Getting tear-gassed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) at a migrant detention center tucked away in an industrial park just outside of Chicago is not how I planned on spending my Friday night. Nevertheless, there I was, gagging and choking and taking heaving gulps of that foul-smelling, poisoned air as I stumbled blindly down a dead-end street.
What a bunch of assholes.
My eyes and skin burned from the fine particulates of pepper-balls floating through the air. Earlier in the day, the sporadic introduction of capsaicin into the air from the CBP agents shooting at protesters’ feet was doing a surprising job of clearing up my sinuses. But now they had switched their paintball guns to full-auto, and were spraying indiscriminately into the crowd at point-blank range.
I couldn't tell you what started this mess. An old friend (whom I've worked a riot or two with before) is confident a firework was launched at the CBP agents, but I'm not so sure. It was dark, we were tired. It's entirely possible CBP fired the first round, that tear gas was thrown back before it exploded. Then again, I've seen enough black-clad Home Aloners come to a protest with handfuls of firecrackers thinking they've developed an effective defense strategy against an armored paramilitary force with a billion dollar budget and sovereign immunity.
The day started off with a small number of people getting pelted with pepper balls and tear gas at dawn. A couple of them were elected officials, or aspiring elected officials, joining what’s become a regular protest on Fridays at the Broadview facility. Videos and lazy news pieces have since implied that is the extent of what happened throughout the day as opposed to the start.
Simply put: Federal agents spent the day brutalizing protesters and press. A large gate would slide open and agents would walk out. Sometimes they would charge into the small crowd of two or three dozen, other times they’d just shoot at your feet to clear a path for a kidnapping convoy coming in or out.
On social media, there was a call to action at 6 p.m. At around 8 p.m., the apex of the crowd, there couldn’t have been more than 200 people, including press. Federal agents rushed the crowd, deploying pepper spray and shooting pepper balls randomly into the crowd. In the chaos, several people fought back and were dragged back inside the facility. Later in the evening, the gate opened again and the agents just started throwing gas, and firing canisters from grenade launchers at point-blank range.
Everything gets a little hazy after that. Once I regained my sight, breath and footing, I felt it was more important to help my colleagues than to do my job.
So it goes.
When I got back to my friend’s flat (and I apologized for breaking a promise to his partner on entering their home covered in tear gas), they read me this statement full of bold claims from DHS:
WASHINGTON – Early this morning, over a hundred rioters surrounded the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Broadview Processing Center — rioters assaulted law enforcement, threw tear gas cans, slashed tires of cars, blocked the entrance of the building, and trespassed on private property. Police under JB Pritzker’s sanctuary jurisdiction refused to answer multiple calls for assistance. So far, federal law enforcement arrested three rioters. Throughout the morning, vans have shown up to pick up and drop off rioters. This is an organized effort to obstruct ICE law enforcement.
I feel it necessary to debunk this laughable piece of one-sided fiction:
A van carrying four kidnapped people did suffer a popped tire as it attempted to enter the facility shortly after 11 a.m., but there were about a dozen people around that van. I was standing right there when I heard the wheel pop and I couldn't tell you what the hell happened. The agents do drive around like reckless teenagers, jumping curbs, taking turns at speed, slamming on the gas and brakes. Plus, the ground is littered with the plastic casings of plastic pepper-ball shells.
Anyone blocking the entrance to their parking lot was damn near run over with little warning. Agents routinely drove into the crowd while agents on the roof shot at people.
The Broadview building is a federal government facility, thus it can not be private property. Local business owners tell me the Broadview building has been an ICE facility for over a decade, and it was only in the last two weeks that anything changed. One local worker told me, “it was pretty boring until all this.”
The only vans picking up and dropping off rioters are the vans picking up and dropping off federal agents. The Broadview police — not the Chicago police — recovered injured protesters for EMS. Protesters carry umbrellas, bottles of water, and harsh language, federal agents carry paintball guns, grenade launchers, and assault rifles with scopes, laser targeting, and silencers.
And when those federal agents, dressed in multi-cam, Kevlar-plated battle rattle with tax-payer-funded full-face PPE, started coughing, choking, and gagging like the rest of us? That was because those morons — who fantasize they’re Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae — gassed themselves.
I love the beautiful towering trees around my neighborhood.
https://substack.com/@ziggywiggy/note/c-158452082?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knfuc
Thank you, Dominic.