It says everything about the Little Dictator’s war on brown people that ICE began its June 6 raids in Los Angeles at a Home Depot.
Just the place to find rapists, murderers and gang-bangers: Aisle 12 – between the yard trimmers and fertilizer spreaders.
Safe we are, therefore, from workers who that day were arming themselves to labor on Los Angelinos’ lawns or rebuild its fire-ravaged neighborhoods. Thank you, ICE.
Yes. Armed. Did you hear that? Rakes. Hoes. Weed B-Gone.
Chasing workers across a strawberry field. Who is shocked that crowds came out to protest this?
Incited by a president who dreams of using lethal force against those who speak ill of him, this was the “insurrection” concocted in the fantasy minds of the Little Dictator and his racist incitement force.
From that lie he illegally co-opted the National Guard, then sent a detachment of Marines to do what Marines are not trained to do: be in the faces of the people they are sworn to protect.
These are tactics about which the Little Dictator’s first secretary of defense and first chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, “Don’t.” No more voices of reason around this man, you can be certain. He made sure of that when he picked his Cabinet.
So he and his right-wing fantasists built a ruse, a pre-fab crisis.
Several scholars contacted by The New York Times denounced his habitual declarations of what one called “utterly bogus” emergencies to amass power.
An “invasion” by Venezuela! A “caravan” teaming with murderers and drug dealers!
The exaggerator-in-chief says, um, let’s see — uncontrolled fentanyl! — justifies sending the global economy spinning with tariffs that a federal judge ruled illegal.
The administration is prepared to plead in court that an “invasion” by immigrants is justification to ignore the Constitution on birthright citizenship.
Federal Judge Charles Breyer called the Little Dictator’s definition of a “rebellion” in L.A. a sculpture in Silly Putty.
“That’s the difference between a constitutional government and King George,” wrote Breyer. “It’s not that a leader can simply say something and then it becomes it.” Not in America, Sir. It’s called checks and balances.
Not fair, say Republican foot servants of the dime-store tyrant. If he can’t mislead his people, what is a puny potentate to do?
California Attorney General Rob Bonta blasted the administration for “an inflammatory escalation that only further spurred unrest.”
Well, of course. That was the point. As Gov. Gavin Newsom said, the Little Dictator “chose theatrics over public safety,” in the process, bypassing the elected representatives of 40 million people.
The Little Dictator needs to get his definitions straight. A group of thugs who break into and ransack the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power is a “peaceable gathering.” A group of largely peaceable protesters expressing protected speech over ICE’s crackdown are an “insurrection.”
If in fact a tiny number of those protesters vandalized property and menaced law enforcement, what of the hundreds of Jan. 6 terrorists who did the same and were pardoned by this president?
What of the president who in that very situation — the Jan. 6 rioters seeking to hang his vice president — sat in his dining room and did nothing?
The L.A. cops were doing their jobs, according to any account that doesn’t come from “news” programs that are the Little Dictator’s preferred viewing.
“The president is extremely concerned about the safety of federal officers in L.A. right now,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley.
Oh, yes: concerned for officers in Darth Vader gear, tear-gas canisters on their hips, the better to tackle unarmed individuals rolling bags of mulch and weed-and-feed to rickety pickup trucks in their orange shopping carts.
Instead of focusing on actual threats to society, decried Gov. Newsom, these agents were “indiscriminately targeting hard working immigrant families, regardless of their roots or risk.”
No risk? That man had a garden hose!
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com
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