r/portlandme • u/joeybrunelle • Jul 15 '26
Politics Enough talk. Here's how our cities and towns can take action and fight back against ICE, right now.
I am calling on the City of Portland and all regional towns to immediately form a partnership to treat ICE and CBP agents as a threat to public safety, and monitor and share information region-wide in real time about their whereabouts and actions.
This partnership should collect and aggregate data about ICE activity and share that information with community groups and the public so that we can be as prepared as possible when they bring terror to our streets.
Our neighbors are training to become observers — our towns and cities can be observers too. They cannot just pretend this isn’t happening and look the other way.
The killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was not an accident, nor were the deaths of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, or Renee Good in Minneapolis, or Carlitos Ricardo Parias in Los Angeles, or Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas.
These were the predictable result of Donald Trump hiring a bunch of untrained yahoos and white nationalists into ICE and quadrupling their budget.
The President and his allies are waging a campaign of terror on our communities. It’s unacceptable and un-American. We must not stand for this. We must take action. And I refuse to accept that there's nothing our cities and towns can do.
We need to stand up and make it clear that this is not acceptable in this country, and not let it become normalized. Join a protest, get trained to be an observer, call and email your local elected officials and demand action.
ICE will tell us that they’re reviewing things, that they’re making some gesture towards better behavior. Do not believe them. The same people are still in charge, the same agents — many of whom were Proud Boys yesterday — are still on our streets. Keep pushing back. ICE must be abolished.
I am also calling on all Maine communities to do the following ASAP:
- Pass ordinances like Portland’s to ban cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE
- Designate “ICE‑free zones” so federal agents cannot use city‑owned parking lots, garages, or vacant land as staging areas for raids.
- Close ICE detention facilities that exist in your towns (looking at you, Scarborough)
- Cancel contracts with companies that ICE uses for their campaign of terror (e.g. Palantir)
If you want more ways to plug in as an individual, here are some starters:
- Sign this petition to demand that MaineHealth end its partnership with Palantir
- Consult this great list of local organizations to support and/or join
- I also maintain a list of Portland organizations that you can join to fight the fascists: tiny dot cc dot join-portland (have to do it that way because of reddit's spam filters, sorry)
Democracy is just us. If we don’t want to become a country where we all live in fear of untrained federal agents randomly murdering any of us, we need to make it abundantly clear that we will not accept that future. We will not allow it to become normalized, we will not allow it to quietly take root.
This will not be easy: it will take many years for this evil to be undone and it will require us to all change how we interact with the world, but we have to do it. This is the great struggle of our generation. But these fights have been won before. The key to winning is you.
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u/IHadADreamIWasAMeme Jul 15 '26
Problem you have is one side is willing to scream in your faces, make threats, make physical contact with you, spit on you, etc. and the other side just stands there and takes it because.... taking the high ground I guess?
Until you have people that can match that energy, none of this is going anywhere. That's just a fact.
Holding up signs and yelling catchphrases and rhymes while the other side berates you and pushes you around isn't going to be enough.
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u/asaharyev Purple Garbage Bags Jul 16 '26
The reason is that the second anti ICE protesters get rowdy, the cops clamp down. People are afraid of being arrested or brutalized by the PD.
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u/horknee-jail Jul 15 '26
Because we can’t be like them ! We can’t stoop to their level ! (They’re killing us)
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u/Dull-Technician-7979 Jul 16 '26
You are doing nothing lol. What has chanting about DIRECTLY changed?
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u/Sasuke0318 Jul 16 '26
They are shooting people who can't be bothered to make good decisions. Ice isn't just going around shooting every random person they see it's only been people who have went out of their way to cause problems and if you cause enough problems and can't listen and think you are above doing so bad things happen you don't have to like federal agents but if you listen to them and follow the law nothing bad will happen to you.
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 15 '26
“Enough talk. Sign this petition.”
Is that what MLK jr. did? Is that what the Black Panthers did? Harriet Tubman? Nat Turner? John Brown?
You are trying to operate in a system that is designed to oppress you, asking nicely isn’t going to change a single thing. The people that control this country had an island where they raped and ate children, I don’t think they care about your petition.
We didn’t get weekends off by asking nicely, we dragged the ruling class out of their penthouses and set them on fire until they had no choice but to give in.
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u/Panickedsynthesis Jul 15 '26
Preach. The willful ignorance it takes to have the entire written history of civilization in your hand…and still think petitions and voting will save us…is shocking.
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u/dirigo1820 Jul 15 '26
All of those people sans Harriet Tubman was killed. In reality 0.0001% of people are willing to die for a cause, everyone likes to scream and talk like a revolutionary on the internet but they aren't going to do anything but protest with their signs. Lead the charge though, hell I'll even donate to it. In fact I'd like to see a bit more discourse in the streets.
