It is generally agreed that the Civil Rights Movement in this country began officially in 1965 with the Supreme Court’s decisive ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, ending the heretofore legal and widely accepted segregation and separation of the races in U.S. schools, with the passage of that seminal piece of federal legislation.
Certainly, racial “unrest, ” replete with brutal battles on the streets and in the states, rural and urban, as well as in the courts, began long before that groundbreaking decision, while the sickening and shameful history of lynchings, and mandated separations from public and work-places, including the Armed Forces and entertainment venues, were commonplace and widely accepted as pro forma.
Which brings us to today and the recent remembrance of Martin Luther King’s birthday and his consistent reminders of appealing to the “angels of our better nature” when it comes to addressing civil grievances and peaceful gatherings to express our discontent with the edicts and unlawful actions of federal authority. Although King addressed the nation in calm and even terms, he was a strong and clear voice against the injustices and disparities within the economic, educational, commercial and professional worlds in which we are all embedded.
And while the Trump Administration is not solely focused upon African Americans, his tyrannical forces act with similar unbridled violence, with deliberate unlawful absence of due process and a total disregard for the rights accorded those who oppose the unwarranted, bloody actions of ICE and Border Patrol agents. Meanwhile, these violations – in which innocent bystanders are killed and maimed – are excused as a response to “insurrections.”
This is every bit as insane and tyrannical as lynchings once were, and ironically labeled as protection measures for cities and their people by Commander in Chief, Donald Trump, in direct disregard of targeted state governors, senators, mayors and even state and local police forces.
It is eerily reminiscent of the German state Gestapo incursions by the Nazi secret police forces in the 1930s and 40s, when they broke into peoples’ homes or rounded them up on the streets and disappeared them to slowly perish in death camps.
You might think this is hyperbole, but it is not. What is happening in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, Charlotte, Los Angeles and elsewhere, is the playing out of absolute power, without judicial review, to suppress opposition and strike terror into the hearts and minds of people who oppose these outrageous actions through peaceful and lawful demonstrations protected by Constitutional law.
There is nothing hyperbolic in labeling the disgusting and wildly unlawful actions by masked goons in ICE and the Border Patrol as Gestapo tactics. Actions like breaking car windows of demonstrators, beefy thugs – four or five at a time – dragging people from their cars, wrestling them to the ground, pinning their arms behind their backs in excruciating pain and dragging them off to be arrested and/or detained in secret sites. All the while launching tear-gas cannisters and flash-bang grenades into the midst of peaceful protesters to disrupt legal gatherings.
And then there were what I insist are the cold-blooded murders. First, of Renée Good in Minneapolis, a mother of three shot in the face and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross while she turned to avoid him in her car. And second, Alex Pretti, shot numerous times while defenseless in the control of five or six Border Patrol officers. In response to which the DOJ has refused to share evidentiary information with state and other potential investigative agencies.
On the brighter side, Democrats in both the House and Senate are finally saying what must be said out loud: ICE cannot continue to receive unlimited funding while it acts with impunity. Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Senators like Chris Murphy, D – Connecticut, are calling out ICE’s record of violence, secrecy, and abuse. Meanwhile, two St. Paul hotels cancelled rooms for ICE agents, and a Hilton brand hotel, the Hampton Inn outside Minneapolis, refused to accommodate ICE agents, citing safety concerns.
There is a growing movement afoot to call for a boycott of major regional retail businesses such as Walmart, Amazon, Target and MacDonalds, as well as Google, Apple, Meta, Comcast and Verizon. We can expect homemade signs along these lines showing up at coming demonstrations.
And then there’s the feel-good March for Peace by a cadre of Buddhist monks from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C., that has passed the half-way mark on a 2,300- mile trek, in the hope that this gesture will reach the hearts of Americans participating in the resistance movement sweeping our country.
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