Latest / Luke Thomas Gets Political (LTGP) / ICE M*RDERED Another INNOCENT Man | Luke Thomas Gets Political

Transcript

ICE M*RDERED Another INNOCENT Man | Luke Thomas Gets Political · Luke Thomas Gets Political (LTGP)

0:00
In the second time in as many weeks,
0:03
ICE has killed someone they weren't even
0:06
looking for.
0:07
An ICE officer yesterday, Monday, July
0:10
13th at approximately 7:30 a.m. in the
0:12
morning East Coast time, shot and killed
0:15
Joaon Sebastian Guerrero, 26 years old,
0:18
a Colombian national in Biddeford,
0:21
Maine. This happened at the intersection
0:23
of Pool and Hill Streets. ICE, for their
0:26
part, says a targeted surveillance
0:28
operation began earlier that morning at
0:31
the last known address of someone who
0:33
had a final order of removal. A Kia
0:36
sedan, reportedly driven by the victim,
0:39
was photographed at the scene with four
0:41
bullet holes in the windshield. These
0:43
details are just the basic ones and they
0:45
do not describe the horror of what
0:47
actually transpired. There are two facts
0:49
about this case that are worthy of being
0:51
underscored. Number one, by the
0:53
government's own admission, Guerrero was
0:55
not in any way the subject immigration
0:58
enforcement action that ICE was
1:00
undertaking that day. He happened to
1:02
just be in the wrong place at the wrong
1:04
time. They do claim that he tried to
1:07
flee the scene, and of course there is
1:09
some question about that based on what
1:10
forensic evidence currently exists, but
1:12
of course there could be a very rational
1:14
and good explanation for wanting to flee
1:16
the scene if your car is being rammed or
1:19
you're being shouted at by men with
1:20
weapons in an unmarked vehicle. Putting
1:23
that to the side, they admit he had
1:25
nothing to do with the enforcement
1:26
action for again as a pretext, the
1:29
immigration enforcement that they were
1:31
trying to undertake. More importantly,
1:32
even under their own admission,
1:35
the officer or officers who shot
1:37
Guerrero, and again we don't know the
1:39
full extent of it because there's no
1:41
body cam footage,
1:44
by their own admission, they do not say
1:47
that their lives or life was in danger.
1:49
And in fact, the reason why they claimed
1:51
that they shot was to protect the
1:54
public. They thought they thought there
1:55
was a public safety threat. So, the guy
1:58
who died had nothing to do with the
2:00
enforcement action
2:02
off the break. And number two, most
2:05
importantly, didn't do anything that
2:07
threatened the lives of the officer or
2:09
officers who ultimately killed him. And
2:12
I want to point out one more thing, as I
2:13
mentioned, there's no body cam footage.
2:16
We're trying to piece together forensic
2:18
evidence to see what a bigger picture
2:20
looks like, but absent that, it's going
2:22
to be a little bit difficult. Some of
2:24
the additional details that come out
2:25
about this are absolutely horrifying.
2:27
I'm not going to put them all on the
2:28
screen because I won't I don't want this
2:30
video to get taken down, but they opened
2:32
the door and let his lifeless body
2:35
collapse to the ground and then handcuff
2:37
his dead body. I realize that that is
2:38
not necessarily
2:40
totally unique thing among law
2:41
enforcement, but it is difficult to
2:43
watch just the same. How However,
2:45
perhaps the worst detail in all of this
2:47
is that he had a 3-year-old daughter
2:49
present who was still wearing her Bluey
2:52
pajamas when ICE blew his brains out.
2:55
And that person, this poor child, now
2:58
has no father.
3:00
Now has this
3:02
forever trauma that she will have. She
3:04
had to watch her father, guilty of
3:06
nothing, who by the way had a work
3:08
permit to be in the United States as
3:10
well as a social security number that
3:12
which
3:13
seems to indicate, and we don't yet
3:14
know, but seems to indicate he may have
3:16
had an asylum case. She had to watch her
3:19
father not merely executed in front of
3:20
her, but brutally so. And then for the
3:22
law enforcement officers, who by the way
3:24
have a requirement to as fast as
3:26
possible render life-saving aid, and
3:29
there's now a question about whether
3:30
they did that or not, she had to watch
3:32
all of this inside of her Bluey pajamas.
