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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   19146 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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When I wrote that, I was thinking specifically about the Mexican-American teenager who was working at Target when ICE or CBP tackled him and dragged him out of the store in cuffs. Evidently he was repeatedly shouting that he was an American citizen. They ignored that, threw him in a van and drove off. They quickly figured out that he was in fact a citizen, but not before they beat the shit out of him and dumped him bleeding and crying in a Walmart parking lot a mile from where they picked him up. Evidently the person who found him posted a video of the boy shivering and weeping in the parking lot. I did not see that video, but I did see a clip from the video where he was led from the store.

You can find a clip of the arrest. It seems to be a fairly professional arrest. No clip of any beating. No clip of him bleeding in a Walmart parking lot a mile away (or 8 miles away, as that tweet claims). The same clip shows SOMEONE crying later who might be the same guy, it's not clear where, and the clip avoids showing his face clearly, and doesn't show bleeding either. You can find another clip showing why he was arrested, though; the ICE agent was entering the store and Garcia ran in and tried to physically prevent him. He wasn't arrested because he was brown or because they thought he was an illegal alien; he was arrested because he deliberately interfered with their work.

There's tons of stuff like this -- atrocity stories where the key events are not actually backed up by the videos.

the key events are not actually backed up by the videos

I agree with this. I'm typically good at not jumping to obvious conclusions on just one data point. The world is complex and messy and no less so in the realm of law enforcement. But I'm still of the impression that the administration wants all of us to believe they are acting in an untethered way. Why that might be, I don't know, but claims that's it's an excellent way of distracting some of us from what we'd otherwise be concerned about seem plausible. And the remainder of us are the ones posting "this is exactly what I voted for" on Xitter.

But I'm still of the impression that the administration wants all of us to believe they are acting in an untethered way.

Someone wants you to believe that. It's not the administration. It's the people posting (and in some cases staging) these videos. It's the people making up atrocity stories.

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