How many ICE agents does it take to arrest a NYC comptroller?
That's not the setup for a joke - it's just another day in Trump's America
Intro by Sam Bellamy
The “up against the wall, mother” moments are certainly are piling up for Democrats.
On Tuesday, it was New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s turn. In the short video below (it loops), you’ll see a rather large contingent of ICE agents struggle to separate Lander from a man he was trying to protect outside an immigration courtroom.
As Lander demands that the officers present a warrant for the man’s arrest, the officers finally pull the two apart, then push Landers against a wall to handcuff him.
“You’re obstructing,” an agent told Lander.
“I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway,” Lander replied as the handcuffs went around his wrists.
According to the Associated Press, “The episode occurred as federal immigration officials are conducting large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the country. In many cases, immigrants are arrested after a judge grants a government request to dismiss their case, making them eligible for expedited removal.”
Lander said he was there to observe the process. “They remove any opportunity for due process,” he had told reporters earlier in the day.
After the scuffle, Lander was arrested and detained briefly before being escorted outside to a cheering crowd by, among others, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat. A Department of Homeland Security official said Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.”
If they haven’t already, the Trump administration and GOP flunkies will denounce this as a political stunt. To some degree, that’s true — Lander is running for mayor — but it’s unsettling nonetheless to see a public official descended upon by so many law enforcement officers.
It calls to mind last week’s throwdown between FBI agents and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, when he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference in Los Angeles. Padilla wasn’t arrested, charged or detained.
In that case, DHS officials and Noem said they didn’t know who Padilla was — despite the fact that he identified himself repeatedly before and during the skirmish and, well, Noem most definitely does know Padilla. But, oh, it gets worse.
The senator had arrived at the building a bit early for a scheduled meeting with a general about the arrival of troops in LA. When he learned of Noem’s press conference in a room nearby, he asked to attend and was escorted to the room by an FBI agent and a member of the National Guard.
They opened the door for him and stood next to him right up to the moment he was forcibly removed.
Yet no one knew him?
In an emotional recounting of the incident Tuesday on the Senate floor, Padilla said to his colleagues, “I pray you never have a moment like this.”
OK, but the odds don’t look so good for anyone anymore. Unless you’re a MAGA Republican, of course.