3:35
Guys, it is absolutely time to recognize
3:37
what ICE is and what role they play
3:40
ultimately in our society. It is so
3:43
obvious at this point that immigration
3:46
enforcement is just a pretext to allow a
3:50
paramilitary group that does not answer
3:53
to the normal constraints of law
3:55
enforcement
3:57
to be able to combine their methodology
4:01
to to combine their violence with an
4:03
expansion rapidly in surveillance tech
4:08
and to intrude this into our lives in
4:10
search of and in the project of making
4:13
an ethno-state.
4:15
That is what this is. The idea that what
4:18
we really need are armed ICE agents on
4:22
the street who need to be able to be
4:24
armed so that they can kill other people
4:27
in order to make sure we have order
4:30
within our immigration enforcement is
4:32
quite obviously not true.
4:36
This is obviously not the case.
4:39
There are ways in which you can do
4:40
immigration enforcement including in the
4:42
interior that have nothing to do with
4:45
getting innocent people killed. And in
4:47
fact, Guerrero is the second one in as
4:50
many weeks that has been killed by ICE
4:53
who by the way a Latino man who was
4:56
killed and more to that point a Latino
4:58
man who was not the the the object the
5:01
subject rather I should say of the
5:03
alleged immigration enforcement action
5:05
that the ICE agents were trying to
5:07
undertake. It was two guys back-to-back
5:09
weeks being killed who had nothing to do
5:12
with it.
5:14
ICE has nothing to do with actual
5:17
rational immigration policy including
5:20
not really at the border but the
5:21
interior.
5:22
It has nothing to do with that. This is
5:24
about normalizing state violence through
5:27
a paramilitary that only answers to the
5:30
executive branch that has a vast
5:33
expansion by the way in the tech
5:35
surveillance that they're able to use
5:37
and implement to achieve the end and
5:39
what is that end? It is a ethno-state.
5:43
It is an ethno-state. This is not about
5:46
getting the bad people off the street.
5:49
There are ways to do that, and of course
5:51
there can be merit to that act and to
5:53
those enforcement actions such that they
5:55
are real and such that they need to take
5:56
place. There are ways in which to do
5:59
that. This is not that.
6:01
This is not that. This is merely using
6:04
immigrants
6:06
as the tip of the spear of a broader
6:08
attempt
6:09
to be able to use state-sanctioned
6:11
violence in this kind of a way to create
6:15
an ethno-state. That is why it exists.
6:18
If they wanted a rational immigration
6:20
policy, it would start with facts about
6:22
what immigrants actually pose as a
6:25
threat such that they do, what they
6:27
contribute to society such that that can
6:29
be measured, and to form a rational
6:31
policy thereafter. This is the opposite
6:34
of that. This is handing out hammers to
6:37
a bunch of thugs and then them trying to
6:40
go find nails in the process.
6:43
That is what this is ultimately in
6:45
search of. If you wanted a rational
6:48
immigration policy, the data on
6:50
immigrants is clear.
6:52
They commit crimes at all levels much
6:54
less than natives. The data on what they
6:57
contribute to federal coffers to fund
6:59
programs, including some of the most
7:00
important ones for seniors or other
7:02
distressed citizens, is clear. We know
7:06
from studies done by Zeke Hernandez and
7:08
others about their contribution to the
7:11
workforce much more as complements than
7:14
as replacements. It is weird to me that
7:17
we are expected to believe the kind of
7:19
framing that comes from the right about
7:21
the threat of immigrants, and the
7:23
right's entire worldview of immigrants
7:26
is based on nothing.
