Halloween for cowards

Masked and ready for wilding

Here are two things that definitely don’t belong together: guns and masks.

You know who wears a mask and uses a gun? Bank robbers and kidnappers and rapists. They don’t want to be identified because they are committing crimes. If their actions are seen by witnesses or recorded by security cameras, their faces are evidence, not only of their identity, but of their crimes.

Why do ICE and Border Patrol agents want to conceal their identities? We’re told that it’s because they don’t want to be doxxed. It’s said that if their faces are visible, they can be identified, and they could be harassed online or physically attacked. But that is complete and utter bullshit. Ordinary citizens don’t have access to facial recognition technology, so even if their faces were visible, ICE agents would be unlikely to be identified.

Local police officers who work in the same cities as ICE agents aren’t masked. In fact, not only are their faces visible, but they also wear badges showing their names and police ID numbers. In fact, most states require police officers to give their identities and badge numbers verbally if asked. National Guard soldiers who have been federally mobilized and assigned over the past year to patrol the streets in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Portland, and Chicago have not worn masks, and they have name tags on their uniforms.

So, the cops and the soldiers aren’t afraid of showing their faces and wearing badges with their names. What’s going on with ICE and Border Patrol?

It’s all macho nonsense, intimidation, and the coverup of crimes and violations of law enforcement as they carry out arrests of immigrants and even citizens who have been swept up in their tactics of terror.

They’re cowards, and their leaders are protecting them by indulging their fear of being identified. Cops and soldiers aren’t afraid of being identified as they go about their assignments on the streets of American cities. Wearing name tags and other identifying insignia that might subject them to harassment from the public goes with the territory. They are not secret agents. They are public officials paid by the taxpayers to carry out legitimate duties that include protecting the public from criminals, ensuring that drivers of automobiles follow the law and do not endanger the public by speeding or driving recklessly, and assisting people who are in distress from medical emergencies or who have suffered accidents.

They’re proud of what they do. They’re proud of their uniforms, which by custom and law make them identifiable to the public they serve. The military issues face coverings such as balaclavas to soldiers to be worn in extreme temperatures for warmth or at night to camouflage exposed skin that would be visible to the enemy using night vision devices. Even when they are captured, soldiers are told that they can reveal their name, rank, and serial number.

What are the names and ranks and serial numbers of the ICE and Border Patrol agents who have been wilding through the streets of Minneapolis and other cities? We don’t know. A Republican congressman appeared on CNBC recently and answered the question of why ICE agents are masked and don’t wear identifying badges this way: “They’re known, obviously, to their supervisors,” he replied, apparently expecting that his answer would make sense to someone. But it doesn’t matter if supervisors of ICE and Border Patrol agents know the identities of the agents under them, because the supervisors are not identified, either.

This country has never had a uniformed secret police force in its history. The idea of masked and unidentified law enforcement agents was manufactured by Trump administration officials such as Stephen Miller to terrorize not only the immigrants they are tasked with finding and arresting, but the population of citizens in the cities where their sweeps are being carried out. It isn’t likely that if their identities are known, they would be liable to charges of violating the law, because the Trump Department of Justice would never bring charges against them. What they’re afraid of is being sued for violating people’s civil rights.

Well, cops who break the law or violate police procedure are sued every day. They know when they sign up to be police officers that they are civilly liable for their actions.

What masks and anonymity do for ICE and Border Patrol agents is to put them beyond the reach of the law and the courts. Masks and the absence of identifying badges and name tags are violations of the Constitution’s provisions against unreasonable searches and seizures and guarantee of the protections of due process of law.

ICE needs to be abolished, but short of that, Democrats should stand by their demands that ICE and Border Patrol agents must be banned from wearing masks and must wear badges with their names and identifying numbers. If they want to enforce the law, they must first abide by the law.