Dan Jones was jolted awake around 1 a.m. Tuesday to the sound of federal agents trying to break through his apartment door. They couldn’t get past his double lock, so he went back to bed.We don’ need no steenken 4th Amendment!
But when he woke up hours later for work, he walked out and found broken doors littering the hallway — and his neighbors missing.
Jones, 27, is among the residents left at 7500 S. South Shore Drive who are trying to piece together what remains after an early morning, high-powered federal immigration raid led to the arrests of dozens of their neighbors at their South Shore apartment building.
Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours.
When he got home from work, Jones said he entered his unit to find all of his electronics and furniture missing, and all of his clothes and shoes thrown on the floor. Jones said he had no idea who took his belongings and hadn’t received answers from Chicago police.
“I’m pissed off,” Jones said. “I feel defeated because the authorities aren’t doing anything.”
On Wednesday, toys, shoes and food were still in piles in the building’s hallways. Property managers were seen throwing mattresses and broken doors into dumpsters.
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid. DHS said some of those arrested “are believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes and immigration violators.”
The feds also claimed the South Shore neighborhood was “a location known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua members and their associates,” but DHS gave no evidence to support the assertion, and authorities did not confirm that any of the people arrested were members of the Venezuelan gang.
Rodrick Johnson, 67, is one of many residents who were detained by federal agents during the South Shore raid. A U.S. citizen, he said agents broke through his door and dragged him out in zip ties.Or 5th or 14th Amendment.
Johnson said he was left tied up outside the building for nearly three hours before agents finally let him go.
“I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, and they said I had to wait until they looked me up,” Johnson said. “I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.”
Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street, said it “looked like hundreds” of agents were outside her front door.Tren de Aragua recruits ‘em as babies. And trains kids to hide weapons in their underwear. You can’t be too careful. (And how many American children have passports, ID, or birth certificates laying around?)
Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers, she said.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”
Watson said she went into the building to help one of the residents and was shocked by what she saw.
“Stuff was everywhere,” said Watson. “You could see people’s birth certificates, and papers thrown all over. Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.”
I’m sure this is all because Schumer and Jeffries weren’t stern enough at a press conference.
We have entered a new phase of our decent from a nation that was ruled by a constitutional rights to a lawless state. There is no evidence of any warrants, and if there was it would be impossible to believe that there was probable cause to enter every apartment in the building. There is has been plenty of evidence of warrantless searches of individual homes, and stops without probable cause and racial profiling. Now we have multiple agencies engaging in broad lawless searches and seizures, terrorizing and mistreating the poor and the marginalized. It is shocking, but not surprising. Not surprising given our history, we have often failed to apply constitutional protections to the oppressed, and not surprising the last several months where we have been seeing this on a smaller scale. The actions of the sinister six on SCOTUS to aid and abet this behavior has made this almost inevitable. Justice delayed is justice denied, and the reactionaries allowing racial profiling and unlawful actions to continue with maybe some decision years later if making this all worse. Yet our press and culture cling to the idea that since one member of the Fed wasn't replaced immediately as some form of victory. As I was discussing with a colleague this morning, that the court let her stay is actually worse. It points out the absolute arbitrariness of this court. Consistent application of laws is dead. As Thomas made clear, stare decisis is dead. Statutory interpretation is dead (language in a statute is ignored, or completely twisted). We are down to the whims of these six, and their allowing this administration to act without restraint. I really don't know where we go from here.
ReplyDelete“We’re the Supreme Court, bitches!” I’m convinced that’s their only guiding principle now. We’re going to need another set if Civil War Amendments just to straighten out their rulings, and something more radical in Congress to address the actions of this disreputable court.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the lawless law enforcement is that private citizens can’t sue (even if they could, how many would?), and the DOJ isn’t doing it for them (as it should, BY LAW). A Democratic Congress could do a lot in Trump’s last two years, but it can’t force the DOJ to do its job.
This is when I remember whole classes of people (based on skin color, nationality, gender, economic status) have seen this side of government for generations. We tried to fix that, and this is the snapping of the rubber band. America is a fundamentally racist and xenophobic place. Not the majority, any more; and that’s why Trump is sinking in approval and the opposition is mounting.
But we have yet to heal our hidden wound.
Because most of us take governance for granted (which is what’s REALLY missing now), and only pay attention to the price of eggs. Will we learn from that mistake?
I’m not betting money on it.