7:28
It is based on vibes. And not only is
7:31
that just silly in its own right, it has
7:34
now become dangerous because we have now
7:36
created a paramilitary force attempting
7:39
to enforce a worldview and a political
7:42
project that is not based in any way
7:45
whatsoever on any facts or reality about
7:49
the contribution and the role that
7:50
immigrants play in American society.
7:54
This is about creating an ethno-state
7:57
and using maximum force and maximum
8:00
techno-fascism in order to be able to
8:02
achieve those ends. That is the purpose
8:05
of ICE.
8:07
Another point worth considering is we
8:09
have done nothing since Trump has
8:11
returned to office except to balloon
8:14
the coffers that power ICE, to blow up
8:17
their budget, to vastly increase their
8:19
recruitment, to vastly increase their
8:21
size. And what have you noticed has been
8:24
the result? It hasn't shored up any of
8:27
their deficiencies. It has only
8:29
amplified their malignancy.
8:32
Giving them a bigger budget doesn't help
8:36
them to be able to do their jobs in any
8:38
more humane, rational, or frankly just
8:41
improved, efficient way. Instead, it
8:44
only ups the barbarism.
8:46
Because we're talking about a guy who
8:48
was shot on the street, and then we're
8:49
referencing a guy who was shot on the
8:51
street last week. But of course, within
8:53
ICE detention itself, the horror stories
8:55
are only continuing.
8:57
And the abuse of both disadvantaged
8:59
populations, including but not limited
9:01
to minors, continues apace. They're
9:04
trying to arrest on quota basis 2,000
9:07
immigrants a day. And by their own
9:09
admission, many of these people have
9:11
nothing to do with crimes being
9:14
perpetrated against natives or within
9:16
the country more broadly.
9:17
It is simply an act of rounding up the
9:20
brown.
9:22
It is all in service of an ethno-state
9:24
project. They cannot reconcile or reckon
9:28
with the reality of what the good that
9:32
immigration provides to this country. So
9:34
they have to invent boogeymen. And so
9:36
now they've created a death squad to go
9:39
out in search of a bogey man that
9:42
doesn't exist. And the people who are
9:43
getting quite literally killed in the
9:45
process have nothing to do with it.
9:48
There is another element of the story
9:49
that is also worth pointing out that is
9:52
tragic and I suppose in some ways ironic
9:55
depending on your perspective. There's a
9:57
social media post that was discovered
9:59
that Guerrero had posted, and I'll put
10:01
it here on the screen.
10:02
Firme por la patria is the
10:05
slogan, the campaign slogan of the now
10:07
president-elect of Colombia, Abelardo de
10:10
las Priego. Okay? That was his big
10:14
catchphrase. It's on all of the signage
10:17
you see throughout Colombia. I was I
10:19
just got back from Colombia on Saturday.
10:21
You can still see it everywhere. Firme
10:23
por la patria. You can see he put that
10:25
up on social media. Take a long guess
10:29
about whether or not de las Priego has
10:31
responded to this.
10:33
As of the time of the recording of this
10:35
video, he has said nothing. Mind you, he
10:37
is an American citizen.
10:39
Obviously Latino, obviously Colombian as
10:42
well. He has said absolutely nothing.
10:44
Yet the mayor of New York has said
10:45
something already. The reason why this
10:47
is tragic is that Guerrero supporting de
10:49
las Priego, a lot of people, I don't
10:50
know the exact motivations of why
10:52
Guerrero supported him, but a lot of the
10:54
motivations are for an increase in
10:56
security and shoring up that insecurity.
10:58
And here he is in the United States
11:00
having been the subject of this
11:02
state-sanctioned violence, and the guy
11:05
who was supposed to be the one who's in
11:07
charge of securing
11:09
uh safety both at home and I suspect for
11:12
Colombians in any kind of capacity has
11:14
nothing to say. Contrast this with
11:15
Claudia Sheinbaum, who's demanding
11:17
investigations into the Mexicans who've
11:19
been mistreated or killed by the hands
11:21
of ICE. But more to the point, it's this
11:23
faith that I think a lot of Colombians
11:25
had had about, you know, de las Priego
11:28
and the right being the ones that they
11:29
could, you you entrust their safety to.
