Closely armed federal brokers descended upon a Queens neighborhood early Thursday morning and arrested no less than one particular person in an operation that sparked worry all through the neighborhood.
Photographs supplied to New York News
They arrived simply earlier than daybreak on Thursday morning in vans on the quiet streets beneath the duvet of helicopters flying low overhead.
Out of their autos stepped brokers resembling troopers, clad head to toe in camouflaged physique armor, sporting helmets, and brandishing lengthy weapons. They seemed prepared for struggle in hostile enemy territory. The menacing sight will surely ship civilians operating for canopy in worry and provides pause to anybody who dared to withstand.
Is that this a scene out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, or Venezuela? No.
It’s Jackson Heights, Queens.
The brokers have been none apart from members later recognized as Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) officers. HSI has been working alongside of ICE within the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
On Thursday, Dec. 4, they got here to Jackson Heights with a startling present of drive to make an arrest of two Spanish-speaking people. Together with their physique armor and camouflage, these brokers wore masks concealing their faces, and so they had bulletproof vests with patches bearing the phrase “POLICE” — although the NYPD itself was not a part of the operation, as sources instructed New York News.
There was no proof offered publicly to recommend that this immigration operation required such an enormous present of drive on the federal brokers’ half. So what was the purpose of all this?
Why can’t ICE and HSI function with the identical sense of obligation and civic accountability because the NYPD?
The NYPD has had its points in recent times, however you don’t usually see each officer sporting masks to cover their true identities from everybody they encounter. You don’t see cops on each nook carrying lengthy weapons. And also you don’t see these officers armed to the tooth swooping right into a neighborhood at nighttime, pulling individuals from their houses for immigration discrepancies.
New York Metropolis is the most secure massive metropolis in America, on monitor to have the fewest shootings and homicides on report this yr. It’s no accident. The NYPD follows the regulation and upholds it, and does so with out resorting to utilizing sledgehammers to squash flies.
Sufficient is sufficient. ICE and HSI want to face down and abandon their overmilitarized ways. If the NYPD can maintain the town protected with out such brazen aggression, so can they.
If ICE and HSI can not accomplish their mission with out resorting to such aggression, then it’s time to ask: Of what use is that this mission? What good does it serve? And why should we topic ourselves to its continuance?
