See the crap they're pulling in Chicago, it's frightening; but no one will pay attention

[D. Spaulding]

because the Media have decided the shutdown will be the topic of the day, and everyday;

"Just hours after President Donald Trump said U.S. soldiers should use America's cities as “training grounds,” federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday night descended upon an apartment complex in Chicago where witnesses say they broke down residents’ doors, smashed furniture and belongings, and dragged dozens of them — including children — into U-Haul vans.

Local resident Rodrick Johnson, who lives in the building raided by Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) agents, told the Chicago Sun-Times that federal officials broke down his door, put him in zip ties, and kept him detained outside the building for three hours before letting him go.

https://www.rawstory.com/it-was-heartbreaking-naked-zip-tied-children-dragged-from-homes-in-surreal-ice-raid/

“I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, and they said I had to wait until they looked me up,” he told the paper. “I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.”

Pertissue Fisher, who also lives in the building, backed up Johnson’s account and said that agents forcibly removed all residents from their homes regardless of their legal status.

“They just treated us like we were nothing,” she told local news station ABC 7 Chicago. “They, like, piling us all up in the back on the other side, and it wasn’t no room to move nowhere.”

Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street from the raided building, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she saw children, some of whom weren’t even wearing clothes, dragged out of the building by ICE agents and then placed into U-Haul vans."

[Bev54]

1. I wonder if any of them asked to see their warrants?

[live love laugh]

2. "I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one."

[intheflow]

4. Maybe read the post you're responding to?

It's unedited as I type this and it clearly states one of the Americans rounded up asked for a warrant and a lawyer.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Wouldn't have helped. ICE (FBI was present) were smashing and chainsawing doors. . . . . nt

[mopinko]

3. it's getting a lot of play in the media here.

and we’re a big media market. so i think it’s premature to say no 1 will pay attention.
jb pritzker has publicly called for ppl to get out their phones, and tape this crap. and we r.

[hunter]

6. Lot of media play in the foreign press as well...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2025/oct/02/how-chicago-is-resisting-donald-trumps-immigration-crackdown-video

[MiHale]

7. WE ARE AT WAR...with our own government.

[angrychair]

8. People did nothing

They just watched as they threw naked children into cargo carriers like farm animals.

People just watched.

People just watched.

We deserve everything that is happening to us.

We are cowards.
We are privileged.
We are feckless.
We are spineless.

[LyfeTimeDem]

26. what do you do against the U.S.

Army that repelled in from black hawk helicopters???

[Martin Eden]

49. Trump WANTS the people to physically attack ICE

Then he will bring in troops for an even more brutal crackdown. He WANTS this situation to escalate so he candeclare martial law, ultimately to take control of the 2026 midterms.

What would have happened to any neighbor watching this who tried to pull ICE agents off the residents being thrown into U-Haul vans? They would have heads cracked open and thrown into the van as well.

[Wuddles440]

53. Ok, so what's your suggestion...

for how citizens, who are either currently being abused, brutalized, detained, and incarcerated or will be in the future, should be expected to respond? We're only in the very early stages of their campaign against the "radical left terrorists", "antifa, "illegals", "trans", "democrats", and any one else who opposes their authoritarian rule, so any recommendations would be appreciated.

[Martin Eden]

56. MASSIVE peaceful protests, and contact our elected officials.

I've been to 8 so far, including No Kings June 14 downtown Chicago. The crowd that day was huge, but we need millions more to participate.

Of one thing I am absolutely certain:
Physical force and violence are not the answer.

Nonviolence was the successful strategy for MLK in the Civil Rights movement. Violence would have played right into the hands of the forces of repression then, and the same applies now.

Perhaps a better alert system can be organized to warn citizens on the approach of ICE terrorist thugs, and for citizens to converge on the scene PEACEFULLY.

My governor JB Pritzger has been stressing how vitally important it is to refrain from violence, and he is absolutely correct on that.

Violence and physical confrontation is what these fascists WANT and NEED to ramp up their use of force. Trump is itching to declare martial law leading up to the 2020 midterms.