11:31
You cannot.
11:33
And in fact, it's the Muslim mayor of
11:34
New York who has more to say this than
11:36
anybody else on the right in Columbia.
11:40
I realize that this is a bit of a
11:41
tangential issue as it pertains to our
11:43
concerns domestically about ICE, but
11:46
it's just a lot of people with a lot of
11:47
misplaced faith in in entities or
11:50
institutions or political projects that
11:52
do not care, quite literally, whether
11:54
they live or die. I hope everyone
11:56
understands that your immigration status
11:59
or your guilt has nothing to do with
12:01
this.
12:02
Has nothing to do with whether or not
12:04
you will or won't be killed by ICE if
12:07
they feel like it. Now, they apparently
12:09
there are some reports suggesting that
12:10
they're going to stop traffic
12:11
enforcements by ICE and that that
12:14
if that sticks and if this is real, that
12:16
that could potentially cut down on a lot
12:18
of these incidents and one hopes that
12:20
that would be the case, but that really
12:21
is not going to solve the problem
12:23
because ICE by its own nature is state
12:27
violence. It was created to be an arm
12:30
for state violence. Transforming the
12:32
police overnight in in all the various
12:35
ways in which we have law enforcement
12:36
would be very, very difficult. Using the
12:38
military to become law enforcement is
12:41
obviously going to be very difficult and
12:42
fraught with its own kind of legal
12:43
peril, but creating something out of
12:46
whole cloth or at least transforming it
12:48
and then allowing this to be happening
12:49
under bipartisan leadership into
12:52
creating this executive-led paramilitary
12:54
group, well, that you can do and they
12:56
just don't operate by the same
12:57
constraints. They don't operate on
12:59
whether or not they need to have a
13:01
warrant. They don't operate on whether
13:02
or not they have justifiable force. And
13:04
again, we don't know the names of the
13:05
officers who killed uh the gentleman
13:08
last week and we don't know the the
13:09
names of the officer or officers who did
13:12
any of the killing in this particular
13:13
incident. Again, we don't have body cam
13:15
footage. Once again, with this budget
13:17
argument, how could it possibly be that
13:19
we have increased their budget this
13:20
much, that we have allowed them to have
13:23
all kinds of very, very sketchy
13:24
surveillance tech and to use
13:25
surveillance tech in very new methods
13:29
and they don't have the ability to turn
13:30
on a camera on their chest.
13:33
It's not about whether or not they need
13:35
these tools to get the job done. It is
13:37
that these tools will only be used in
13:40
one kind of direction, which is the
13:42
state is up here, the rest of us are
13:44
down here, the tip of the spear and who
13:46
they can go after first are the most
13:48
vulnerable among us, and it is a
13:50
top-down pressure campaign
13:53
in every respect.
13:55
That is what ICE is.
13:58
How many people do you need to see
14:01
gunned down in the street in order to
14:03
understand this? How many people have to
14:06
come out of ICE detention such that they
14:08
ever do because more of them are dying
14:10
in ICE custody than ever before you
14:12
realize this is what they are. How many
14:16
people have to be abused, murdered,
14:18
killed, denied treatment, denied
14:21
medicine, denied family, denied their
14:23
human rights before it is very, very
14:26
obvious they have constructed a
14:28
worldview based on nothing more than
14:32
vibes, and their only answer for it is
14:35
maximum violence, maximum techno-fascism
14:39
at all times.
14:41
That is ICE.
14:44
ICE will kill you in the street for less
14:47
than nothing.
14:48
Your immigration status, whether it's
14:50
legal or illegal, it does not matter to
14:52
them.
14:54
Whether you are guilty of doing
14:55
something to the officers or not, it
14:58
doesn't matter to them.
15:00
If you are in their own perceptions in
15:04
their way in any capacity at all,
15:07
whether you have a constitutional right
15:09
to do that,
15:10
they'll just kill you.
15:12
They'll just murder you in the street,
15:14
and they'll do it in front of your
15:15
children, and they'll do it in the most
15:17
brutal, inhumane way possible.
