The brutal murders of Renee Nicole Good and Keith Porter by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sparked protests similar to those of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. Once again, people are appalled at the sheer violence, abuse of power and audacity that is being used to mercilessly execute and destroy people’s lives.
Given this, many are calling for the abolishment of ICE in the same way people called for an abolishment of the police back in 2020, and with as much swiftness as 2020, political officials are characterizing this as an issue of a lack of proper training, a need for reform and defunding.
“We need our police officers across the country to tell ICE you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You need real police training,” Chuck Schumer, a senior U.S. Senator from New York, said.
Schumer backed the idea of having the NYPD fly to Minneapolis to confront ICE, the same NYPD that’s seen a spike in excessive force complaints, threw out 400 cases of alleged misconduct and has a bad history of police violence.
At this point, the claim that the brutality is a lack of adequate training or that we should reform or defund ICE instead are the same excuses used in 2020. Five years since George Floyd’s death and numerous attempts, successes and failures toward reform, police brutality has risen.
Since then, many of the attempts at “reforming” police and making accountability easier have been rolled back or counteracted with worse tactics. Here in Ohio, Mike DeWine signed a bill that could allow police to charge for access to body camera footage. Last May, Alabama signed the Back the Blue Act, which many oppose because its unclear wording could put more people at risk and help officers skirt accountability. Many municipalities said they were going to defund their police, but ended up refunding them.
So much of the same language from the 2020 police brutalities is being used to pacify and quell over the very legitimate and rightfully furious calls for abolishing crooked systems of oppression and abuse.
When it comes to directly critiquing, ridiculing or objecting to law enforcement, it’s met with denial, deescalation and disregard. Vice President JD Vance defended the ICE agent who shot Good. Democrats like Schumer want to confront ICE, and Tim Walz made a public appeal to President Donald Trump, saying, “Let’s turn the temperature down … this is not who we are,” and told protestors to be outraged “peacefully” because it only exacerbates the issue.
Americans are now having to contend with both police brutality and ICE brutality, with no concrete solutions and stakes as high as human life.
This is a terrifying and morbid reality to live in. To get on my phone and see more people murdered, assaulted and having their lives destroyed in the name of justice is demoralizing. What’s just as demoralizing is feeling déjà vu from 2020 and silently accepting that, from a political stance, this issue won’t be solved. Politicians can’t expect protestors to sit back and calm down when no real solutions have been put forth.
While there are some politicians like Congressman Shri Thanedar, who have proposed abolishing ICE legislation, a large portion of political power still seems to be in favor of keeping ICE in some capacity.
I would call for more politicians to finally face the reality of the role of law enforcement in America and what they’re willing to do about it, but their commitment to rehashing the same promises, non-solutions and pacifications as years past lead me to believe this is the only direction they’re willing to move in concerning this issue. If politicians decide to die on this hill, many others will die as well.
Dawnelle Blake is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Dawnelle about their column? Email them at db948724@ohio.edu
