You could be next
Even if Trump and his vice president and his secretary of
homeland security all claim, contrary to the videotapes, that Renee Nicole Good
was trying to kill an agent who acted in self-defense, they could make up the
same about you.
Even if Trump describes her as a “professional agitator” and
his goons call her a “domestic terrorist,” they could say the same about you
regardless of your political views or activism. If you have left-wing political
views and are an activist, you’re in greater danger.
How can we believe what the FBI turns up in its
investigation, when the FBI is working for Trump and is headed by one of his
goons, and is investigating possible connections between Renee Good and groups
that have been protesting Trump’s immigration enforcement?
What credence can we give federal officials who are blocking
local and state investigators from reviewing evidence they’re collecting?
In October, Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen in Chicago, was
in her car trying to warn people about ICE when she collided with a Border
Patrol vehicle. Federal officials say she “rammed” the car. Her lawyers say she
was sideswiped by it.
The agent then got out of his car and shot her five times.
She survived. The Justice Department then charged her with assaulting a federal
officer.
You could be next. All of us need to realize this. The
people who are being assaulted and murdered are abiding the law.
This is what happened to Mahmoud Khalil — who graduated from
Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, who has a green card,
and whose wife is an American citizen.
Plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
appeared at his apartment building on March 8 and then detained him
without charges in a Louisiana ICE detention facility for three and a half
months. (He missed his graduation and the birth of his first child.)
The Trump regime continues to try to deport him. A federal
court heard arguments
on October 22 in the regime’s ongoing deportation case against him but has not
issued a verdict.
Khalil did nothing illegal. He was in the United States
legally. He has never been charged with a crime. He expressed his political
point of view — peacefully, nonviolently, non-threateningly. That’s supposed to
be permitted — dare I say even encouraged? — in a democracy.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump conceded Khalil was
snatched up and sent off because of his politics. “This is the first arrest of
many to come,” wrote Trump. “We know there are more students at Columbia and
other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist,
anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not
tolerate it.”
Trump could just as well arrest and expel permanent
residents who voice support for, say, transgender people or DEI or “woke” or
anything else the regime finds “anti-American” and offensive.
What’s to stop the Trump regime from arresting you for, say,
advocating the replacement of Republicans in Congress in 2026 and electing a
Democrat to the presidency in 2028?
Renee Nicole Good was murdered. Marimar Martinez was shot
but survived. Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and jailed and is still fighting
deportation. There are many others. The next could be you or someone you love.
What’s at stake isn’t just American democracy. It’s also
your safety and security and that of your friends and loved ones. This is
personal — to every one of us.
A dictatorship knows no bounds.
We must commit to peacefully fighting this regime, to ending
Republican control of Congress in 2026, and to sending this dangerous gang
packing in 2028 — assuming we’re still free and alive by then.
