The Truth I See and the Lies I'm Told

With my own eyes I saw, from multiple angles, the death of a man at the hands of the state. A man who was exercising his First and Second Amendment rights. It made no sense. He had already been pepper sprayed multiple times, was pulled into an unfair fight with too many agents, disarmed, and then shot upwards of 10 times.

The evilness of it all is compounded by the willful ignorance of our elected and appointed leaders who choose to suppress whatever good natures they have left to perpetuate lie after lie after lie. Why do they think we buy it? It's not OK for them to lie to us like we're stupid! It's an insult!

It hasn't been politics as usual for a very long time. Americans and immigrants alike are being murdered or hurt by a state whose sadistic enforcement of its immigration policies send people to their death; if not directly by gunfire from an ICE agent or while in custody (as happened already this year), then by sending people back to countries that want them dead (for example, two gay asylum seekers are set to be deported back to Iran where they will likely be executed because homosexuality is still punishable by death there).

There are calls to abolish ICE and I support that. ICE is abusing their authority and there's no indication that they plan to stop, quite the contrary. They're escalating, and it won't stop. Especially with the president's lieutenants firmly embedded in our federal agencies. So, if we do it, we better have a damn good plan.

This administration has chosen to be unnecessarily cruel and incredibly stupid in the enforcement of its policies. Government is supposed to keep us safe. And maybe some people think that's what's happening. But at what cost? They've done nothing but offer monsters to soothe the fear they, themselves, created.

My heart goes out to the families of all those who have died, to those who have been hurt, and those who are scared because the US promised safety and hope for a future, and this administration has perverted that dream and has been working damn hard to take it all away.