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Yes, and people could also choose not to drive around in masks, tactical gear, and unmarked cars to intimidate people in a city that the president perceives as inhabited by his enemies. As I say in the last paragraph, your view of this will depend on who you think is acting morally in this situation.
I agree.
Did you watch the same video I did? She was not, as seen by the fact that a car passes during the video, and she tries to wave the ICE truck by. She is blocking one lane of a two-lane one-way street, which would certainly warrant action from a real cop but does not seem to be any business of ICE's. I have no idea what happened earlier (do we have any evidence anything did?), but it was not "all day" as the shooting happened at 9:30 am, and she had already dropped her kid off at school.
This is a long and roundabout way of saying "enforce immigration law," which is not only legal, but is literally the thing that the current president promised to do before he was elected in a landslide. If it's your honest belief that the government has no business enforcing its own laws immediately following an election in which the populace voted overwhelmingly for the government to do more enforcement of those very laws, I'm really not sure what you think the point of democracy is.
She is not a police officer and has no authority to direct traffic, and the convoy has no obligation to trust that she will allow them all to pass without, for example, obstructing just the back half of the convoy to split the convoy in half. If you do not understand why giving a hostile bystander the opportunity to split your convoy in half is bad tactics, you do not have sufficient insight to converse meaningfully on this issue.
My original post was to analyse the immediate events leading to the shooting. I'm not super interested in arguing about which side is more at fault for this kind of tense situation happening in the first place, I was just pointing out that there is possible and reasonable disagreement with your characterisation that it is her fault.
Sounds like you agree then that she was not barricading the road, merely that she could decide to barricade the road.
To be frank, this is Minneapolis, not Afghanistan. Despite what Trump et al. would have you believe, left-wing protestors are not generally violent agitators just waiting for an opportunity to murder federal officials. Even if they decide against all reasonable evidence that they can't just drive by safely, there are many options that do not involve immediately saying "get out of the fucking car" and then trying to tear the door open.
A person manning a barricade can decide to allow passage through the barricade without it ceasing to be a barricade. Please do not argue semantics.
The idea that the police force that is currently being protested by the person who has parked her car across the road, in the context of a nationwide spree of activists using their cars to disrupt ICE operations, can reasonably expect that she intends to behave cooperatively as they pass, is absurd. They absolutely should not expect that she intends to cooperate in their passage.
True, but they do have the explicitly stated goal of obstructing and interfering with law enforcement operations. There have been numerous car ramming attacks by left wing activists all over the country. It's pretty reasonable to treat the left wing activist sitting in her car sideways in the road in front of you as very likely intending to add to that number.
Police are under no obligation, legal or otherwise, to be nice to lawbreakers. Being treated unkindly by the police is a completely predictable consequence of breaking the law, and if you want them to treat you kindly you can simply not do that.
I don't think I'm arguing semantics, I don't see any indication that she ever made any attempt to prevent anybody from driving down the street, which is the core definition of a barricade.
I think this is the crux of our disagreement, I think this is an insane thing to believe. I'm not sure there's much else for us to discuss after that.
So after a year in which there have been 66 vehicle ramming attacks against ICE agents, you don't think it's reasonable to believe that the hostile activist who has been following you around all morning and is now parked sideways across the street in front of you, is more likely than not to be intending to use their vehicle to disrupt your convoy?
Exactly what is it reasonable to believe about the intentions of the hostile activist who has been following you around all morning and has now parked her car sideways across the street in front of you?
Let me lay it out more clearly.
You are an ICE agent. You are in a city whose governor and mayor have stirred up resentment against your lawful activities, in which activists have been organizing to oppose you.
A woman and her wife have been following you all morning, antagonizing you as you go about your work.
Later, as you drive down a street, you come across these women, with their car parked sideways across the street. You recognize them as people you have been having hostile interactions with all morning.
There have been 66 vehicle ramming attacks against ice agents in the past year.
Given the facts above, what is it reasonable for you to believe in this moment?
I do not believe it is possible for someone whose brain has not been swiss-cheesed by ideological capture to answer "actually I think it's most likely that she has totally legal reasons to be doing that which have nothing to do with me." If that's your answer you are an NPC, you have no theory of mind or independent opinions of your own.
I would be surprised if a single one of those attacks was committed by a protestor who was not actively being arrested. And given how much federal officials have lied about the circumstances of this incident, and even more flagrant lies about things such as why innocent people were sent to a foreign torture prison, I put very little stock in those numbers. Presumably the ICE agents believe them though.
Ah yes, the classic method of productive conversation, where you put words in someone's mouth and then call them names based on the opinions you made up for them. Surely you understand that the only two options are not "they are just there by coincidence" and "they are waiting to murder you"?
The couple were obviously there to document, protest and/or obstruct ICE activities. But I maintain that nobody would have been hurt if the agent had made the slightest attempt to act like a responsible authority figure and deescalate the situation, or if he had given her a chance to follow his orders in order to arrest her.
Sure, the option that I would believe in that situation would be "they are there for the purpose of committing the crime of obstructing law enforcement," and I would approach the situation with that in mind, and you admit this:
Notably, obstruction being a federal crime which, being federal law enforcement, they have the authority to make arrests for.
I really don't know how to get through to you the very simple fact that law enforcement has zero obligation to be kind to lawbreakers, and in fact, being unkind to lawbreakers is their explicit role in society, and if you do not wish law enforcement to be unkind to you, it is very easy to not commit crimes. How have you managed to reach adulthood without understanding this?
She did have an opportunity to follow orders and comply peacefully with her arrest. She used that opportunity to shift her car into drive and accelerate into a police officer. Did you watch the video?
Look, I am well aware that from your perspective her actions leading up to this video are illegitimate, and thus she ultimately bears responsibility for what happened. I obviously disagree but I am not trying to convince you otherwise, not are you likely going to convince me otherwise.
But what I am talking about is the few seconds we see in this video where it goes from angry to violent, and it seems pretty clear to me that that happened when the agent started swearing at her and trying to open her car door. I think this behaviour is counter-productive for any reasonable goal, including that of trying to apprehend illegal immigrants, and indicates someone that does not have the appropriate temperament to be in law enforcement.
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