good but the Tariffs are Bullshit” this kind of thing is part of the doing good.
The south considers this the victory they’ve dreamed of for years.
Finally, brown people being put in their place.
JFC.
I can’t wait for somebody to exercise their stand-your-ground rights against these kidnapping fascists.
While that may go right or wrong for a few, because people are defending themselves from the murders, the resulting change in tactics accelerates everything and the murders may occur in place.
We are in a very bad place right now in history.
As a wise man once said: Do not obey in advance. Everything you fear the fascists will do if you give them an excuse they’ll do anyway. They’re not waiting for you to do a Bad Thing before they escalate; they’ll escalate whatever you do because their goal is absolute power.
It doesn’t matter. The first one through the door is going to deliver a message to the rest. It won’t be the message they want to hear.
It’ll be a massacre. If we’re lucky, lots of pigs will go down as well, but they have quasi military gear. The ratios aren’t in your favor.
The populace outnumber the police by more than 1000:1. Yes, it could be a massacre, but if the populace want victory bad enough then they can get it. However i’m convinced that Americans would stay at home and stop protesting if police start shooting at them, Americans are cowards. History has proven that the US Gov’t could bomb and burn a US city to smithereens and Americans will do nothing as a consequence (Tulsa and Philadelphia)
300 of those 1000 will take up their pathetic guns and support the police.
Probably so they can get money to “take care of their family.” That’s why I hate the excuse of “If I do what’s necessary, then I won’t be able to feed my kids or pay my mortgage” people because that’s the reasoning of a cop or a Nazi soldier putting a gun barrel to the back of a pregnant womans neck, “I’m just protecting my own.” As if prioritizing your own children over other children at large isn’t anything other than fascist. Those people are self-reporting themselves as narcs and should be feared like the plague. Everyone’s family is at risk now, fuck your own. People need to start realizing the world is bigger than themselves.
Not for nothing but that quasi military gear is pretty widely available. If that’s your concern that’s all the more reason to arm yourself and to start organizing.
It would be very unlikely to go well. I remember a case during the BLM protests where police were shooting at a random car, and the person in the car shot back. The police unloaded their clips - surprisingly no one got hurt.
But specifically regarding the law, Stand Your Ground only works if there’s an imminent threat to your body (getting arrested doesn’t count). Basically, you would have to prove that you believed the ICE agent was going to severely hurt you to justify any severe harm to the agent. I’m not sure if there’s many examples of ICE agents doing that
It certainly helps against plainclothes people and hiding their face. You don’t know who is an actual officer and who isn’t.
I do remember that event for BLM. The police were using paint balls or bb guns for their “riot control” after there was a curfew.
This needs the full on force of armed citizen watchdog groups who escort ICE and hold them off. A whole community that is armed and saying “no, this is my neighbor and you cannot take him.” Is going to be the way to stop ICE.
I would love to see the “police free zone” that Portland had during the BLM protests get recreated as “ICE free zones.”
Not to be that person or anything, but the rule of law is
almostdead here in the States. Especially when the current “admin” is ignoring laws to begin with. Stand your ground people, help any who might need it.I’d even go further and say go to immigrant communities and help them stand their ground.
Being sent to a foreign prison without due process is certainly an imminent threat to your body
Hmm, good point. Before, it was probably in your best interest to cooperate since rule of law meant there was at least a chance you’d get your day in court. At this point, people have nothing to lose when ICE approaches them. Might as well go all out and take as many as possible with you.
Legal rights or not, your situation is the biggest, belligerent, militarized, fascist gang wants to either kill you or kill you, and everybody knows this is reality right now. There is no good option here.
100% at least go down swinging
Yeah. There’s no always. That will stop them fight. Fight hard. Do not let them do as they wish. Resist
they do that to their own officers who blow whistle on corruption or abuse, they also tend to do that to people they get the wrong address of
Death camp in el salvador or getting shot where you stand. Hmm.
Never go to a second location.
surprisingly no one got hurt.
Are you sure this was BLM? Are you sure it wasn’t star wars? Were these stormtroopers you were watching?
I watched that video and I was terrified. If a group of people stop my car and come at me with sledgehammers then I will assume they mean to do me bodily harm. That’s what terrified me most about that video. It’s only a matter of time before “ICE” starts straight up killing people.
Gestapo.
I said that on a reddit post about ICE kidnapping someone, and now my account has been banned, they even went as far as banning my IP adress so any new account I make gets banned instantly.
I consider this a win. They’ll slowly bleed users until all that’s left is the fodder we really don’t want to interact with anyway. Besides, with 4chan’s demise, something tells me the trolls will mass migrate to Reddit.
I hadn’t thought of that. Gosh, can you imagine Reddit getting worse? That’s just spine tingling.
That’s not what usually happens with censorship, though. Censorship can be very effective, which is why it’s so dangerous, and why we have the 1st amendment in the US.
I really don’t consider it a loss, it really was the last push I needed to fully migrate to lemmy. Only downside now being that I can no long keep stirring the pot on Reddit.
We should get IP banned on every public network we can access!
ive seen an increase in shadowbanning, and someone on another forum said reddit has AGIAN updated thier filtering processes. just go on the shadowban sub, you notice alot of people getting banned for no reason at all, simply because thier “new accounts, or inactive accounts” that started posting is being flagged as spam and instantly shadowbanned.
I got banned for insulting musk
I was posting his Doge email adress in the comments, and that would get deleted instantly. But it didn’t get me banned for some reason
At least this one wasn’t masked so he can be publicly ostracized for his willful participation in a fascist regime.
wanna bet they arnt all LEO.
Look at this guy, these thugs are living their best life now that they have a blank check to terrorize people without due process.
Why do we need to know that the woman is massive? The title is strange.
harmless joke got mass. downvoted
Why do they need that big ass hammer lol you can do that with a spark plug
Emergency window breakers are about the size of a pen, right?
Yes they are. Sometimes they’re even just on the end of the pen. A small piece of hard ceramic is all you need.
My guess would be to intimidate and invoke terror.
I just see advertised swings and a reason to get in close with a knife
Probably to scare people or to feel cool.
Because this is a Goon. They don’t think. They act. They act most efficiently when it involves hurting someone else. Do not go easily. Fight the gestapo.
Fuck this infel fuck. Every Nazi ICE shitpile should be targeted and taken out by Americans.
all i see are terrorist braking property that’s not theirs to kidnap innocent people. they are creating terror in me and many other Americans. therefor ICE are terrorists by my definition.
ICE have gone too far nowadays.
There’s a huge fucking understatement LOL. I like you :)
They’ve been morally unacceptable since day 1.
A republican guy I used to work with was in huge support for ICE doing sweeps during trump’s first administration. I asked him why he was in support of another armed gov’t group going around cities asking for papers. He made it clear that they weren’t going to go after people like him or me. Even after I pointed out what he was saying, he was OK with it. He was educated too. Just fucking morally awful people.