[Wuddles440]

61. Although I'm increasingly pessimistic that such actions...

will generate the type of response necessary to deter this administration from its objective, I wish you the best with such an approach and pray that it will ultimately triumph over the dark forces which have descended upon us. Unfortunately, I believe that history demands a much more forceful and aggressive approach to combat their agenda as the civil rights movement existed in a much different political and media environment than now. Lessons learned from the geopolitical landscape of the world in the 1920's and 1930's are more relevant and offer eerie parallels to our present situation. Good luck to you and stay safe/frosty.

[Martin Eden]

62. I appreciate your respectful reply

My impulse is to hit the fascists, and hit them hard. Like the French resistance in WW2, ambush the bastards. But that's emotional, not logical.

One of the problems with a popular violent uprising is that Dictator Donald is popular with legions of voters, many of them heavily armed with some in organized "militias."

Neighbors killing neighbors. Divide and conquer, with mechanized government forces also arrayed against us. The fascist-in-chief who commands them has stated he WANTS war in American cities.

I think Hair Twitler and Kegs Breath did us a favor by making all the highest military brass sit through the incoherent rambling of a deranged draft dodger and the strutting stupidity of a Faux Noise host not qualified to dig their latrine.

Those generals and admirals may be conservative, but old school with a personal commitment to honor and fathfully adhering to their sworn oaths to the United States Constitution. My bet is the vast majority of them felt deep contempt for the two assclowns who harangued them and insulted some of their most highly respected former comrades.

What I'm getting at is making it easier for them to disobey unconstitutional orders. This requires protests to be peaceful. Once the violence starts escalating with rank & file soldiers being killed, an armed insurrection has begun and those orders are perhaps not so illegal.

In the long run, the fascists might very well be defeated in armed conflict. But how many dead -- including women & children? How much devastation to livelihoods and the economy? Once the shooting starts, preconceived notions are out the window.

Those post-apocalyptic books and movies could be closer to fact than fiction. We want the rule of law, voting & civil rights, healthcare, and the good things in life we enjoy.

This is not to say we should expect to win this struggle without considerably more effort from a much higher percentage of the citizenry being adversely affected by this fascist administration.

I just think our best strategy follows a non-violent course of action. At 68 I'm not worried about myself, but I do not want to sacrifice my life and the lives of others unwisely.

Peace,
Martin

[angrychair]

54. I know you mean well

But that is just not reality. There are many videos out there in which crowd surge has forced them to retreat.
Now these people were a little more geared up and was literally done in the middle of the night but it's not impossible.

I don't know what the answer is but we have to resist this insanity.

[Martin Eden]

55. You have not said what you would have done.

How would you have prevented the residents of that apartment building from being siezed?

Also:
Do you dispute Trump wants the violence to escalate so that he and his fascist cohorts in the Rethug Party and rightwing media can justify even more brutal crackdowns in US cities?

[angrychair]

57. What I would

Or would not do is irrelevant. But doing nothing while actual Nazis haul people away in the modern equivalent of a cattle car, no warrants, no proper police transport vehicles, just throwing them in the back of a U-Haul. Something that is not safe or legal and I would assume a violation of the lease terms from both U-Haul and Budget.

People are actively fighting back. Running them out of their neighborhoods. It's happening all the time.
What you seem to be saying is to just lay down and take it and let them do whatever they want and we are still, for now, a nation of laws and we still have rights and I'm going to do everything I can, within the bounds of the law, to resist.

[Martin Eden]

58. You cast aspersions on the neighbors for doing nothing

Yet refuse to say what you would have done in their place?

[angrychair]

59. I would have resisted

You haven't offered an alternative despite being asked multiple times.

[Martin Eden]

60. I spelled out the alternative in post #56

You say you would have "resisted." Please describe that, in terms of actual words and actions. Would you have tried to prevent ICE agents from siezing and detaining the residents?

How? What are the chances you would have succeeded, as opposed to becoming a victim yourself?

We're talking about neighbors awakened in the middle of the night. People who have jobs in the morning, rent to pay, families to feed.

And they didn't do nothing. We know many of the detals of what happened because neighbors talked to reporters.

Perhaps if hundreds more neighbors in the middle of the night flooded the streets and surrounded the ICE agents, they might have prevented the abductees from being taken away in vans.

Setting aside the extreme unliklihood of such a coordinated effort with no advance notice in the middle of the night, the heavily armed ill-trained young men in combat gear might have reacted with deadly violence.

