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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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I think this context adds some ambiguity.

It also speaks to the character of the protesters in general, especially the ones who interfere with ICE directly like our two casualties.

you have as much of a right to self-defense against Mother Theresa as you have against Hitler

He interfered with ICE arresting someone else. There's no self-defense for him to appeal to. He could have simply done nothing and be alive today. It was his choice to involve himself in an arrest that set in motion the events that lead to his death.

any right to performing summary executions

If you fight cops while armed, then you risk being shot. This is not a summary execution, because it wasn't an execution at all. He wasn't dragged up and shot in the head. He wasn't put against a wall. He wasn't accused of anything, because calling this an execution is disingenuous and hysterical.

He fought cops and died in the fight. That's not an execution, it's poor judgement.

He interfered with ICE arresting someone else. There's no self-defense for him to appeal to. He could have simply done nothing and be alive today. It was his choice to involve himself in an arrest that set in motion the events that lead to his death.

The putative self-defense argument is for ICE, not him. There is no law that says police can just shoot you if you annoy or obstruct them; either they justify their choice to kill him by arguing that he was an active threat to their safety and they acted in self-defense, or this was a summary execution (definitionally, because it was not preemptively sanctioned by the legal system).

summary execution

If an execution is to be characterized as summary, isn't it necessary that the execution be carried out specifically because of an (illegal) act? No one in this thread knows with 100% confidence why the ICE guys shot him, though a reasonable guess IMO is because they were scared shitless by the presence of a gun. "Because he was a criminal agitator engaging in criminal agitation" is the least likely reason, in my view.