Warrantless Goons

The regime is arresting Democrats

They did it again. The goons have arrested a Democratic politician for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was just last week when California Senator Alex Padilla was tackled and handcuffed in a federal building in Los Angeles during a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The excuses for handcuffing the senator have been lies and bullshit.

They said he “barged” into the press conference. He was escorted in by the FBI and the National Guard, which is not “barging.” The so-called barging is not on any of the videos I have seen.

They said he “lunged” toward Kristi Noem, but you don’t see that on any of the videos either. You just see the Secret Service grabbing him. Kristi Noem carries on speaking while the SS is grabbing the senator and dragging him out of the room. If she was “lunged” at, she didn’t seem to be rattled by it.

They say he took off his Senate pin. Even if this is true, so what? It’s not a factor, especially since he identified himself.

They say he didn’t identify himself. Look at the tapes. He identified himself multiple times.

They say he staged the entire thing. Really? How did he get Kristi Noem’s people to cooperate with the “staging?” How could the senator be so sure, if he was staging it, that the Secret Service would react so irrationally if he took a step forward and asked Noem a question?

They say the fact that his intern was one of those who recorded the incident is proof it was staged. Nope. Everybody has a cell phone in their pocket that records video. Just last weekend in Washington while I was watching protests against Trump, several incidents came up that made me tell myself, “Oh, damn…I better get my iPhone out of my pocket and record this bullshit. You don’t have to plan ahead.

They say he’s a low-key and insignificant senator most haven’t heard of before, and that’s why he wasn’t recognized by Noem. He’s the senior senator from the nation’s largest state who’s also the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety. We’re not talking about Pete Ricketts here.

Yesterday, ICE agents arrested Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is a Democratic candidate running for mayor, in an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan.

Lander was escorting an immigrant ICE agents were looking to ambush and arrest. They’ve been doing that a lot lately, arresting migrants as they attend a court hearing. Lander had his hand on the migrant’s shoulder, saying he won’t let go until the agents, many of whom were masked, show him a judicial warrant. They arrested Lander.

The agents told him he was being arrested for obstruction, and later, a spokesgoon for DHS released a statement saying Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.”

I’m sorry, but I just can’t find the spot in this video showing Lander assaulting ICE agents, who, I must remind you, were wearing masks. Isn’t it weird that MAGAts are all mask happy now after howling against them since 2020?

The spokesgoon added, “Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers face a 413 percent increase in assaults against them. It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment. No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”

How heroic of multiple masked ICE agents to survive this “assault” from Brad Lander. They’re as heroic as Donald Trump is each time he survives being challenged by a woman. Poor, poor baby.

There’s no evidence that Lander staged this for a viral moment. This has become the MAGAt excuse for them doing the wrong thing.

Where DHS should be in trouble here is that ICE, as Lander pointed out during his arrest, does NOT have the authority to arrest US citizens. DHS has not said anything about investigating ICE over this.

There have been a lot of uncalled-for arrests lately of people challenging the Trump regime. In addition to Padilla and Lander, federal agents arrested Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka and later charged Representative LaMonica McIver outside an immigration detention center.

Last April, FBI agents arrested a Milwaukee judge on charges she had shielded an undocumented immigrant from federal agents.

Last weekend, cops arrested a reporter while covering the No Kings protests in Georgia. Since he’s Hispanic, they sent him to be detained by ICE, who have had him in their custody ever since.

You know what Harry from Resident Alien would say about this. I’ll let you put it in the comments.

Creative note: I’m still in SoCal. I had a difficult time finding my groove for this cartoon. If you watch the video, you’ll see me start over multiple times…and at the end, you’ll see cops enter to arrest me for assaulting ICE agents with his “staged” cartoon.

Music note: I listened to Death in Vegas.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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