Robbers pretending to be ICE agents

In authoritarian regimes it isn't uncommon for the state officers and soldiers to engage in casual theft along side their official duties. With the way our country is going, there is a non-zero chance this was an actual ICE officer just working his "side hustle".

American cops have been robbers for a long, long time under the guise of civil forfeiture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States
- That is "legal" theft, which can be fought in court, and isn't what I'm referring to. A law enforcement officer committing theft not associated with their duties is what I'm talking about like this example reported just yesterday.
- Those stolen assets don't end up as personal property of the officer though.
You are very lucky if they stop with casual theft.
Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the secret police in Stalin's USSR was a serial rapist and murderer. He had at least hundreds women and children kidnapped off the street, both people who weren't missed but also celebrities, and raped them and then murdered them if they wouldn't pretend it was consensual. A pile of bones covered with lime was uncovered near his one-time residence 15 years ago, but contemporary testimonies say that his torture chamber of a basement had underground passages to other burial sites.
Once some people are above the law, nothing is off the table.
- Yep.
  Obviously this is a pretty extreme example but without the rule of law, government officials will engage in corruption, hold overs, and blackmail.
  With ICE just seizing and deporting whoever they like, it provides white Americans with incredible power over others because they can just threaten to call ICE.
- Also Stalin told his daughter to never be alone with Beria because even he couldn't ensure her safety. Honestly I'm convinced that Beria was on Stalin's shit list and the only reason he wasn't purged was because WW2 kicked off.
It’s naïve to think that this behavior hasn’t been common already for decades, likely centuries
- It's technically not a crime if you label it civil forfeiture.
As a non-American this is really one of the weirdest things about ICE. Why don’t they do their raids in uniform/with badge and face uncovered (perhaps apart from tactical headgear) like any other law enforcement agency? Even when arresting terrorists/mobsters you would expect the cops to be identifiable.
- Why don’t they do their raids in uniform/with badge and face uncovered (perhaps apart from tactical headgear) like any other law enforcement agency?
  As far as I know the plain clothes arrests and covered faced raids are new artifacts of the GOP's trump administration. I think there may have been plain clothes investigators before for some undercover work, but never used in the way it is today.
  There are two reasons, I think, they are doing it today.
  Masks add anonymity and reduce accountability. These folks are deeply disliked and under the hoods and masks, yet they're people with homes and families. They need to conceal their identity so their actions don't follow them home.
  The trump administration wants a law enforcement arm with broad authority to arrest and detain with federal powers. ICE and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) have broad sweeping powers in the most populated portions of our country.
Yeah i was just going to say, its not like theyre tracking these things, so isnt it more likely he just is an actual ICE officer?
It’s already been happening, it’s documented in this Afroman song Edit: 3:50 timestamp
- I know it happens with other law enforcement. I even posted a link to a police officer fired for stealing just a few days ago. However, I was specifically talking about ICE, which isn't what Afroman was talking about, but this thread is.

Only one thing to do now. We have to treat all ICE agents like armed criminals until they show their face, a badge, and a warrant.

- Agreed. It is easy to say "do it" ... but there are a lot of things that could go wrong for a good guy with a gun.
  I was thinking more along the lines of trespassing them if they are on your property or at a business that the employees may not want ICE at. Also maybe calling the police on them ... an armed guy in a mask with a Temu printed Tshirt that says "ICE" is certainly suspicious.
I don't see how that absolves them of being criminals. We should ship them to El Salvador and sort out the good ones later.
- Ha! We all know ICE agents dont get local warrants.
  They are supposedly running around Chicago with Douglas County warrants. If that is real it means ICE is getting warrants from a judge 2 and a half hours away
This is something I've thought about a lot. Obviously this is not legal advice, don't try this shit based on this comment. Say a cop shows up to your door with a warrant and says "Let me in to search your house." How the fuck am I supposed to react to this? If a cop asks to search something, you should always say no (unless there's some sort of implied consent like breathalyzers in Georgia for drivers). But if they have a warrant, how do I even know it's a real warrant? I'm not a legal expert. I don't wanna sound like a sovereign citizen type who believes random words make you immune to things but I feel like the proper thing to do is say something like "I don't consent, but I'm not resisting." Then just stand there. Don't close the door, but don't open it more either.
Like imagine a vampire. Right? They can only come in if they're invited. As humans we use certain phrases to make orders sound like requests to be polite. I used to get in trouble with my mom as a kid because of it. She'd say things like "Please do X" and I'd protest saying because she's saying please it's like she's asking, not telling. That's not necessarily the best example of it, but it helps demonstrate the point. "Let me do X" is sort of a request to be given permission to do X without actually asking to do X. If they have a warrant, why ask at all? Why not just come in?
Idk, I pray that I'm never in a situation like this.
Starting yesterday?

