This is getting old. ICE should never have shot and killed Renee Good, let alone this one today. ICE should have learned after the first two to cut it out, keep people with guns away, and tell the newbies to keep their fingers off the damn gun. Buuuuuuut they didn’t. And so, someone else died who shouldn’t have. We can almost bet that Americans won’t hear any more about ICE killing someone. This is something that should come back at least every week to remind us every damn day that it has happened *again*. What a wonderful country we have! With gratitude to Raw Story:
ICE agents killed a person in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday morning, then quickly surrounded the body while state and federal investigators rushed to the scene. Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-ME), who represents Biddeford, confirmed the killing in a Facebook post. State Police and the Department of Public Safety were at the scene. Fecteau said he expects the FBI to take over the investigation. A neighbor told WGME she was woken around 8 a.m. by gunshots, then noticed a heavy law enforcement presence outside. The identity of the person killed has not been released.
Now, doesn’t that give you warm, fuzzy feelings of confidence? ….. yea, neither. ICE killed someone else; We can expect that the news will get out to the people of the town, but no more than that. The rest of us will just have to wonder exactly what happened with the “I dunno. Yay.” It seems that all of us are pulled into the electronic age, so we aren’t as linked to the “real world” anymore. We can’t say that’s a good thing. Noticing what’s around outside the house is a good thing because, well, you never know.
ICE has a recent history in Biddeford specifically. Earlier this year, the agency flooded Maine with agents under “Operation Catch of the Day,” a mass enforcement sweep. Of nearly 200 people detained statewide, only 11 had criminal convictions, the BDN reported. The Trump administration had claimed it was targeting the “worst of the worst.” The killing is at least the 11th fatal shooting involving ICE or Border Patrol agents since Trump took office, the Bangor Daily News reported. Earlier this month, ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Araujo, 52, a Houston construction worker, sparking mass protests, the BDN reported.
We knew ICE was going into Maine after the debacles in Chicago and Minneapolis. It’s as if ICE went undercover after those two “operations”. At least we got rid of Bovino after the huge messes that he led. Wow, was it good to see the last of him! He was a very poor leader for ICE in Chicago and Minnesota. My goodness gracious, he was horrible. The only thing he was good for was to make fun of him. There was a good chance of him screwing up every damm day. So that was actually the only good thing about him. Do you remember him trying to throw smoke, and it took him 4 or 5 tries to actually to do so? Good grief. Then they forced him into retirement (I first typed forge him into retiring, which is a lot funnier).
Fecteau had blasted the ICE operation as “warrantless, indiscriminate, and quota-driven detentions.” ICE officially announced it had ended the Maine operation in late January, after Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Agents remained in the state. “While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine,” said Collins. “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.”
“The standard now appears to be broad, aggressive detentions and removals that do not distinguish between people who are here lawfully and people who are awaiting decisions on pending cases or have another valid status,” she said.
BOOM! There we go!! Someone finally said the quiet part out loud. The standard appears to be broad. No wonder there’s trouble! But they are so driven by Stephen Miller that they don’t have time to think; they just “do”. We knew the problems from Miller’s stupid quotas would come back to bite someone, and don’t we wish it were actually him? Ahhhhh, wouldn’t that be wonderful? But then, Stephen Miller doesn’t seem like someone who would deal well with massive quantities of people. ICE, ICE, baby. So ICE continues to fumble around and kill people. 99% of them are worthless. This whole “grab ‘n’ go” is worthless. And the Trump ‘maladministration’ continues to screw up in a major, major fashion. There are better ways to do this, not that I want to have thousands of people roughed up by Ice. But there has to be a better way. If only I (we) could think of it.
See you later!
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