Raise your hand if you want to be thusly martyred.

And also to spark more violence, which is what Trump wants.

[LyfeTimeDem]

9. hmmm.....wonder what we could have done differently?

to prevent all this suffering....Kamala Harris warned us how bad this was going to be.... but some just thought she "wasn't the right choice" thus minimizing her perception as the proper alternative by the masses.

And here we are.... the whole world is suffering for it

[live love laugh]

11. I wondered how many of the accosted or onlookers eligible voted for this or voted by default of not voting.

🤔

[LyfeTimeDem]

18. and how many protest voted against

us because "they wanted to teach Democrats" (the majority of the party) "a lesson"? Because they got *convinced* by our side that Kamala Harris "wasn't good enough" while ignoring the major consequences for everyone for doing that....because some think the beatings will continue until morale improves is a good plan to convince the mainstream Democrats to their way of thinking....also ignoring the consequences for the vulnerable by doing that...well it's NOT working... things they complained about went from bad to worse now...

And all I keep thinking is....KAMALA HARRIS TOLD US SO...

[mopinko]

19. too many.

cook co went 56-48, and he didnt take il. but there r more magats here than i’d like.

[yardwork]

50. You mean the children?

Children aren't eligible to vote.

You mean their moms? I doubt many of the people in these apartments voted for Trump. Chicago is deep blue.

[Midnight Writer]

10. There should be lawyers flooding the zone with lawsuits over this. These should be slam-dunk cases.

We need to target not just government agencies, but individual government actors. Name the foot-soldiers and the people who gave them orders.

Folks' attitudes tend to change when their name is on the lawsuit and they have to defend their actions under oath in front of a court.

[mopinko]

17. there have been a lot of lawyers

out at the protests, etc. i’m sure there will b suits.

[LyfeTimeDem]

20. a lot of them are now under contract

with Donald Trump....and it would be a conflict of interest.

Others have their own vulnerable families to think about because doing so comes with enormous potential cost...

This is what happens in a Fascist Dictatorship. I don't know how the hell we survive 3+ more years of this.

We better start getting on the good foot to plan what we do if there is no Midterm...

[leftstreet]

12. Thought Pritzker was going to kick them out

[mopinko]

15. he never said that.

how wd he do that?

[LyfeTimeDem]

21. Right.....short of declaring Secession

How does he do this

I don't think people really understand the precipice we are on.. the danger zone we have now entered

[leftstreet]

33. Ask other Govs to send NG troops

He can do that

It would make enormous headlines for him, AND other Govs

I'm sure he has a plan though

[LyfeTimeDem]

34. Blue State Governors aren't

Sending their NG troops ....Red States are.....Confederacy 2.0

[Jilly_in_VA]

29. You can't kick them out

when they come in by helicopter. It's kinda hard that way.

[LuvLoogie]

13. It's ethnic cleansing, not an immigration crackdown.

This is Manifest Destiny. This is the original white supremacy reloading.

[LyfeTimeDem]

23. Confederacy 2.0

The South said it would rise again.....guess what? It's here. We are being run like a Red State now....batten down the hatches

[LuvLoogie]

35. All the Northern states did ethnic cleansing, too.

Most of the white people in this country voted for this. Everywhere.

[LyfeTimeDem]

36. oh for god sakes

Jesus take the god damn wheel

P.S. I come from deep red rural MAGA country. Daughter of a Sharecropper. My Great Great Grandfather got slaves by marriage and immediately freed them. Then he got conscripted into the Confederacy.....but escaped through the Great Smokey Mountains into Tennessee to join Sherman's Army as a Medic in the Calvary and became a decorated veteran, Captain Levi Jones...

Please talk to the hand.

[LuvLoogie]

37. The indigenous were driven out of their land everywhere

African Americans were redlined everywhere. They didn't redline themselves. Indigenous didn't cede their homelands just because. They didn't slaughter the 10s of millions of Buffalo to starve themselves, destroy their culture. Westward ho. From sea to shining sea.

The original Social Security excluded agricultural and domestic workers in order for Southern Democrats to buy in. The white southern Democrats that eventually migrated their bigotries and became GOPs.

Whites as a majority, vote with the GOPs. They say it's about economics, law and order, religious freedom, national security. But their ass is showing. It's always showing.

