The video evidence of the latest ICE shooting in Minneapolis is truly sickening.
And once again the words from the federal government do little more than tee up the next shooting.
We have moved well beyond the point when the stated task of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and now U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was to seek, arrest and deport "the worst of the worst," illegals who have committed serious crimes in the United States.
There would have been few tears shed for such people.
But there are tears being shed now, by families that have lost loved ones, and families that have been torn apart.
Now we have reached a point where homes can be forcibly entered without a warrant.
What next? Internment?
Actually we already have a form of that with the notorious detention facilities around the country.
We have, on this page, drawn comparison with the Troubles in Northern Ireland where the security forces pretty much had carte blanche to kill people regardless of precise circumstance, or judicial determination of guilt or innocence.
The British Special Air Service or SAS was a grim standout in this regard. The motto of the SAS was, and is, "Who Dares Wins."
The SAS more than once dared - and with impunity.
Students of Irish history might take a look back to a little over a century ago when the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries rampaged the length and breadth of Ireland, also with impunity.
The only positive thing we can say about that bunch, as evident in the photo on this page, is that they did not wear masks.
So why the ICE masks, and why no identifying name badges?
The masks are worn, according to the Department of Homeland Security, to protect the identity and safety of ICE agents.
Protect them from whom?
Are we so far gone down the road that supposed officers of the law have to be protected by means of anonymity.
This is not the case with police forces around the country, local, city and state.
These officers of the law work under the "protect and serve" model of law enforcement and the vast majority of citizens respect them for this.
The Echo honored the heritage behind, and tradition of, "protect and serve" last week at our 17th annual Law and Order Awards."
And we did so proudly.
The motto of ICE is "Protecting National Security and Upholding Public Safety."
Sounds fair enough. But what we have witnessed around the country, not just in Minneapolis, is the endangering of national harmony and, not infrequently, the endangering of public safety.
And there is no greater endangering of public safety than when members of the public are being shot, gassed, sprayed and clubbed by those who are supposedly charged with protecting them.
And who, now, are those? Billions of dollars are being allocated to ICE with a good portion of this money being used to recruit new agents.
What are the standards being applied to recruitment? What now is the degree and type of training that new hires are receiving?
Again, the comparison with the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries seems to apply.
Many of them were former British soldiers who had survived the brutalities of World War I.
They did not stand out as the sensitive soul type. And they were certainly not an appropriate force to unleash on a civilian population.
ICE is now a force, a street force that increasingly has the air and appearance of a private, secret army. The reputation of a once credible federal agency has been shredded behind all those masks.
We can only hope and pray that masked agents are not standing outside voting centers in November on the lookout for supposed hordes of illegal immigrants trying to vote.
But if unpunished street executions are possible, just about anything else is.
