Two of the regular commenters here are outraged that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents presently conducting operations in Chicago are wearing masks. Rather than respond critically or sarcastically I want to invite them to propose their own solutions, other than requiring the officers to be unmasked until officers or their families are killed or injured before taking any action, here in comments.
All of the solutions I can think of are more draconian than the masks. Perhaps they are cleverer than I.
I will promote any good, practical solutions to the front page as updates to this post.
Update
One of the commenters made what sounds to me like a reasonable suggestion:
So what we should be doing is having ICE agents wear numbered ID just like regular police and also wear video cams like most police.
which another regular commenter was quick to point out had already been ordered by a judge:
A federal district court in Chicago entered the following order last Thursday:
“It is further ORDERED that all Federal Agents, excepting those who do not wear a uniform or other distinguishing clothing or equipment in the regular performance of their official duties or are engaged in undercover operations in the regular performance of their official duties, must have visible identification (for which a unique recognizable alphanumeric identifier sequence will suffice) affixed to their uniforms or helmets and prominently displayed, including when wearing riot gear.”
As of Monday the agents were not in compliance. I still think it would do some good at the margins.
Further, remarkably absent (snicker) are calls for Antifa and rioters to rid themselves of masks.
There is no evidence that ICE agents are at more risk than other police. You keep citing claims by DHS that are weakly supported. We actually have videos of ICE agents supposedly being attacked that show it was really aggression on the part of the ICE agents. All police face the risk that criminals may want revenge, but the fact is that it rarely happens. We, and our police accept those risks because we know that anonymous, unaccountable, masked police abuse their powers and it erodes public trust. We figured this out in the 1800s which makes the regression more unacceptable.
In short there is no reason why we should have a zero risk policy uniquely for ICE agents. Zero risk policies lead to extremes in policy and bad outcomes. Logically, if we want a zero risk policy for these guys why not all police? Why not everyone who has to deal with the public?
So what we should be doing is having ICE agents wear numbered ID just like regular police and also wear video cams like most police. Our elected representatives should be allowed in to inspect ICE facilities. Our political leaders should stop bragging about treating captured illegals poorly. We should stop concentrating on arrests that create public spectacle (stop taking the right wing camera crews) and more on safety. Also, a little humanity might be in order. Maybe even better training for the surge of ICE agents they are hiring.
Steve
I think those are good suggestions, steve. With your permission I’ll update the post with it.
A federal district court in Chicago entered the following order last Thursday:
“It is further ORDERED that all Federal Agents, excepting those who do not wear a uniform or other distinguishing clothing or equipment in the regular performance of their official duties or are engaged in undercover operations in the regular performance of their official duties, must have visible identification (for which a unique recognizable alphanumeric identifier sequence will suffice) affixed to their uniforms or helmets and prominently displayed, including when wearing riot gear.”
I think we should also note that ICE had about 7000 agents in January. They now have over twice that number. (Some sources say 20,000.) They get 8 weeks of training. Average length of training for police in the US is 21 weeks and by international standards that is fairly short. So if you have a scene where a bunch of ICE agents with little training and almost no experience are calling for help and the police, with lots more training and experience show up and do much you should at least entertain the idea that to the much more experienced police it may not look like they need to intervene. It’s also possible they are just pissed at having to bail out the rookies who dont know what they are doing.
Steve
I extrapolated that order because it was the product of a kind of iterative process in which a journalist group filed a lawsuit seeking approval of a proposed restraining order, the U.S. government responded with criticisms of the proposed order, the journalist group amended their proposed order in light of these criticisms, and the judge entered a final order with further modifications. I think this means this is doable.
This lawsuit was brought with protest sites like the Broadview ICE Facility in mind. It doesn’t really seek to deal with arrest operations themselves, and in cases of non-uniformed arrests, you might want the order to require officers to identify themselves as such when making the arrest.
The eight federal law enforcement agencies subject to this order were required to disseminate the order to those working at Broadview immediately, and issue guidance all officers by Tuesday. The TRO expires next week and will probably be changed based upon intervening events. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Judge uses any guidance for a temporary injunction.