We were in South Philly, discussing the state of the nation over lunch from a local pretzel factory. “Did you see this? ” I said, showing Swamp Rabbit a passage from historian Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century:
When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of the leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and official police and military intermingle, the end has come.
Granules of salt fell to the floor of my scruffy neighbor’s porch as he finished eating his second soft pretzel. I noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents don’t march with torches or carry pictures of Dear Leader, but they definitely belong to a paramilitary — an official paramilitary — and are intermingling more and more often with police departments around the country.
“You’d better wake up, Swamp Rabbit. Fascism is on the march, and its footfalls grow louder every day.”
He chewed then drank from a can of beer. “That’s very poetic, Odd Man, but I’m gonna take a nap when I finish these pretzels. I had to run a long way after I swiped ’em.”
I told him about the U.S. citizen in California who was shot and wounded recently by an ICE agent after he cautioned the agents that children were in the area. And the Venezuelan in Texas shot by ICE and sent to a detention center with a bullet in his back. And the undocumented immigrant in New York City who was shot and wounded by ICE while driving with his 5-year-old son.
In fact, it’s a rare day that passes without news of arrests and assaults by ICE, a federal agency with a mandate to make life miserable for immigrants, foreigners here on visas, U.S. citizens — virtually anyone with dark skin or a Spanish-sounding surname.
Unfortunately, many law enforcement agencies are turning a blind eye to ICE misconduct, or openly coordinating activities with ICE agents, either because they agree with their tactics or because they fear opposition to them will result in retaliation from the Trump administration.
To help increase arrests, the administration is offering big incentives to law enforcement agencies that play ball with ICE. (How would you like some shiny new patrol cars, Chief?)
In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is walking a tightrope by trying to show support for popular opposition to ICE — he has called the agency “rotten to its core” — without totally alienating the New York City Police Department City, which is allegedly cooperating with ICE goons as they do their dirty work.
“This is what Snyder was getting at,” I said. “Officeholders and cops and citizens who don’t oppose paramilitary misconduct help normalize fascist behavior. The next thing you know, the Gestapo is running the show.”
Swamp Rabbit yawned. “What can we do about it, start a civil war? You better take a nap, Odd Man.”
Footnote: One thing we can do is vote out of office on Nov. 3 all the politicians — the vast majority are Trumpers, of course — who approve of or condone deportation of law-abiding immigrants.