Everybody pretends to be an ICE agent to steal or commit violence, it is an utterly illegitimate mob of thugs loyal to a dictator.

The only thing that isn't pretend about ICE is the bigotry and violence.

I see no meaningful difference between these people and "actual ICE agents".

The meaningful difference is the relief felt by this poor woman when she discovered she was just being robbed, not deported.
- just being robbed, not ~~deported~~.
  *sent to the off-shore extra-judicial concentration camps
It's actually really easy to cosplay as ICE too.
Face mask. Cheap jacket. Fake ass vest.
- True, though hardly a news flash that fascists have shit basic ass style.

I hope we start seeing people dressing up as ICE agents and then disappearing real ICE agents while they're off duty. Just round them up. When they protest and try to show their citizenship papers, just call them fake. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Jesus if we could even get this to happen one time that would be just so perfect

Remember, in the US, you can be charged for obstructing a plain-clothes officer's duties even before they ID themselves. (I'm not a lawyer but you could refer to 18 USC 111 or 18 USC 1501, or the fact that police don't need to know the law properly to enforce it, Heien v. North Carolina)

And, fake-ICE cosplayers like this guy can have their charges dropped by DOJ or pardoned by Trump.

So if you get visited by someone unknown, you're damned if you do or you don't. Demand a judicial warrant and wait to receive one with an actual judge's signature, before you open the door to agents you don't know.

maybe if they robbed a bank that Trump owed/owes money to.

If ICE agents behave like criminal thugs why wouldn't criminal thugs behave like ICE agents?

or they are one in the same, ooh.
- i think a guy who steals a $1000 is still overall a more decent human being than a guy who kidnaps and imprisons people because, well, he didn't like the vibe (of their skin colour or accent)
  imagine the relief of that latino woman when instead of being taken and thrown into a cage with no way to get out or prove her citizenship status the guy just took some money.
  ICE are worse than thugs
- The bigger ooh is that unlike thugs, ICErs are paid by an elected government.
  #stopthugdiscrimination #ICEareWellfareQueens
For all we know, this guy is active duty ICE and just robbing people in his free time.

To be clear, the ice people are also criminals, it's just a different crime.

Dear Americans,

You're well within your right to shoot ICE agents on sight.

Oh no, Your Honor, you don't understand, that guy on lemmy said I could do it
- Do you not understand what the 2nd Amendment is for and are utterly ignorant to concepts such as "self defense"?
Only if you want to spend the rest of your life dead or in prison.
It’s a lovely thought, but ICE has the entire weight of the government behind them.
- I was under the impression that US rules about trespassing left the owner with a lot of rights, even to use weapons to protect their property. Doesn't this apply when ICE raids homes without warnings or warrants?
- If ICE comes for you, there's an over 50% chance that's gonna happen either way. May as well even the field a bit.
- I guess ICE wins then. Yayyyyy.
- spend the rest of your life dead
  I feel like this wording could have been better

Nah, this isn’t what we feared would happen. We’re equally concerned with the actual officers committing crimes against people, if not more so due to their access to resources and being backed by the government.

Remember the right claiming Floyd protesters were all looters? Itso happens whenever the nation is in distress (in this economical and societal context) the smartest of potential crimedoers would take that as an opportunity. Whenever it's some natural disaster or social conflict, there would be some to use it. And it's fucking frightening that America came to the point that the thing that bothers us is that thugs didn't have a real license to do thugs' things, and every other article going by the #ICE tag is not just stealing, but kidnapping people into Salvador camps, so getting mugged by fake ICE officer is better than meeting the real ones now? It's a fucking circus.

How many ''ICE'' agents does it take to empty out a bank? I'm thinking of writing a Hollywood film.

"We're seizing this money as evidence!"
Wait until the purge to do it, then you're not breaking the law.

It is like they should be identifiable. I forgot, but a member of congress made a good point how police have arrested way more dangerous people with their face and ID showing.

