According to Newsweek, NBC Chicago, Daily Mail, and others, ICE Chicago Field Office Director Robert Guadian sent a letter to various community leaders and members in the Greater Chicago area, inviting them to participate in a six week "Citizens Academy" program that will teach them how to operate as an armed agent of ICE, with the ability to arrest other civilians whom they suspect might be undocumented immigrants. From the letter:

The ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] Citizens Academy (ECA) is an interactive 6-day program, occurring one day a week over 6 weeks. The first of its kind, the Chicago ECA will serve as a pilot for nationwide implementation. During the ECA, participants will gain insight into the many facets and responsibilities of ICE/ERO operations […] including, but not limited to defensive tactics, firearms familiarization, and targeted arrests.

In other words, it's the fucking Brownshirts, which later became the SS under Nazi rule. Even worse is that these kinds of unofficial uniformed racist paramilitary units already exist.

ICE Offering 'Citizens Academy' Course with Training on Arresting Immigrants [Chantal Da Silva / Newsweek]

Plan for Chicago ICE Citizens Academy Causes Uproar [Chris Hush / NBC Chicago]

ICE is offering a six-week course on how to arrest immigrants - including 'firearms and defensive training' - as critics warns they are using private citizens as their eyes and ears [Ady Torres / The Daily Mail]

Image: Carwil Bjork-James / Wikimedia Commons (CC 4.0) Read the rest

Video reveals that a black protestor was sucker-punched by a man at a recent Donald Trump rally in Kentucky— and that the police then tackled the protestor, not the attacker.

Posted by the Washington Post, the footage shows several people leaving the rally after being identified as protestors. A ponytailed man approaches and punches one of them in the face. The victim stumbles onwards and is brought to the ground by uniformed guards identified by the Post as law enforcement.

“Chill, chill!” an onlooker says. “You don’t gotta grab him like that!”

Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, said the punch came out of nowhere.

“Boom, he caught me,” Jones told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out. Now I’m waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.”… Jones blamed the Cumberland County officers escorting him from the rally for failing to protect him — then detaining him instead of the man who attacked him.

“It’s happening at all these rallies now and they’re letting it ride,” Jones said. “The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging.”

This isn't the first incident like this. If you choose to go to a Trump rally, be realistic about the risks.

1. Shouting anti-Trump slogans, working as media, or being with a protest group is enough to be identified as the enemy.

2. You might get assaulted, and Trump might encourage it. Read the rest