Replies to post #535091 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[Zorax]

Let this last attack against our freedoms sink in... shittypants just signed his order allowing ICE to now arrest or even shoot PROTESTORS who try to disrupt or even record with their phones at the kidnappings. There will be no discrimination of people any more. And every republican is fucking culpable too. So are sadly 100's of dems. Cheeto now has his own army, today- here and now, just like all the dictators. And it doesn't answer to any military association whatsoever of the pentagon. Just to cheeto and his henchman.

'largest law enforcement agency in history'
'to defend against so called ‘THUGS’ by ‘whatever means is necessary'

Trump grants ICE agents ‘total authorization’ to defend against so called ‘THUGS’ by ‘whatever means is necessary’. With $150 billion investment ICE will become the largest law enforcement agency in history, seeking to remove all immigrants, not even criminals, from the streets of America.

[fuagf]

You'd think a simple yes or no question like, Are trump's ICE using paintball guns? could be answered by AI but to now neither Google nor Bing are providing an answer. Even redditt seem not to have the answer - https://www.reddit.com/r/ICE_Raids/comments/1l4fjor/is_ice_using_paint_guns/ , so, you obviously know the guns, i'll take your word on it for now. The closest i got:

Jun 9, 2025 6:42 PM

The Dangerous Truth About the ‘Nonlethal’ Weapons Used Against LA Protesters

While they can cause serious injuries, “nonlethal” weapons are regularly used in the United States to disperse public demonstrations, including at the recent ICE protests in Los Angeles.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stand guard and point nonlethal projectile weapons toward protesters on June 7, 2025 in Los Angeles.Photograph: Carlin Stieh/Getty Images

In a stormy weekend for US domestic politics, police and the National Guard arrested at least 56 people demonstrating in Los Angeles, California. On Friday, June 6, several groups took to the streets to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, which have grown in intensity and number over the past few months. According to CBS News, ICE recorded more than 2,000 arrests per day during Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week of June alone, a considerable increase when compared to the average of 660 that occurred in the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second administration.

The use of the National Guard to address a local situation like the protests in Los Angeles raised alarms from California governor Gavin Newsom, who accused the Trump administration of “creating a crisis.” Meanwhile, other civil society groups condemned the state response against protesters. “President Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against recent ICE raids is deeply alarming,” Amnesty International wrote. “Armed troops have no place in our neighborhoods. This is not about protecting communities, but about suppressing dissent and instilling fear.”

During the scenes, protesters came face-to-face with National Guard and Los Angeles Sheriff's Office police officers. Both bodies were equipped with “nonlethal” weapons to disperse the protests. Among these devices are believed to be the PGL-65 (or P540) or the 37mm or 40mm Sage Deuce Projectile Launcher, “less lethal” ammunition launchers that law enforcement agencies have in their repertoire. Weapons such as those mentioned can launch tear gas grenades with a maximum range of nearly 500 feet. They can also fire kinetic impact grenades (rubber ammunition), “less lethal” fragmentation grenades (rubber balls that scatter when the munition explodes), stun grenades (explosions that cause loud noises and lights to disorient), and paint marker grenades (to mark demonstrators). According to media outlets such as CNN, police in Los Angeles have used stun guns and tear gas to disperse protesters.

Weapons Banned Abroad

Canada prohibits the use of these “nonlethal weapons” for demonstration control. Canada's Firearms Regulations (SOR/2020-96 and SOR/98-462) include the PGL-65, Sage Deuce, and other equivalent models within the category of banned weapons. The statute restricts the use of “Any firearm with a (bore bore) diameter of 20 mm or more” (except those designed exclusively to neutralize explosive devices) under the “regulations establishing certain firearms and other weapons, components and parts of weapons, accessories, cartridge magazines, ammunition and projectiles as prohibited or restricted.”

Although Canada is among the few countries that explicitly prohibit the PGL-65, civil society organizations discourage its use and warn about the potential dangers of this launcher.

The Los Angeles police force also uses another “less lethal” projectile launcher against protesters. WIRED was able to verify that this weapon matches the Defense Technology 40mm Single-Shot Launcher (model 1325 or similar), which in this case is painted green to distinguish its “anti-riot” application. A video from the Australian site 9News shows how one of these police officers shot an Australian journalist with what was reportedly a rubber bullet. This weapon appears in other images that media and citizens have documented during the protests.


Riot police in Los Angeles fire a 40mm LMT weapon from Defense Technology, which is banned by Canada. Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Under the Geneva conventions, the “recommendations” for the application of kinetic projectiles (such as the Model 1325) discourage police from aiming at protesters’ faces, as they could result in “skull fractures and brain damage, eye damage (including permanent blindness) and even death.” The use of kinetic projectiles from an elevated area, such as at a protest, can increase the risk of protesters being shot in the head. Targeting the torso can cause damage to vital organs and result in body penetration, especially when fired at close range. The caliber and velocity of the projectile, as well as the material from which they are made, will also influence the seriousness of the injury.