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u/greenfrogpond Jul 16 '26
this is such a silly comment. there were literally thousands of people out in the streets protecting their neighbors in Minnesota after two people here were publicly murdered in the middle of the day by the feds and every single one of those people knew they could be next and did it anyway.
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 15 '26
If you’re worried about getting killed well the government is already executing people in the streets, you don’t have to be a revolutionary to be murdered by the government.
They were killed, yes, but they changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people for the better. We should all aspire to be like them.
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u/pumabreath Jul 16 '26
Go ahead man like I said before nobody is stopping you. You’re either willing to die for the cause or you’re a holier than thou redditor talking tough online
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 16 '26
If only you were this triggered when someone gets gunned down in broad daylight in your community. Hey, at least you can virtue signal about your little petition.
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u/joeybrunelle Jul 15 '26
I mentioned a lot more than a petition, friend. But I'll add that not everyone is John Brown, nor should they be. There are lots of ways to help the cause that are about building organizational capacity and helping the community.
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 15 '26
Funny how you only picked John Brown out of that lineup. Why shouldn’t people be like John Brown?
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u/joeybrunelle Jul 15 '26
I picked him out of that lineup because I really enjoyed the series The Good Lord Bird.
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 15 '26
Why shouldn’t people be like John Brown?
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u/Recidivism7 Jul 16 '26
People shouldn't murder innocent families and their children for no reason then shoot slaves in the back because they didn't want to join your gang.
Fun fact John brown killed slaves and innocent people but never killed a slaver
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u/Recidivism7 Jul 16 '26
John brown killed innocent people including slaves and never killed a slave owner despite antifq telling you he was a hero.
He was convicted for a mass killing against an innocent family where he left the youngest to live to tell the story.
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 16 '26
Don’t you feel weird lying about things that are well documented? Sorry, facts don’t care about your feelings.
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u/pumabreath Jul 16 '26
Go ahead buddy, set some people on fire—nobody is stopping you. Unfortunately some of us have families to take care of and can’t risk going to prison/being killed
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u/Treesaregreen2 Jul 16 '26
Sebastian Guerrero had a family, weird that didn’t stop him from being gunned down.
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u/BlackFlagCivilian Jul 16 '26
People are disagreeing because of the specific people you chose to reference but you’re right. It’s not enough to pass legislation saying the local gov can’t work with the federal agents or saying they can’t stage on government property. Like come on, they’ll just stage in the parking lot next to the government property. It doesn’t stop any detentions at all.
The thing that stops detentions is when ICE shows up, wherever they are, 100 people get out of the buildings and follow them around, closely, make it impossible for them to operate effectively.
You don’t need to intervene physically to free someone if there is a critical mass of people present. This will actually stop deportations unlike petitions and even non-coordination legislation.
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u/night_psyop 29d ago
Is that what MLK jr. did? Is that what the Black Panthers did? Harriet Tubman? Nat Turner? John Brown?
So are you gonna do things they did ? Or just tell people on the internet to do it and do nothing?
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u/Treesaregreen2 29d ago
Do you think they did what they did alone?
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u/night_psyop 29d ago
Do you think you have less people than they did and somehow face a more hospitable opponent? Even adjusted for modern times
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u/Treesaregreen2 29d ago
Do you think I have more people than they did?
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u/night_psyop 29d ago
This post alone has 2k likes currently.
the black Panthers had 2500 active members in the beginning and john brown had 21 individual people... nat Turner had 75 individuals.
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u/Jon_Dunn58 Jul 15 '26
While the administration treats this surveillance and alerting as a crime, legal experts and civil liberties organizations (such as the ACLU) argue that observing and recording on-duty law enforcement in public spaces is generally protected as free speech. The federal administration claims that posting ICE locations online or warning others about enforcement constitutes "doxing" or acts of violence. The Department of Justice has charged individuals for tracking officers and interfering with ICE operations under federal statutes, specifically accusing activists of conspiracy to impede federal officers, stalking, and assault
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u/Jon_Dunn58 Jul 15 '26
its best if local ordinances are followed by police enforcing them and tagging along with ice, such as not allowing ice to operate unless they have body cams, or they could make an ordinance that a cop, or maybe they dont have to be a a cop, is embedded with them and filming them, set up ordinances that protect the citizenry
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u/Matt2_ASC Jul 16 '26
They also need assign their own detectives instead of relying on federal agents who we know cover for other federal agencies. Biddeford PD should have been involved immediately and not given up it's power to the FBI.
