Marilu Mendez said when ICE vehicles began following her and her husband Monday and then surrounded their car on Tallman Street in New Bedford, she took out her cell phone and started recording.

Her video shows a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforement agent using a large hammer to break the back passenger window of their car.

Marilu said the agents were focused on her husband, Juan, but kept calling him “Antonio”, the name of another man who lives in their building.

Juan Mendez is now being held in a detention facility in Dover, New Hampshire, with a hearing scheduled for May 7.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    I can’t wait for somebody to exercise their stand-your-ground rights against these kidnapping fascists.

    • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      While that may go right or wrong for a few, because people are defending themselves from the murders, the resulting change in tactics accelerates everything and the murders may occur in place.

      We are in a very bad place right now in history.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        As a wise man once said: Do not obey in advance. Everything you fear the fascists will do if you give them an excuse they’ll do anyway. They’re not waiting for you to do a Bad Thing before they escalate; they’ll escalate whatever you do because their goal is absolute power.

      • thedruid@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        It doesn’t matter. The first one through the door is going to deliver a message to the rest. It won’t be the message they want to hear.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      It would be very unlikely to go well. I remember a case during the BLM protests where police were shooting at a random car, and the person in the car shot back. The police unloaded their clips - surprisingly no one got hurt.

      But specifically regarding the law, Stand Your Ground only works if there’s an imminent threat to your body (getting arrested doesn’t count). Basically, you would have to prove that you believed the ICE agent was going to severely hurt you to justify any severe harm to the agent. I’m not sure if there’s many examples of ICE agents doing that

      • besselj@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        Being sent to a foreign prison without due process is certainly an imminent threat to your body

        • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Hmm, good point. Before, it was probably in your best interest to cooperate since rule of law meant there was at least a chance you’d get your day in court. At this point, people have nothing to lose when ICE approaches them. Might as well go all out and take as many as possible with you.

        • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          Legal rights or not, your situation is the biggest, belligerent, militarized, fascist gang wants to either kill you or kill you, and everybody knows this is reality right now. There is no good option here.

        • thedruid@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Yeah. There’s no always. That will stop them fight. Fight hard. Do not let them do as they wish. Resist

      • Aviandelight @mander.xyz
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        3 days ago

        I watched that video and I was terrified. If a group of people stop my car and come at me with sledgehammers then I will assume they mean to do me bodily harm. That’s what terrified me most about that video. It’s only a matter of time before “ICE” starts straight up killing people.

      • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Not to be that person or anything, but the rule of law is almost dead here in the States. Especially when the current “admin” is ignoring laws to begin with. Stand your ground people, help any who might need it.

        • KMAMURI@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I’d even go further and say go to immigrant communities and help them stand their ground.

      • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        It certainly helps against plainclothes people and hiding their face. You don’t know who is an actual officer and who isn’t.

        I do remember that event for BLM. The police were using paint balls or bb guns for their “riot control” after there was a curfew.

        This needs the full on force of armed citizen watchdog groups who escort ICE and hold them off. A whole community that is armed and saying “no, this is my neighbor and you cannot take him.” Is going to be the way to stop ICE.

        I would love to see the “police free zone” that Portland had during the BLM protests get recreated as “ICE free zones.”

      • shani66@ani.social
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        3 days ago

        Being illegally arrested does count, i think. Especially with the general trend of police brutality occurring in America. That said they don’t really care about the law here.

      • Upgrayedd1776@lemmy.world
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        they do that to their own officers who blow whistle on corruption or abuse, they also tend to do that to people they get the wrong address of

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        surprisingly no one got hurt.

        Are you sure this was BLM? Are you sure it wasn’t star wars? Were these stormtroopers you were watching?

    • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It’ll be a massacre. If we’re lucky, lots of pigs will go down as well, but they have quasi military gear. The ratios aren’t in your favor.

      • in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        The populace outnumber the police by more than 1000:1. Yes, it could be a massacre, but if the populace want victory bad enough then they can get it. However i’m convinced that Americans would stay at home and stop protesting if police start shooting at them, Americans are cowards. History has proven that the US Gov’t could bomb and burn a US city to smithereens and Americans will do nothing as a consequence (Tulsa and Philadelphia)

          • in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 days ago

            Probably so they can get money to “take care of their family.” That’s why I hate the excuse of “If I do what’s necessary, then I won’t be able to feed my kids or pay my mortgage” people because that’s the reasoning of a cop or a Nazi soldier putting a gun barrel to the back of a pregnant womans neck, “I’m just protecting my own.” As if prioritizing your own children over other children at large isn’t anything other than fascist. Those people are self-reporting themselves as narcs and should be feared like the plague. Everyone’s family is at risk now, fuck your own. People need to start realizing the world is bigger than themselves.

      • njm1314@lemmy.world
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        Not for nothing but that quasi military gear is pretty widely available. If that’s your concern that’s all the more reason to arm yourself and to start organizing.