In addition, the Geneva conventions specify the circumstances of possible illegal uses of these weapons and lay down the rules:

* Kinetic projectiles should not be fired in automatic mode.
* Firing multiple projectiles at the same time does not comply with the principles of necessity and proportionality.
* The impact of projectiles should be tested and authorized to ensure that they are accurate enough for a safe area without using excessive energy that could cause injury.
* Kinetic ammunition weapons should not be used to target the face, face or neck.

“Less Lethal”

The vast majority of countries keep confidential the specific name of the models they use to deter protests. Some governments, for example, register purchases under generic designations, such as “40 mm launchers,” without citing the make or model, making accountability and verification of the illegal use of these devices difficult.

For example, in Mexico, the Secretariat of National Defense launched tender LA-007000999-E818-2022 in November 2022 for the purchase of 70,000 long- and short-range 40-mm caliber gas projectiles, along with smoke ammunition and liquid marking, according to El Universal. The specifications do not show brands or models of the launcher or manufacturers.

Only countries, such as Canada, include the makes and models of their “nonlethal” weapons. Similar records do not exist in Mexico or Latin America.

The application of weapons such as the Penn Arms GL-1 or similar, as well as the Defense Technology 1325, is seen in social protests, often documented by Amnesty International, which accuses them of abusive use against peaceful civilians. And, while touted as “less lethal,” they can cause serious injuries and human rights violations. In addition, the organization, in its 2023 report “My Eye Exploded,” demands that the use of 40-mm gas or impact projectiles against peaceful civilians be suspended.

According to an assessment by Chile's National Human Rights Institute, police actions during the protests that began in October 2019 resulted in more than 440 eye injuries, with more than 30 cases of eye loss or eye rupture.

This story was originally published on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.

https://www.wired.com/story/non-lethal-weapons-la-protests/

[fuagf]

On the secret police look, agree it's terrible they are getting away with it. And memeing and laughing about it ..

ICE’s ‘Secret Police’ Are Horrifying. Team Trump Is Laughing
The administration is using memes to troll Democrats and others who are concerned about its brutal deportation tactics
By Asawin Suebsaeng, Nikki McCann Ramirez
July 12, 2025
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/ice-secret-police-horrifying-team-trump-laughing-1235384250/

Which is even more sickening. No wall for me so should be open to all.

[fuagf]

Why the unchecked power and tactics of ICE under Trump have earned comparisons to secret police

Posted by Noria Doyle | Apr 16, 2025

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not a secret police force, not yet. But recent actions taken by ICE under Donald Trump’s regime raise urgent and unavoidable parallels.

In just the span of two weeks, ICE unlawfully deported a Maryland father with legal protection from removal and detained a Turkish Fulbright scholar without due process. Both actions undermine judicial authority, sidestep legal protections, and expose the agency’s increasing willingness to act as an unaccountable enforcement arm of the executive.

The Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany, did not begin as an omnipotent terror machine. It evolved into one. Formed in 1933 and consolidated under Heinrich Himmler by 1936, the Gestapo operated outside judicial oversight.

It detained “enemies of the state” without warrants, held people in “protective custody” with no legal recourse, and enforced political conformity through fear. It became the spearpoint of Nazi totalitarianism not solely through brutality, but through the systematic erosion of legal constraints and the normalization of exceptional authority.

The alarming direction of ICE in 2025, at the very start of Trump’s second term, bears a critical resemblance to this historical model. In mid-March, ICE agents deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who had been legally protected from removal since 2019. His protected status had been granted by an immigration judge who acknowledged the danger he faced in El Salvador. That ruling should have remained binding.

Instead, ICE agents detained Abrego Garcia on March 12 while he was picking up his son in Baltimore. Within three days, he was deported to El Salvador and transferred to CECOT — the country’s massive, high-security prison complex, where he was filmed being marched shirtless and handcuffed alongside alleged gang members. ICE later admitted the deportation was “an administrative error.”

But “error” is a misnomer. This was a violation of a standing court order. By definition, ICE overruled the legal system. There is no public record of a judge revoking Abrego Garcia’s status. The deportation was not a clerical oversight. It was an assertion of unchecked power, and one that placed a man’s life in jeopardy.

Then, on March 25, masked ICE agents arrested Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and Tufts University Ph.D. student, outside her Boston apartment. Ozturk was reportedly preparing to join friends for iftar during Ramadan. Federal authorities claim she supported Hamas, though no evidence has been publicly presented. Her visa was unilaterally revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and she was taken into custody without charge.

Video of the arrest shows agents in plain clothes forcing Ozturk into an unmarked vehicle. No warrant has been produced. A judge had ordered that if detained, she remain in Massachusetts. ICE transferred her to a Louisiana detention center anyway.