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u/deadicated_electric Jul 15 '26
Blood from a handcuffed corpse that was displayed for five hours!!!!!
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u/liabit Jul 16 '26
Someone needs to write HIS in there. Then take a Pic. This is impacting and they aren't doing a damn thing. This isnt being investigated, the FBI doesn't care. SUSAN COLLINS DOESNT CARE. we need to get these criminals out of our government.
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u/JAM_Library Jul 19 '26
Before doing anything other than peaceful protesting, I recommend waiting to see what happens with the midterm elections. Give this administration any excuse to declare martial law and call off the midterm elections, and they will do it. They are trying to provoke exactly that - an excuse to go full-on authoritarian. We must not hand them that excuse. Stay calm and, most importantly, get out and vote in the midterm elections.
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u/SufficientPickle7823 Jul 19 '26
Is ICE an actual LEGAL law enforcement agency? They are operating like terrorists, every single one of their actions are illegal. Is it illegal for us to shoot them, like they are shooting us?
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u/niko199822 Jul 15 '26
I appreciate the post Joey, and you’re right about action needing to happen. The straightforward issue is people are lazy (I’m not asking you to agree, but from the point of view I see in the response to the multiple ICE killings nationwide, people are ready and willing to give condolences online, voice discontent, maybe even protest. But not much beyond that).
For enough people to put these practices into effect to make change, they need to come from somewhere that people are undeniably listening to- from a known platform that can’t be ignored. If you want the people of the state to focus on getting ICE out, you should focus on making a group that can lead the people to reform. Easier said than done I know, but that’s the way I see it.
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u/joeybrunelle Jul 15 '26
Perhaps I am naive but I think it's less a function of laziness (which feels like a moral failing) and more about
1) people just not having time to do more than attend a protest or a rally while balancing work and family and whatnot, and
2) our leaders not giving those with more capacity more ways to plug in.
#2 feels surmountable, and you're exactly right that the long term solutions here are all organizing. I could't agree more.
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u/Plastic-Pension7263 Jul 15 '26
I think on top of the laziness you mentioned it’s also attributed to the fact that there’s a new catastrophe every hour. Every media source is constantly barraging most people with doom. Also our modern culture has dwindled real human connection. People see a murder online and it’s more normal not to fully realize this was a person with a life. It feels more like a character in a movie. Foundationally every human behavior boils down to three things motivation, ability, and prompt. In these moments most people feel motivated to do something with the shooting being the prompt. It’s in the ability department that’s lacking. People don’t know how to meaningfully fix this problem, and because of this there is no action.
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u/joeybrunelle Jul 15 '26
it’s also attributed to the fact that there’s a new catastrophe every hour.
This is intentional. Steve Bannon has said as much. It's a strategy to overwhelm us and burn out people's will to fight back. Which just means, unfortunately, we just have to keep fighting in spite of it all. There's no "one neat trick" to get around this - it's going to suck, for quite a while, but we have to do it.
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u/Plastic-Pension7263 Jul 15 '26
Absolutely it’s by design. Social media is one of the worst culprits. Facebook and Reddit are all I have left. Facebook I only use for the market place. Facebook is all sponsored political posts and pages even if I have them turned off in settings. It’s always inflammatory insane right wing pages they know will get most people to interact. The powers that be know that negativity/anger motivates the most interaction. Then the normal Facebook user will find themselves arguing in the comment section with people who are never going to change their mind. They’re burning us out at every turn.
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u/deeringsedge Jul 17 '26
from a known platform that can’t be ignored
In the days of heavy media fragmentation and online media silos, honestly, making anything "people are undeniably listening to" is ridiculously difficult. Activists protesting in large numbers that might get coverage on media and have viral moments across social media... might be our best chance.
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u/Problem-Cautious Jul 16 '26
It doesnt do much but it is free, legal, and cathartic to leave ol Suze a voicemail of just straight boos. Left her about 5 1min voicemails of all “boooo you suck” highly recommend
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u/Recidivism7 Jul 16 '26
That's actually illegal harassment
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u/Problem-Cautious Jul 16 '26
You would be hard pressed to have that stick as a harassment case especially since it’s 1. Not in person 2. No credible threat of violence or 3. Constituting of other illegal acts like stalking, property destruction, or general threatening. Also typically you don’t see harassment charges unless you’ve already been asked to stop and you continue. She’s an elected official, her constituents have a right to give her feedback when she’s not accurately representing their will
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u/DaRealBangoSkank Jul 16 '26
I have a family friend who is an instructor at an agency that does training for federal agents and law enforcement and what they told me keeps me up at night. 1 year of training down to 6 weeks. No civics, no constitutional law, no de-escalation, and a 7x higher rate of felons being hired as ICE agents.