Nobody believes the made up attacks on ICE they just don't want the social backlash of being casted out of their communities.

White people trying to get rich the same way they’ve been getting rich for the last 600 years: by stealing from brown people.

- You first. Or did you plan on stealing them?

He low key helped show why we want law officers to have a branded uniform, name tag and provide ID.

And wearing a mask to hide your identity while performing your job function is pretty sus.
- Given the photos, this guy didn't even use a mask! He could have gone full bear and been even more protected from discovery.
Low key?
I mean, sure that would be a nice fringe benefit of police reform.
But this was only possible because of the terror police inspire by their mere presence. Nobody is willing to fight back against this guy for fear he's an actual officer. Nobody has any faith in the Real Police (assuming this guy wasn't actually a cop who decided to moonlight as a robber) finding and stopping this guy.
It isn't as though the crook couldn't have slapped a "Hi I'm Jim_" name tag on his chest and done the exact same thing. You have to believe knowing the officer's identify would result in some consequence to the owner of the gear in order to see that as a material benefit.

And now ICE agents are going to be attacked as criminals.

How can you police a population if no one can identify which are the cops and which are the criminals?

Yeah its defintely shoot on sight for ice, people CAN'T tell if they are safe and a jury of their peers would let them walk.
- The problem is, if you shoot an officer of any kind, cops won't let you live to see trial. We just kind of accept that police get to murder someone if they shoot a police officer.
- Juries aren't exactly well known for being fair or have enough expertise to even understand the facts of the case which are presented to them.
Considering ICE are already criminals, there isn't much to distinguish in the first place.
ICE deserves to be attacked, on sight.

itsa meme come true.

How do we know it wasn't just a regular ice agent?

Many commenters totally predicted this sort of thing.

thepoliceproblem has led to thenotactualpoliceproblem

secondaryproblemsduetopolice

So the solution to the forced deportation is to dress everybody in ICE "uniforms" and deport the deporter?

All maga are terrorists. It is a terrorist organization.

ICE peoples are criminals

Thank you for including the relevant news article.

You can tell he's not a real ICE agent because his face isn't covered.

Awesome. Force the police to identify themselves.

This is FAKE NEWS but also if it was REAL it's because the SHOP OWNERS are Criminals and NOT the Person who Stole Money while Impersonating an Officer!

Anyways it's a GOOD THING Unidentified Ice Agents are KIDNAPPING CHILDREN!

Yeah anyone now with a security/police/ice/military uniform is not acting with the constitution and is labeled a threat. They are not in charge of public safety anymore

~~(Someone once told me how to add alt text here but I already forgot.)~~

for an image in a comment, just put the text in the square brackets at the very beginning!
normally it should look like this:
![Put your alt text here](https://example.com/link-to-image.webp)
you can go back to add alt text in a comment by editing it too!
- Ah, thank you. You might be the person that told me this before! I was thinking that space would appear as hyperlink text. Going to save this one.
  Edit: Weirdly, I don't see the alt text. Maybe it works differently in different apps/formats

to be honest i feared ICE before this. and them deporting people that were here in good faith trying to work through the system presented to them is the problem, as well.

100% Do you think he cares though, or is he instead laughing at you maniacally as you suffer?

I don't believe in God, but for shits and giggles, maybe this thing exists. I give it a little prayer every day and I say to myself, or to the magical creature, please God, Nuke America. I think we're too goddamn stupid to have an armed revolution. We're just going to keep standing in the ways of cars, getting run over at protests by dumbass neo-Nazis. While the Democrats just sit there with their thumb up their ass. Like Nancy Pelosi just counting money instead of doing her fucking job. Big tited, bored housewife got tired of drinking wine became a politician. Now she's got the sellout genocide supporting AOC as her little pet. But yet, you know, none of this matters because America is an imperialist empire. And fascists are the useful idiots of empire. And when capitalism is in crisis, especially inside of the imperial core, well, you're going to see some terrible things happen. One day, they're going to use drones, killer drones, on American citizens, and AOC allowed that to be signed in a defense bill.

All you fucking idiots are OK with this if you didn't immeditantly go out and flag every grandma that's 5 over.

neighbors pretending to be agents?

https://kolektiva.social/@unsalted/114666418509125619

not much stolen valor in this, I suppose.