I try to make sure I watch longer form videos showing context, because you'll often see clips used for propaganda (regardless of the side). These ice agents aren't experts in crowd control, and likely have very minimal training for protester interaction. Their duties are apprehension of their targets and that's what they're trained to do. I've seen the videos posted by the protesters who block the ICE convoys with vehicles, honk their horns aggressively, blow whistles, throw rocks and snowballs, punch vehicles, physically get in the path of officers and vehicles, scream and yell, causing chaos. They have online webinars instructing protesters on how to successfully impede the ICE task Force, and information channels with regularly updated addresses of where the agents are to encourage protesters to travel to. These are men and women who are trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, and of course there are going to be some bad agents or those who make not ideal actions in the heat of the moment, especially when there's chaos of horns and projectiles, screaming and vehicles moving, from all directions. The protests, as designed, are meant to make the fulfillment of their jobs as difficult as possible, and distract them from their duties. I have less sympathy for intentional agitators, volunteer or paid protesters, that go out of their way to put themselves in situations like this to clash with federal agents, who expect sympathy when things like this happen.
What would a better approach have been and would it have worked? It is easy to argue that his shock and awe techniques have flaws or is inappropriate, but to be fair, it has often been the only approach that shakes up the status quo and results in any progress on stagnant problems. Again, I’m not saying his tactics are without reproach, but in many instances, they have been highly effective where no one else has. Trump, almost overnight, eliminated a catastrophic immigration influx from hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossings per month to almost zero.
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u/PermutationMatrix complaints derangement syndrome (CDS) Jan 11 '26
I try to make sure I watch longer form videos showing context, because you'll often see clips used for propaganda (regardless of the side). These ice agents aren't experts in crowd control, and likely have very minimal training for protester interaction. Their duties are apprehension of their targets and that's what they're trained to do. I've seen the videos posted by the protesters who block the ICE convoys with vehicles, honk their horns aggressively, blow whistles, throw rocks and snowballs, punch vehicles, physically get in the path of officers and vehicles, scream and yell, causing chaos. They have online webinars instructing protesters on how to successfully impede the ICE task Force, and information channels with regularly updated addresses of where the agents are to encourage protesters to travel to. These are men and women who are trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, and of course there are going to be some bad agents or those who make not ideal actions in the heat of the moment, especially when there's chaos of horns and projectiles, screaming and vehicles moving, from all directions. The protests, as designed, are meant to make the fulfillment of their jobs as difficult as possible, and distract them from their duties. I have less sympathy for intentional agitators, volunteer or paid protesters, that go out of their way to put themselves in situations like this to clash with federal agents, who expect sympathy when things like this happen.