Hat Amerika jetzt die Geheimpolizei?

In It Was Only an Accident, the first movie from Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi after his 2022 arrest for making anti-state propaganda, a small-town mechanic suspects that the stranger who stops by his garage late one night is the same man who tortured him while he was in prison.

The mechanic vows to take revenge, but there’s a problem: He never saw the man’s face, and all he has to go on is the telltale squeak of his tormenter’s prosthetic leg. Unable to stifle the nagging feeling that he might have the wrong man, the mechanic tracks down more and more victims, each of whom tries to identify their torturer in their own way, by the scars on his thigh, or his familiar smell.

After a while, what started out as an anguished vigilante mission starts to feel more like a lopsided farce. Without the ability to identify the person who wronged them, the very idea of justice becomes a joke.

I thought of Panahi’s movie today, as I watched the video of federal agents handcuffing New York City comptroller Brad Lander inside an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan after he demanded to see a judicial warrant for the migrant man they were attempting to arrest. Lander, who is also running for mayor in New York’s Democratic primary, is a familiar face around the courthouse.

The agents knew exactly who they were taking into custody: Minutes beforehand, a reporter heard one asking another, “Do you want to arrest the comptroller?” But who those agents were, or even who they worked for, is more difficult to pin down.

Because, in what has become a familiar—and, if you spend enough time on the internet, practically daily—sight, they were hiding their faces behind masks. Even as the New York Times’ story on the situation carried the headline that Lander had been “arrested by ICE,” in the body of the article, the reporter hedged his bets, identifying them only as “several men who appear to be law enforcement officers.”

⏬ Bluesky article BASE thread (8 min) 📖🍿🔊

[https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lrto3kl2222i](https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lrto3kl2222i)

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Edit: Added Bluesky link

It isn’t much of a secret

Yes in fact they do. And just following orders is not a good defense. I hope every single one of these thugs get held to account.

States need to pass laws officials can’t hide their face when arresting suspects unless it’s an active fire fight etc

ICE has zero legal authority except on illegals.  They are kidnapping citizens and legal foreigners.  They are attacking senators and congressmen.  
I dont get why the local police do not arrest these ICE agents.  

Yes. 100%. Unidentified people who are only probably agents of the government are disappearing people and arresting those who interfere including politicians.

Apparently yes

The longer the masked police on our streets the higher the odds there is blood.

Alternatively, America might just have open season on vigilantes now. Florida gun laws are looking pretty good at this point:

>Florida’s „Stand Your Ground“ law, formally known as Florida Statute 776.013, allows individuals to use force, including deadly force, in self-defense when they reasonably believe it’s necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm, without a duty to retreat before using such force. This law expands on the traditional „Castle Doctrine“ by extending the right to stand one’s ground beyond the home to any place a person has a legal right to be. 

Not anymore since you just told everybody.

Sorry, but yeah, we do – and it’s bad and I hate it.

The fact you have to even ask is a sign shit ain’t

Rip off the masks and this will all end its self through public opinion.

Obviously, yes.

Basically [this scene](https://youtu.be/FJF1pMKicTY?feature=shared), but he’s not showing a badge and is more masked than the little girl.

If they don’t ID themselves I live in a stand your ground state.

They have hotels in and around your cities… Do your homework. Play safe.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/1ldyljb/617_no_sleep_for_ice_protests/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/1ldyljb/617_no_sleep_for_ice_protests/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

That’s the best part. It always has. Be it the CIA, Pinkertons, NSA, etc. this has always been a hallmark of American society. But the USA is a country of euphemisms. Just like how what we call “lobbying” in this country we call bribery and corruption in others.

Uh, I’d say that’s a 10-4 good buddy. They masked. They police. They secret. I didn’t see a warrant. Or a badge. And didn’t hear them answering questions. I’m just sending links to my Republican congressmen asking what he plans to do about this at this point.

Yes? JFC. As soon as people call it “secret police”, and the government doubles down, the only answer is “yes”

Spray ammonia on their masks, it will smell like they’re breathing piss and they’ll take them off.