15:20
That is ICE.
15:24
This is all in service to make a wider
15:27
America.
15:29
And they don't care who gets hurt as
15:31
long as it's not the part that they're
15:32
protecting.
15:35
That is ICE.
15:37
That is where we are.
15:40
This is not an institution that can be
15:42
reformed.
15:43
This is not an institution that needs to
15:45
be
15:47
reshaped. It can only be eliminated.
15:50
Kill it with fire.
15:53
This is not how immigration should be
15:55
run in this country. And by the way,
15:57
even if he was guilty
15:59
of something, he shouldn't be killed for
16:01
it of some kind of immigration and
16:03
enforcement action.
16:06
This is only a paramilitary group that
16:08
can make the country more dangerous and
16:11
frankly weaker.
16:13
That is what they can do. That is what
16:14
they will do. That is what they are
16:16
intended to do.
16:19
They must to be abolished. And it sort
16:21
of deserves to be pointed out there were
16:23
protests yesterday at Susan Collins's
16:25
office. You can see I'll put up on the
16:26
screen some of her responses. She has
16:29
nothing to say here. She helped to make
16:31
sure ICE had all the funding that it
16:34
needed. I realize that Grant Plathner
16:37
was an extremely flawed candidate as I
16:39
told you guys on this channel. His whole
16:41
story about the Nazi tattoo never made
16:43
sense to me. I know a lot of Marines who
16:44
have a lot of bad tattoos and I've never
16:46
really heard stories like the one that
16:48
he shared. But he's gone now, so that
16:50
part doesn't really matter. But it is
16:52
very, very clear why was there energy
16:55
behind Plathner for all of his many
16:58
visible flaws? It is because people like
17:01
Susan Collins will allow the federal
17:04
government to enforce paramilitary
17:07
fascism on their streets and not really
17:09
think twice about it. She has no good
17:12
judgment.
17:14
She is bad at this.
17:19
And that is why a guy like Guerrero
17:23
was murdered in front of his own
17:24
3-year-old daughter in her Bluey pajamas
17:27
because of people like Susan Collins who
17:30
has neither the courage of conviction
17:32
nor the moral conscience and nor just
17:35
the pragmatic reasoning ability in order
17:38
to do that job as a US Senator from
17:40
Maine effectively. And that is why for
17:43
all the faults and flaws behind Grand
17:46
Platner which are considerable, that is
17:48
why there was enthusiasm for him and I
17:50
suspect if they can nominate a
17:52
reasonable candidate along the same
17:54
progressive lines that they'll inherit a
17:56
lot of that same force.
17:58
This is not what the Democratic primary
18:01
voters want as sort of a separate issue.
18:03
Frankly, it's not what the majority of
18:05
Americans want and it's certainly not
18:07
what America needs. America must abolish
18:11
ICE. There is no in-between position.
18:13
There is no triangulation on this one.
18:16
There is nothing. It is a It is a
18:18
pass-fail test. Do you understand the
18:21
threat that this organization poses? And
18:24
I'm going to say one more time, they're
18:25
going after the most vulnerable first,
18:27
but they're not going to stop there to
18:28
say nothing of the fact that actually
18:31
ICE is playing a role in helping to go
18:33
after a pro-Palestinian advocate for his
18:36
speech and I kid you not about that.
18:40
It's all part of an act of using
18:43
state-sanctioned violence to enforce an
18:45
ethno-state as well as
18:48
combining with other elements of an
18:50
authoritarian regime to tamp down on
18:54
active forms of resistance.
18:57
It all works in concert together. Do not
19:01
buy the obvious lie that the pretext
19:04
here is immigration enforcement.
19:07
It's not.
19:09
It's about the road to authoritarianism.
19:14
It is about
19:15
the willingness of the state to murder
19:18
who they feel like.
19:21
Abolish ICE now. Abolish ICE immediately
19:25
and get rid of any elected leader who
19:28
does not have the moral clarity to say
19:30
as much.