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Failing to plan is planning to fail!!! -
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.... while evreybody tries to outdo themselves with clever comebacks, we should focus on how utterly abnormal in recent US history it is for armed National Guard troops and military vehicles to be patolling the steets of DC., the nation's capitol.
How does this align with the values of democracy?
Plus FBI + CIA + ICE agents patrolling the street, wearing masks and not showing or verbalizing their identity, snatching people off the street while being videoed by nearby citizens.
Giant posters of Trump hanging from tall buildings.
The crashing DC tourism economy. Washington is looking more like Pyongyang, North Korea every day.
How is any of this normal in a democracy?
Who pays for all this excessive military/law enforcement presence in DC?
Are the reassigned law enforcement personnel not available to prosecute their current case files.?Comment
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I knew this had to happen:
‘It’s a real mess’: DC courts buckling as Trump’s crime crackdown brings deluge of new cases
President Donald Trump’s plan to combat crime in Washington, DC, with more federal force has led to a deluge of cases flooding already maxed-out courts in the city.
The DC US attorney’s office, led by former Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro, has encouraged its prosecutors to bring more cases to federal court with the most serious charges they can pursue. Defense attorneys across the city believe weaker cases are now being brought into the system as smaller infractions are bumped up to more serious charges.
Prosecutors in Washington have also been instructed to push for more people to remain behind bars before their case is heard in court – despite a longstanding approach of courts keeping people accused of non-violent or petty crimes out of jail unless they’re convicted.
Overall, Trump’s federal takeover of DC law enforcement is straining the city’s jail, federal court and its local Superior Court, which is already down 13 judges – vacancies the president is in charge of filling because of Washington’s status as the seat of the federal government.
In a detention hearing at federal court on Tuesday, magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui addressed the surge of prosecutions. Faruqui admonished the Department of Corrections for keeping a woman locked up for nearly 24 hours despite his order releasing her, and has noted how the Trump-backed crackdown is exacerbating existing issues with the DC jail.
“The systems in place are not keeping up with the volume coming in,” Faruqui said in a different hearing Tuesday.
Failures to indict
The increase in cases has also positioned the DC US attorney’s office for moments of potential failure as both judges and juries closely scrutinize charges.
In one case this month – related to an FBI agent and an immigration officer allegedly scrapping with a detainee – prosecutors failed to secure an indictment from the grand jury three times, a highly unusual outcome.
“The burden is on us to prove these cases,” Pirro said when asked about the case at a press conference this week. “Sometimes a jury will buy it and sometimes they won’t. So be it,” Pirro said. “That’s the way the process works.”
Pirro’s team has also reportedly failed to secure an indictment in what has become a notorious case of a DC resident throwing a sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer, according to the Associated Press.
The alleged sandwich-assaulter, Sean Dunn, had been charged by criminal complaint with a felony assault, and prosecutors hoped the grand jury would greenlight an indictment so the case could proceed with the felony. Pirro’s office can try again in the coming days, despite the initial rebuke from the DC residents on the grand jury.
Higher rates of detention
Another case from the first week of the Trump administration’s crime crackdown highlights how DC’s federal prosecutors are seeking to detain defendants in circumstances they may not have before.
A man arrested in connection with damaging a light fixture at a restaurant is now facing felony charges for allegedly threatening to kill Trump. And after the Justice Department argued this week to keep him behind bars pending trial, a federal magistrate judge said the prosecutors failed to demonstrate how the man could be a threat to the community.
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Chicago Teamsters, backed by mayor, want ICE blocked without warrants in strike fight
Mayor Brandon Johnson reportedly backed the move, calling Trump a 'dictator'
A Chicago Teamsters local is demanding a packaging company refuse to allow federal immigration enforcement on its property without warrants as a top tenet of its overall demands.
The workers are seeking assurances from Mauser Packaging Solutions that it will require ICE to display a warrant signed by a judge before it is allowed on the property.
The strike at Mauser's plant in the heavily Hispanic "Little Village" neighborhood has lasted more than two months, and the Teamsters Local 705 negotiator recently refused the factory’s latest offer, according to multiple reports.
About 140 people work at the plant, which reconditions metal barrels for chemical storage, and a plurality are Latino, according to the American Prospect.
One striking worker told the outlet that he and others are concerned that ICE may target them on a racial basis even if they are able to prove legal residency.
The Prospect reported the strike began over a separate issue — allegations of employee surveillance during discussions with union representatives amid contract bargaining.
The Illinois-based global company’s striking workers also collected a big-name voice in their court during that time: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Johnson, a former teachers' union figure, is familiar with similar situations and also agreed with the union's aversion to federal law enforcement.
"This union and this strike is leading the way to ensure that this country knows that workers run this country," Johnson said while rallying with strikers earlier this month.
He said Mauser’s workers have the right to seek livable wages and environs "at a time in which we have a federal government coming after workers, immigrants, Brown and Black people," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Johnson demanded workers get protections to ensure "ICE agents do not get to run amok [or] create fear and come in and disrupt and destabilize our communities and workplaces, whether you are at work, school, church or the barbershop."
He noted that Chicago is a "welcoming city," a term increasing in popularity among Democratic leaders due to the political stigma now associated with "sanctuary cities."
