Hacker News Reader

Comment by bmandale | Hacker News Reader

What good is a "PR win"? Nobody would have even heard about it if they'd marched peacefully, and if they had it would have changed nobodies minds, and otherwise changed nothing. The issues for which a simple march can have any influence at all on are the ones for which the powers that be don't have strong feelings on, where they can be swayed by seeing public support for the issue. Trump has well past dug in his heels on illegal immigration, and has a large base that backs him on it (as you recognize); a fully peaceful protest would have accomplished absolutely nothing.

There are issues worth rioting over. Maybe you don't feel that illegal immigration is one of them, but you should at least understand the logic of a protest, and why sometimes becoming violent is necessary to accomplish anything.

View on HN

It's relevant to mention that the trigger for these riots was federal agents administratively detaining people who are in the country illegally. These are not new federal immigration laws that Trump has passed; in fact, they were enforced thoroughly by the Obama administration, as well.

Trump is purposely manufacturing a crisis because he knows his opposition is taking a losing position. Polls have been very clear that voters want the government to enforce immigration laws. Maybe not in Los Angeles, but nationally, the left is taking the losing side of this issue.

How does a raid only target people who are here illegally? How do agents determine the identity and status of the person they're grabbing in a factory or school?

The idea is absolutely farcical. Plus, we know for sure that these raids have taken people mistakenly.

It's extra bad when the government's official position is that they can't get someone back from the foreign prison they're sent to. The threat to all citizens is clear; that's why they're resisting. "The left" may lose in the mainstream media but it's clearly the correct side of history.

Not to mention, that in most of the videos I’ve seen about detention of “illegals” - “ICE agents” look like a bunch of thugs. Facemasks, no identification features, they never introduce themselves, etc.

It’s clear since the election - Trump administration will use violence without any due process. Sort of Catch-22.

If you resist the indiscriminate purge of what Trump considers “illegal immigrants”[0] - military will be called to suppress the protests with some sort of never ending “emergency situation” established giving him full dictatorial powers.

Or he will just do the purges without resistance and achieve same goals.

“Protest voters” and democratic leadership have a lot to think about right now.

[0] lets not forget that you can be a US citizen and you can still be purged

> How does a raid only target people who are here illegally? How do agents determine the identity and status of the person they're grabbing in a factory or school?

This has been done for decades and has very established standard operating procedures. Do you think immigration raids started with Trump? This has been going on since the 1950s and there is established legal basis and agency procedures specifying exactly what the agents can and can't do, along with repeatable methods for verifying identity and legal status.

We're not talking about the same type of thing. Street corners and parking lots? You believe they know exactly who they are targeting?

Was this incident following an established procedure?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKyFzVfJZTY

Reply on news.ycombinator.com