Because America legalized murder by police decades ago when they were mostly killing people they didn't care about and now that they are killing people they DO care about, its too late. You know, the exact outcome that we have been telling them would happen for that entire time.
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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Someone should write a poem to capture the point.
Yes, you could also put it this way: the reason is that the US has not been a constitutional state for decades and that US citizens have allowed this to happen. Now the system is turning even against those who stood by and watched. The most absurd thing about all this is that there is still no repression like in a dictatorship, which is what it will ultimately lead to, and yet there is no significant civil resistance, even though injustice is already clearly prevailing. On the contrary, people still believe that they live in a constitutional state and that the rule of law, which is so obviously non-existent, will sort things out.
People still defend waiting for midterms as though it'll save them. Just earlier today I linked to Trump saying we shouldn't have elections and someone came in to tell me he'd launch a lawsuit if it was canceled.
Democracy is being stamped out by the day by armed thugs murdering people and he's putting all his money on a lawsuit. There won't be anything left of his freedom by then.
Yes, I'm from Germany, and that's the same attitude that our grandparents can rightly be accused of.
Fascism is only possible because of the inaction of the population, their reluctance to act even in the face of the worst atrocities.
The difference to my grandparents, however, is that the internet makes everything public right from the get-go, which was absolutely not the case in Nazi Germany.
Unfortunately, the result is still the same: apathy toward a terrorist regime that could be overthrown, for which there are numerous examples in completely different power situations.
Iran currently provides the most impressive example of how resistance is possible even in a truly repressive system, which the US is by no means. I mean, measured by what US citizens understand as repression - how much more courage does it take to rise up against a long-established autocratic regime? And then the US president also announces that he is on the side of the demonstrators in order to sweep his own, naturally much milder repressive measures in his own country under the carpet.
It's just sad and entirely preventable that the US is succumbing to autocracy, but that is what will happen—and the inactive US citizens are to blame, even if they do not want to hear it.
The fact that the US is going downhill can be seen even in the attitude of US Lemmy users. Even those who are in no way comparable to the average US citizen still have a very strange sense of national pride that clouds their view of reality.
Agreed. Lemmy users are generally more left than most and even here there are so many people justifying inaction. It's infuriating to watch them lose their democracy without even trying.
The reason is that no one will do anything about it. The legal system is dead, the politicians are only in it for themselves, and the people are wimps.
If that makes you mad AT ME, maybe you should check your priorities.
Consequences require action by people willing to stand up. It’s still possible just highly unlikely.
Clock is tickin!
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Morons were convinced that the second amendment was outdated and that police and national guard were suitable replacements for a civilian formed militia. They're still trying to convince themselves this is a LARP while people are being murdered and disappeared all while screeching, "Where are all the 2nd Amendment people at?" The same people that chased off their gun toting allies at the beginning of the BLM protests. These are unserious people that are going to get themselves killed if they don't wake up.
I’d argue they are pretty serious about wanting to kill people and act tough. I say tit for tat, because martial law is coming either way. It’s the natural progression of the takeover of a country. Eventually the military takes control until new local governments are established. Most Americans just really don’t want to think about it.
I don't think you and I are talking about the same people. A dumbass in an inflatable costume isn't a serious person.
Ohhhhh right the protesters aren’t serious. Yes I agree.
For me, the scariest part is that they have used the defense that a human has a body and that body is inherently a weapon. By saying that ownership of a body is reasonable grounds for an ICE officer to fear for their lives, it clears the way for them to legally claim that any shooting of any human at any time is justified because that person had a body and so they had reason to fear for their lives.
Also completely disregards the credible fear of having an armed federal agent pointing a gun at you. Any reflexive act to preserve life and liberty suddenly becomes justification for your own death.
This is the part I’ve never quite understood. If you don’t trust the person pointing the gun to not shoot you, you have no reason to comply. Everything is self defense.
This exact question got me kicked from the jury pool for a murder trial. If you're dead, how do we know if you felt threatened like the gun holder claims to have been? You obviously were the one under threat, but now you're dead!
So in a nutshell, existence is a threat. Yeah that tracks.
I don't think that matters at all tbh, defenses like those are only really relevant if there's a case that goes to trial. According to the article not a single agent has been charged from killing someone. Not convicted, just charged with a crime. Including at least one example where the agent was clearly lying and just shot someone who posed no threat at all. That tells me that investigations are just not being done at all, they don't give a single rat's ass about accountability.
Two dozen over a decade? Police kills over thousand people per year.
ICE can do it because nothing was ever done to stop it.
ICE are not police. Thus different laws and qualified immunity standards apply.
Not a single agent appears to have faced criminal charges.
Yes, completely different standards.
Because the White House and Republicans in Congress want them to. It diminishes the opposition's voting base.
They can’t kill with impunity if we shoot back.
The unredacted use of force document is published by Ken Klippenstein, here:
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-ice-is-okay-with-renee