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It was live on TV. Trumpy said it out loud. It has nothing to do with a source. Except for the fact that you consume sources that only divulge information that makes trumpy look good. The problem with that strategy is, it's getting more and more difficult finding information that makes trumpy look good. His mind is gone, his health isn't very good and his policies are very unpopular.Comment
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Inside ICE, Trump's migrant crackdown is taking a toll on officers- Summary
- ICE officers face burnout, frustration amid Trump's aggressive enforcement
- Public outrage grows over ICE's arrest tactics
- ICE launches recruitment drive to hire 10,000 officers
WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Under President Donald Trump, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has become the driving force of his sweeping crackdown on migrants, bolstered by record funding and new latitude to conduct raids, but staff are contending with long hours and growing public outrage over the arrests.
Those internal pressures are taking a toll. Two current and nine former ICE officials told Reuters the agency is grappling with burnout and frustration among personnel as agents struggle to keep pace with the administration’s aggressive enforcement agenda.
The agency has launched a recruitment drive to relieve the stress by hiring thousands of new officers as quickly as possible, but that process will likely take months or years to play out.
All of those interviewed by Reuters backed immigration enforcement in principle. But they criticized the Trump administration's push for high daily arrest quotas that have led to the detention of thousands of individuals with no criminal record, as well as long-term green card holders, others with legal visas, and even some U.S. citizens.
Most of the current and former ICE officials requested anonymity due to concerns about retaliation against themselves or former colleagues.
Americans have been inundated with images on social media of often masked agents in tactical gear handcuffing people on neighborhood streets, at worksites, outside schools, churches, and courthouses, and in their driveways. Videos of some arrests have gone viral, fueling public anger over the tactics.
Under Trump, average daily arrests by the 21,000-strong agency have soared, up over 250% in June compared to a year earlier, although daily arrest rates dropped in July.
Trump has said he wants to deport "the worst of the worst," but ICE figures show a rise in non-criminals being picked up.
ICE arrests of people with no other charges or convictions beyond immigration violations during Trump's first six months in office rose to 221 people per day, from 80 people per day during the same period under former President Joe Biden last year, according to agency data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
.... a breakdown in the court system and now a breakdown within ICE. Trump's deportation program will likely soon collapse.Comment
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Experts estimate National Guard deployment in DC is costing roughly $1 million a day
The ongoing National Guard mission in Washington, DC, as part of President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the city, is costing roughly $1 million a day, experts estimated to CNN.
Kate Kuzminski, director of studies at the Center for New American Security, told CNN that rough calculations show the mission is likely costing more than $1 million a day, when taking into account the pay for more than 2,200 National Guard troops deployed, housing, travel, food, fuel, and other logistical needs. That estimate is drawn from costs from the 2020 mobilization of roughly 5,000 National Guardsmen to DC, which was estimated to cost more than $2 million a day.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who previously served as the chief of force structure and investment division at the Office of Management and Budget, also told CNN the estimated cost comes to roughly $1 million a day. Those estimates don’t include the costs from other federal law enforcement agencies involved in the mission.
The Pentagon and National Guard did not provide cost estimates for the mission, despite having been able to do so for a similar mission just two months ago.
“We won’t know the total cost until the mission concludes,” a defense official told CNN on Wednesday. The official referred CNN to the White House after follow-up questions about the daily $1 million estimate. Questions to the National Guard about the cost of the mission were referred to the Pentagon.
The Intercept was first to report the level of estimate on the cost of the National Guard mission.
It’s not unusual to not have a firm idea of the final price tag for a mission like the one ongoing in DC, as logistical needs can adjust over time, and it remains unclear if service members’ orders will be extended or not. But multiple US officials who spoke to CNN said the reluctance to provide a number is also due to the involvement of senior levels of the Pentagon and the White House in the mission, and a tight grasp on the flow of information about it.
Two US officials told CNN there was likely a rough estimate available for the DC mission, or one being calculated, but that only the most senior levels had permission to speak about it due to the political nature of the mission and the White House’s involvement. Communication about the cost, one of the officials said, is typically approved at much lower levels than the current mission. Because the mission is being funded federally, one of the officials said, the money is coming from the departments of the Army and the Air Force.
“We know that funding is made available, we just don’t know the estimate or who’s approving it or how much is available,” the second US official said, adding that “everybody wants to have their hands in” communication surrounding the mission due to the White House’s interest in it.
A third US official said it’s likely a mixture of both — that a cost estimate is generally still being calculated, but that until senior levels of the Pentagon or White House determine they want to release that information, it won’t be shared.
Still, the Pentagon was able to give a cost estimate for the LA mission in June just three days after roughly 4,000 Guardsmen were mobilized to assist law enforcement.
“The current estimated cost is $134 million which is largely just (temporary duty) cost, travel, housing, food, etc.,” Bryn MacDonnell, a special assistant to the secretary of defense and official performing the duties of the under secretary of defense, told Congress on June 10. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum mobilizing the first batch of 2,000 Guardsmen on June 7.
As of Tuesday morning, there were 2,254 National Guard troops in DC — more than 1,300 of them from the six states who sent personnel to support the DC National Guard. While some troops are stationed through the city at metro stations and monuments or memorials, soldiers and airmen have also begun helping with “beautification projects,” doing things like picking up trash, replanting grass, and spreading mulch.
In addition to the service members’ pay during the mission while they are on orders, the total cost of the mission also includes basic logistical needs like hotel rooms for out-of-state troops, food and water, fuel for vehicles, laundry service, and more.
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Is SSG actually pretending to give a fuck about ICE agents?Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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