These are not routine immigration enforcement cases. These are deliberate power moves aimed at demonstrating that ICE answers not to courts or laws, but to the White House. Under Trump’s reassertion of direct executive authority, ICE has been repositioned to function outside traditional legal bounds. He has empowered them to seize protected individuals, ignore judicial orders, and deploy fear as a political tool.

The hallmarks of secret police are not simply secrecy or masks. The Gestapo operated with a chilling degree of visibility. What made them effective was the knowledge that no appeal could stop them. They were “lawful” only in the sense that the law had been rewritten to permit and shield their actions. Their true power came from impunity.

Trump’s regime is openly testing that same model. Deporting a man with protected status is not simply a mistake — it is a statement. Detaining a scholar under vague accusations without evidence, in defiance of court orders, is not security policy — it is intimidation.

MAGA supporters of Trump’s authoritarian have argued that these were isolated incidents. They are not. They reflect a growing pattern of ICE exercising authority in ways incompatible with constitutional checks and balances. Congress has not authorized this power. Courts have not sanctioned it. But ICE, under Trump, is behaving as though it operates outside both.

The shift has been years in the making. Trump’s first term saw the rapid expansion of ICE’s discretionary reach, including workplace raids, the targeting of activists, and efforts to surveil sanctuary cities. But the legal system often acted as a brake. Judges blocked some deportations. Congress pushed back on budget overreach. Civil rights groups filed successful injunctions. Now, under a second Trump term, those institutional barriers have eroded.

The Supreme Court, now firmly aligned with the executive branch, has declined to intervene in recent ICE overreach cases. The Department of Homeland Security, under leadership appointed to carry out Trump’s racially biased immigration priorities without compromise, has amplified rhetoric that labels any noncitizen suspected of dissent as a potential threat.

ICE, once ostensibly focused on deporting dangerous criminals, now operates in a gray zone between law enforcement and political enforcement. This is the road to a secret police force. And the signs are no longer subtle.

Like the Gestapo, ICE has begun asserting authority not just over undocumented migrants, but over legally present individuals. Ozturk was not undocumented. Abrego Garcia had legal protection. Both were targeted anyway.

Like the Gestapo, ICE is employing euphemisms such as “administrative transfer,” “security concern,” or “status review” to bypass due process. And like the Gestapo, ICE now deploys fear as policy: fear of seizure, of surveillance, of disappearance into a remote detention center with no legal remedy.

Even the visual language of ICE’s recent actions has shifted. Plainclothes agents in unmarked vehicles. Arrests with no warning, no badges, no transparency. Video of Ozturk’s detention evokes footage from authoritarian regimes, not a democratic republic.

Americans watching it are seeing the logical outcome of rhetoric that criminalizes presence, dissent, and difference — especially when the accused are brown, Muslim, or foreign-born.

Critics who warn against this trajectory are not engaging in hyperbole. They are describing the slow normalization of impunity. It is not the violence that makes a secret police force. It is the absence of accountability.

And on that score, ICE is increasingly unaccountable — not only to the public, but to the very judicial and legislative systems that are supposed to contain it.

This is not to say that ICE has become the Gestapo in full. The Gestapo killed with impunity, ran vast networks of informants, and operated concentration camps. ICE has not reached that level as yet. But history is not a binary. Authoritarianism is not a switch. It is a series of thresholds crossed, slowly at first, then all at once.

Trump’s posture toward law enforcement has never been subtle. In both his campaigns and his presidency, he has framed loyalty as the primary virtue in federal agencies. ICE is responding to that incentive structure. What we are now witnessing is not merely the politicization of immigration enforcement, it is the weaponization of federal power against legally protected individuals.

If ICE can defy a judge’s ruling today, can it refuse a court subpoena tomorrow? If ICE can detain a scholar without charges, can it target journalists next? If it can deport a protected immigrant, what stops it from ignoring asylum rulings altogether? These are not theoretical concerns. Each step forward conditions the public to accept the next.

Unless Congress acts to reassert control over ICE’s operational boundaries — with mandatory judicial oversight, strict limits on executive deportation authority, and robust transparency requirements — the agency will continue its descent into paramilitary behavior.

Unless courts intervene with meaningful consequences for violations of due process, ICE will continue to test how far it can go without legal consequences.

And unless the public demands answers — not just in court filings but in elections — ICE will continue evolving into an instrument not of immigration policy, but of political repression.

In 1930s Germany, many ordinary citizens justified the rise of the Gestapo by insisting that only “bad people” had anything to fear. Today, Americans are told the same thing. But justice is not a system of guilt by accusation. And power that escapes accountability rarely stops on its own.

We do not need to wait for ICE to become the Gestapo to call it what it is becoming. We only need to decide whether we are willing to stop it before it gets there.




https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/editorial/unchecked-power-tactics-ice-trump-earned-comparisons-secret-police/