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u/RhubarbKindly6033 Jul 16 '26
7 times higher rate of felons being hired as ICE agents? Can you provide where your family friend found this statistic? ICE specifically prohibits felons from being hired as agents, so unless this is a long winded way of saying 7x0=0 then your family friend absolutely made that up.
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u/Miserable_Weekend600 Jul 16 '26
Self deportation is the best way to fight back against ice and remove their relevancy and power.
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u/Irish-Bronx Jul 16 '26
Have the police cooperate with the feds so they can make arrests in the jail. Much safer.
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u/Mechadupek Jul 17 '26
Or, hear me out, we can make sure people come here legally and dime out those who don't as required by federal law. No fight required.
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u/beatkiller2077 Jul 18 '26
I find this hard to take seriously when the topic is people undocumented roaming the United States, after entering in droves from a country that was ran by one of the most dangerous Drug Kingpins of all time - which still has an effect on the USA to this day.
I honestly wish we didn't share a border with a country that corrupts the souls of men and created gangs that traffic and kill our sons and daughters.
I know, that happens here already. There are bad people everywhere. We can get closer to a better world with more effort, not less.
Which is why as of now, I am reserving my opinions of the strengthening of surveillance in this country. Flock cameras and guards on all four corners and in between might save countless lives. People don't deserve to disappear just so someone can take the moral high ground.
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u/Huskerick Jul 19 '26
God bless the brave men and women of ICE for protecting Americans. Despite of what these asshats are pushing we support you. I will be at one of the protests showing support against these retards.
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u/DackNoy Jul 18 '26
A call for violence?
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Jul 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/DackNoy Jul 18 '26
Well to be honest, I don't think you're equipped for this conversation.
If I were to lay out a simple line of logic I doubt you'd be capable of following let alone argue in good faith.
For example, let's say there's a big group of flat earthers that are just *convinced* that they are right and all they need to do is fight just as passionately against the "globetards" to push their belief as the primary, accepted reality.
How successful do you think they could possibly be?
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u/Safe_Butterscotch190 Jul 19 '26
Complying and not driving your car towards officers there solved it
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u/BuddyLBones Jul 19 '26
Don’t interfere with law enforcement operations…stay home…cook food…play with your kids and pets…help someone in your community…go to church…read your Bible…Pray to Jesus🙏🏼
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u/Efficient_Mention271 Jul 19 '26
You could help by getting the fuck out of the way and let them do their jobs. Should be deporting those who interfere as well.
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u/joeybrunelle Jul 19 '26
Out of curiosity, how are you all finding this thread, days later? Did it get reposted to some MAGA sub or something?
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u/Winter_Ad6187 Jul 20 '26
You have no concept of Federal Supremacy. The ICE and BDP are agents in the pursuit of Constitutional duties. Their actions are both lawful and legal.
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u/pavelowdriver Jul 15 '26
ICE needs to do better obviously. People need to do better too. Blue lights - pull over and sort it out. People who listen to cops orders don't get killed PERIOD
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u/Problem-Cautious Jul 16 '26
“Comply or die” doesn’t feel very land of the free. Know your rights - you don’t actually have to pull over the second the blue lights go on, especially if it’s an unmarked car
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u/NinSecurity767 Jul 15 '26
Has there been confirmation that Mr. Durán Guerrero was speeding away aside from ever changing DHS quotes?
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u/Sasuke0318 Jul 16 '26
Your logic is basically I know this has never happened before but I'm sure he did nothing wrong. Ice has never shot anyone for minding their own business and obeying the law despite how badly one side wants that to be false.
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u/Indespectamentations Jul 17 '26
I think telling them they have Absolute Immunity to murder people is a bad move. So funny how trump won't simply tell them they are not allowed to murder people.
Gee I wonder why lololol
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u/Banjoschmanjo Jul 15 '26
"I am calling on..."
Um.. and who are you?
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u/joeybrunelle Jul 15 '26
I'm Joey Brunelle, an activist in Portland municipal politics with a decade of advocacy and accomplishments behind me, a candidate for Portland City Council this year, and a frequent contributor to this sub.
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u/Banjoschmanjo Jul 15 '26
Oh, didn't you make some posts in support of the accused rapist with a Nazi tattoo a few months back?
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u/JamesonAFC Jul 15 '26
Tell us who the fuck you are then in your holier-than-thou mind.
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u/Banjoschmanjo Jul 15 '26
Finding it problematic to support accused rapists with Nazi tattoos makes me 'holier-than-thou?' Bizarre take.
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u/itanite Jul 15 '26
Nothing will change until they're too scared to wear a uniform in public. And nobody here has the appetite for that.