[LyfeTimeDem]

38. and wtf does that have to do with this?

What the fuck kind of conversation derailing is this...?

We are describing what is happening NOW...

This is happening right now

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BLeJkHbXG/

[LuvLoogie]

39. It's happening "now" because

we've never paid the piper. We've never had a multi racial democracy applied with any equity, in access or justice.

We had an opportunity after the Civil War, but real change was quickly gutted. And there has never been any real justice.

You forget Donald Trump was elected twice with majority white vote, men and women. Not out of ignorance, but out of purpose. He survived two impeachments because most white people wanted it that way. He pardoned the insurrectionists because they were white and on his side. He's kidnapping and incarcerating people because they are not.

I don't understand why you are mad at me.

[LuvLoogie]

41. LOL what is nihilistic about reminding

people of our history and basic M.O. You're mad because you want the help to cook you dinner while your counters and sink are full of dirty dishes from your last party.

Most minorities voted for Kamala Harris. Most whites didn't. Why?

[LyfeTimeDem]

42. Look outside your bubble

We have Military dropping into neighborhoods from Blackhawk Helicopters......chainsawwing down doors marching out naked children in handcuffs to into uhaul vans in the middle of the night

Work on Trumps throne room continues even with the Shutdown ......does that sound like someone who plans on leaving????

Wake the fuck up!! We are crossing the Rubicon here..

[LuvLoogie]

43. You seem surprised by all this. I don't know why.

I mean what do you expect the zip tied kids and their parents to do NOW? Project 2025 is the product of the white power elite.

The masked, jack booted goons are commiting white supremacist terror. The majority white GOP and supreme court are purging and gerrymandering the minority vote.

[LyfeTimeDem]

45. Im done with you

You have no focus.....I can't do anything about the past BooBoo...
.I'm living in the fucking now. You seem to be under the delusion that that this is not going to get worse and or impact you and your loved ones....

We tried to tell you all so....things can always be worse...

[LuvLoogie]

48. You're confused by my demeanor. Of course it can get worse.

It's been worse. 1730s,1830s,1930s America was probably down there for the blacks and browns. It's white supremacy after all. Manifest Destiny.

2030s ain't looking too good right now, either.

Will it get worse?
Ask the white supremacists.

[people]

14. Nazi Germany

That's what this is like

[LyfeTimeDem]

24. Exactly....1933 Germany so far

[bluestarone]

16. The NAZI fuckers are testing limits.

When NOBODY steps in to stop then, they will keep doing more and more with the BLESSING on our Supreme court. Some of them will get hurt or killed, but then it will come to Martial law! TSF wants it really bad. Folks, we are in a big CATCH 22 here! TY Supreme court!!

[Initech]

22. These psychopaths need to be removed from their ivory towers now!

[LyfeTimeDem]

25. and HOW do we do that...

Miracles arent coming....

[riversedge]

27. #trump could Stop this cruelty at any time but he chooses NOT to stop it.

[B.See]

44. Stop it?? It's what HE WANTS them to do.

Adolph would be PROUD.

[moonshinegnomie]

28. Start arresting rhem

Send cops to their homes and treat them the same way. Start with the officers in charge

[Jilly_in_VA]

30. And they want us to stop calling them Nazis?

Then they should stop acting like the GESTAPO!!!!! Those are straight up GESTAPO tactics.GESTAPO GESTAPO GESTAPO!!!!

[Thunderbeast]

31. Tell me how this is not kidnapping.

Qualified immunity should not protect them.

[twodogsbarking]

32. Better that ninety-nine thousand innocent people are incarcerated unjustly than one guilty one go free.

* this replaces that other one.

[Hekate]

46. What do you call this? I call it people paying attention. Have you looked at Chicago newspapers?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220692553

[Initech]

47. It's all bullshit theater for bullshit cable news programs.

Stop watching this shit! All of it! It is poisoning this country!

[Champp]

51. Evil Republican thuggery

they know they are wrong to do this, and they do it any way.

[yorkster]

52. As far as I know only Chris Hayes covered this

yesterday on MSNBC. I hope I'm wrong, because this was shocking and repulsive.
I know, I know, it's corporate media, etc.
but jfc ICE is on a criminal rampage. And the way those children were treated? Unforgivable.