August 21 Friday roundup

In the latest podcast episode, I discuss how the mundane tasks of providing Flock surveillance cameras, electroshock gloves for use on civilians, and ankle monitors for refugees reveal that the U.S. is in the middle stages of concentration camp regime consolidation—and what that means. You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple, Spotify, and elsewhere. If you’d like to check out the links in the written version, you can read Tuesday’s post.

I live in Falls Church, Virginia, a town of just over 15,000 people less than five miles from Washington, D.C., as the crow flies. On Monday, August 10 of this year, a woman named Carolina Molina was in her car in a Falls Church parking lot, in a busy area known as Bailey’s Crossroads—an area I drive to or through several times a week—when she spotted ICE officers.

A licensed counselor who works with immigrants, Molina shouted out her window, calling one of the officers a “ho.” She says she then realized there were other unmarked ICE vehicles in the lot, and pulled into a parking space to turn around and leave. As she did so, she called out more insults. She quickly found herself blocked in by ICE vehicles.

One officer present was recently confirmed by Migrant Insider (via DHS) to be Martin Lagunas. In video of the incident, Lagunas emerged from his vehicle, gun drawn, before standing at Molina’s open window and pointing his weapon at her.

She did not appear intimidated at the time in the video, despite the officer announcing that “you almost ran us over.” She told him he was “full of shit.” When he threatened to arrest her, she said, “I’m a legal citizen.” The officer said, “I don’t care,” as another agent added, “We have the power.” After she announced that she had dashcam footage (in addition to the video she was recording of the conversation on her cell phone), they quickly went back to their vehicles, and she was able to leave the lot. The exchange took less than a minute.

Molina mentioned that it was only later she realized that she’d been in serious danger, and that “this was a whole Renée Good situation again,” referring to the mother shot dead in her car by ICE in Minneapolis in January. In that case, agents had also claimed spuriously that Good was trying to run them over.

I wrote on Tuesday about how patterns of history seem to suggest that the tactics of violent agents working for concentration camp regimes spread like the techniques of an artisanal craft, practitioner to practitioner. Abuses emerging locally then get carried by individuals to other sites, where they are adopted. This Falls Church case with Molina is an interesting lens through which to think about that idea.

In addition to DHS confirmation, several outlets and organizations have also identified Lagunas as the officer who pointed the gun at Molina’s face. Unraveled Press’s identification was based in part upon a very distinctive and large tattoo on his left forearm that matches that of Lagunas—who already has a whole bank of video footage of ICE observers who have logged his interactions elsewhere.

Lagunas been in several key locations and encounters where witnesses have reported dangerous or violent behavior. He and his coworkers have been recorded not just in Minneapolis, where Good was shot, but also in Chicago. He led a team in the latter city, abducting people who showed up for their court hearings. In one video on the street, he and a partner smashed the windows of a car to remove ICE observers inside. Other incidents over the last year—involving undocumented people and citizens alike—have been alarming enough that Lagunas been the focus of prior news stories, long before drawing his gun on a therapist in Falls Church this month.

Here is a man who has carried the tactics of ICE’s roughshod work and willingness to threaten anyone who expresses a dislike for them around the country. And we see the very similar approaches by his colleagues in Chicago, then in Minneapolis, and now in my backyard. We can track the tactics and how they spread. It’s happening in your backyard, too—though perhaps you’ve been protected from seeing it so far.

Two days ago my congressman, Don Beyer, and two other representatives from the state of Virginia met with Carolina Molina on Capitol Hill. At the news conference that followed, they called for an FBI investigation of the incident and demanded access to the bodycam video recorded by the ICE officers. They submitted a letter signed by the trio, as well as three ranking members of key Congressional committees, formally echoing their demands.

And they noted that Molina is far from alone. They listed at least four others who have had similar encounters in Northern Virginia during the two weeks prior to the Auust 10 incident targeting Molina.

And on Wednesday, Pablo Manriquez at Migrant Insider reported Beyer bringing another case forward, that of José Mejía Hernandez in Arlington, Virginia, who was on his way to a bus stop. Men appeared in vehicles and jumped out to grab him. He ran. After he was shot with a stun gun, he lost consciousness and came to in the hospital with a brain bleed and facial bruising.

It’s a good reminder that the vigilante approach to “law enforcement” and the torturers’ club will stay active and share tactics for as long as we let them. They rely on being protected from accountability for their abuses by those in charge. But we don’t have to make it easy for crimes to go unpunished.

People like Carolina Molina have been speaking up, sometimes at serious risk to their safety. (After the incident, DHS claimed that she “attempted to harm officers by weaponizing her vehicle” and suggested charges might still be brought against her.) Elected officials like Reps. Beyer and others on the Hill are using the levers of power that they have to demand answers and consequences. In addition to body camera footage, they’re demanding agent names and disciplinary records, as well as threatening investigations if and when Democrats return to the majority.

This isn’t just an issue for others to take care of on our behalf. It’s also up to us to know what harm is being done to our neighbors where we live. Only the cases with dramatic footage where someone takes the chance to come forward make the news. But we can find out about the other cases and help make them news. We can interrupt the annihilation of public safety and break up the torturers’ club.

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