Raid!

We are merely actors, and all the world's a stage

During his presidency, George H. W. Bush resigned his membership in the National Rifle Association. The organization, drunk on their own rising power under Ronald Reagan, and flaunting the Second Amendment, made a call to arms to stand up against the “jack-booted thugs” in the military and law enforcement. My, how times have changed. The tables have turned to the degree that the NRA now supports the “jack-booted thugs,” and so many of us are sick to our stomachs as we watch the agents of ICE stage performative raids that net few undocumented immigrants, but get big points for intimidation and the Reality Television nature of it all.

They want us to be afraid. And quiet.

It is clear that President Trump is spoiling to start a fight in the streets of our country. In the face of the unnecessary deployment of the California National Guard and the the Marines in LA where the locals had things under control (More damage is wrought in Philly whenever they win a championship), one can sense the president trying to foment a phony crisis that he will escalate, giving himself grounds to restrict our fundamental rights to protest, which will set off more riots, until he ultimately uses the excuse he’s created by violence, to halt the midterm elections, effectively neutering state election control, and ensuring his continued dominance.

As The Atlantic’s David Frum put it, “This weekend’s events suggest an answer. Trump knows full well that the midterms are coming. He is worried. But he might already be testing ways to protect himself that could end in subverting those elections’ integrity. So far, the results must be gratifying to him—and deeply ominous to anyone who hopes to preserve free and fair elections in the United States under this corrupt, authoritarian, and lawless presidency.”

Last week, one of those raids, where masked agents wearing tactical gear and brandishing M-16’s arrived in unmarked vans with no license plates, spilled out of the vehicles, and surrounded a beloved San Diego neighborhood restaurant.

Such overkill. The ruse was that they were acting on a five year old tip that many of the dishwashers are undocumented. There were no undocumented workers. Just a couple of people who weren’t holding their documents at the moment. You see, you now need your papers to move about freely. In case you’re confused, this is not Nazi Germany in 1938. It is America. Today.

Two agents in business suits could have discreetly showed the manager their badges, seen all the legal paperwork, and avoided the ruckus. But the ruckus was the point. Get people to pour into the streets in protest, then claim the republic is threatened, and build up the police state you’ve always wanted.

The obvious truth is that they’re trying to incite riots to justify robbing us of our civil liberties, especially our right to free speech and assembly. It reminded me of the classic 1939 movie, Casablanca, where the Nazis try to get pro-democracy agitator Victor Lazlo’s transit papers so they can keep the dissenter from escaping to the West. Just as the not-quite Vichy police inspector was “Shocked—shocked, I tell you,” to find gambling at Rick’s American Café, it’s all a distraction built on a false premise.

The entire restaurant stunt—I use that word deliberately—had the feel of Reality TV, which is what makes it “performative,” like Kristi Noem playing dress up in her tactical garb for a press conference.

Why, I have to wonder, are ICE agents terrorizing neighborhood restaurants instead of hunting down known visa violators. The administration loves to say that the undocumented are criminals, but that simplistic fig leaf fails to cover the fact that dishwashers (who, not incidentally, are here legally) are not terrorists hurling Molotov cocktails like the disgruntled Egyptian national, here on an expired tourist visa, who threw Molotov cocktails at a gathering of Jewish people lobbying in Boulder, Colorado for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages from the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.

It all leads us back to Los Angeles, where Latin American immigrants make everything from landscaping to dishwashing to roofing, work.

Provocatively sending the National Guard and Marines into the streets of LA over the mayor’s and governor’s objections is exactly the fight this president has been spoiling for. The state is suing the administration for usurping an obvious state power, but that’s a nonstarter. The administration experts in obfuscation and delay will abuse the process and no result will emerge for months, if not years.

Getting to lord his power over the hated Democratic governor (“Newscum” in Trump parlance) is exactly the kind of thing Trump and his minions love.

Our democracy is now in a most precarious position. A lawless but popular president is working the angles, trying to retain power at all costs while half of us remain blissfully unaware.

©2025 Jon Sinton