Minnesota shootings and dangerous trends to mimic law enforcement

About 2 yes According to a police report, in an emergency in a suburban Minneapolis operator, someone called and said a masked man “then shot their parents” in a police report Saturday morning. When police and medical staff arrived, they found the victim was a democratic senator named John Hoffman, whose wife Yvette was alive but seriously injured. A “very intuitive” sergeant in nearby Brooklyn Park had helped call the call, asking officials in his jurisdiction to check the home of Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman, who until recently, was state legislator. According to Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley, when officers arrived around 3:35 yesthey saw something unexpected: “vehicles that look exactly like SUV teams” with emergency lights on in the driveway. The front door was open and the officer saw a man dressed up like a policeman and entered. He killed Hotman and her husband Mark. The officer fired a shot at the shooter because he was identified as Vance Boelter, a fifty-seven-year-old evangelical Christian (his website, which he said he was appointed minister), who had a dispersed working history and was recently hired by a local funeral service company, who had run back to the House and escaped. He was arrested Sunday night and charged with federal murder, which has the potential to be sentenced to death.

The assassination of one elected official and the attempted assassination of another elected official confirms the arrival of a new political era in which expectations and fears of political violence are local. But who Boelter is, and the exact nature of his purpose and perceived dissatisfaction, may end up being less prominent than the one he pretends to be. (Boelter’s motivation is unclear, although he has a list of targets that the police have suggested, which may be about 70 people, many of whom are democratic politicians.) A state legislator who summoned his or her door after midnight might have less attitude toward openness, but if the people in the footsteps are unified and the parks on the street are opened. It turns out that Boelter is driving an SUV and he may have equipped for safety operations that have not taken off. But he made a deliberate decision to turn on the emergency lights.

It is very wise for the real Brooklyn Park police to suspect what happened, and their quick response is likely to save lives. (In a press conference Monday, Minnesota authorities revealed that Boelter visited at least two other homes between Hoffman and Hortman, and although no one was at home, he seemed to be scared of the other home. Beware Who rushed to the Capitol and attacked his police force as a “warrior”, and later he pardoned them when they decided to take the law into his own hands.

The politicization of law enforcement has gained new dimensions in the ongoing process Immigration suppressionWhen governments sometimes seem to allow their agents to cover up their identity or affiliation, it is often unclear what custody they have or under what authority it is not clear. (If the vigilantes have been encouraged to act as cops, the actual cops have also been encouraged to act a bit more like vigilantes.) In Boston, in March, when federal agents arrested Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student who had co-written a pro-Palestine op-ed in a campus newspaper, they were in plain clothes and masked. 700 Marines deployed Protests against immigrant attacks were allegedly fought in Los Angeles, with their photos scattered in the detention of protesters. Katherine Lamper of Washington postalLast week, an immigration attack targeted gardeners working outside a boutique home furnishing business in Grand Barrington, Massachusetts, where agents appeared in the business with “masks and tactical equipment, refusing to display IDs, warrants and even the names of any criminals, what they call hunting.” In the work, Rampel spoke with Linda Shafiroff, co-owner of the company, who said: “It could have been like a band like a group of proud boys.”

In each case, the federal government requires the common people to believe that those in uniform act on behalf of the public, while also allowing them to cover their identities and missions and push the boundaries of what law enforcement can do. It is hard to imagine a situation where a more perfect design is used for development. February, one dressed one man ice The jacket at a conservative political action conference outside Washington, D.C. admitted to the steps that he had no affiliation with the agency, but said of his jacket: “The jacket on Amazon is $29.99. If you have a figure, I suggest you buy a small one.” In Philadelphia, police seek a man in fake safety outfits to enter a car restoration store. Shouting “Immigration!”, which caused some employees to be dispersed; then continued to bind a worker and rob the business. By the end of March, fake goodsice The situation in Los Angeles has become common enough in Southern California era Run the title “Features of Ice Copycats and Other Scammers: How to Protect Yourself”.

Some of these imitators are cheating money. But others, especially those who harass immigrants, may express solidarity with the president’s political goals. The leaky membrane Trump has built between law enforcement and his own agenda has done damage to officials, many of whom are just trying to do their own jobs. This may also make their jobs more dangerous. The more obvious the government is, the easier it is for the offender to offend officials, and the more likely citizens are to suspect that the real officials actually represent the authority of the law.

This is the secret to universal distrust. To let citizens know who the armed federal agent is, and under what rule he has carried out, should be even part of the most basic commitment to transparency. At the very least, courts and politicians should force government agents to disclose their identities during raids and detentions and clarify the beginning and end of their authority. If they don’t, or can’t, or can’t, a more dystopian path raises authoritative local doubts. (In the central California valley, school attendance reportedly fell 22% as immigration raids peaked.) On Saturday, a man appeared to crouch behind a wall while carrying an Ar-15-style Rifl during an anti-Trump-free protest in Salt Lake City, Utah. (In Utah, the Open is mostly legal, and it’s unclear whether he supports or opposes the protests.) What police called “peacekeeping personnel” armed men who provide security for the protests – while the role is formal or self-assigned, they are knocking out their weapons and yelling. One shot at the man, managed to disarm him, but killed a bystander.

In Minnesota, authorities say they are studying Boelter’s motivations and whether he belongs to the broader network. At the same time, the entire political class is prevalent. this era It is suggested that political violence is “almost conventional”. Greg Landsman, a Democratic Congressman from Ohio, told the newspaper that for months he had been having assassination attempts every time he spoke in public. “It’s still in my mind. I don’t think it’s going to go away,” he said. “It’s just that I’m on the ground.” These are the pressures that can remove public services and undermine democracy. Among all the general calls for cooling partisan political rhetoric, this particular measure may help: Better know who represents which area of ​​law enforcement, and the limitations of its mission. Otherwise, it could be a summer summer when everyone (with politicians) becomes unsafe. ♦