ICE has a problem

Is ICE's behavior making normal people think it's something like how the radical left describes it?

My American Spectator colleague (not that I’m writing very much anymore) Dan Flynn writes this:

Scott McKay posits @ The American Spectator that “it’s a bad thing that this woman died last Wednesday. Nobody is or should be happy about it. But just like in the case of St. George of Fentanyl, Renee Good is dead because of Renee Good.” That all sounds right. But his conclusion expressed in the article’s title, “White Girl George Floyd Isn’t Working,” seems debatable. A YouGov poll asks, “Do you think the ICE agent should face criminal charges for shooting the woman in Minneapolis?” Fifty-three percent of respondents said yes and 30 percent said no. A Civiqs poll found a similar response. Remarkably, more (46 percent) favored abolishing ICE than opposed its abolition (43 percent). Conservatives may rail about the accuracy of polls. That seems like a dodge of this reality: the United States of America is no longer a center-right country.

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I note that in the YouGov poll Dan mentions, in addition to a majority favoring criminal charges for the ICE agent, almost twice as many say the shooting was not justified as say it was justified: ICE_Policies_and_Practices_poll_results.pdf

Just because a viewpoint is the majority viewpoint doesn’t make it right; the majority can be wrong but 1) I think they’re right this time, and 2) whether they’re right or wrong is irrelevant when it comes to the political implications, i.e. how it will change voter behavior. And this is a big problem for Republicans.

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Here’s my reply to Dan:

Dan,

I think you’re reading too much into the polling about ICE as far as concluding we’re no longer a center-right country. I don’t mean you must be wrong about that conclusion but ICE polling doesn’t come close to proving it because this administration’s hyper-aggressive use of ICE (along with hyper-aggressive everything else) does not appeal to much of the American public.

For example, given the efforts of the radical left to dox and threaten ICE agents, it’s understandable that many now wear masks to hide their identities. It’s also understandable that that’s a bad look. Also, ICE, like much of law enforcement, has become highly militarized, especially in appearance. As one Facebook poster, who served in the Marines, noted, a lot of these guys are wearing the tactical gear but have very little training, and wearing all that stuff can put someone in a different mindset that makes them behave aggressively. (Remember the famous and controversial Stanford Prison Experiment?)

I am much further than usual from my usual political allies on this issue. I think the shooting of Ms Good was closer to murder, or at least manslaughter, than it was to self-defense. The agent broke policy by getting in front of the vehicle to begin with, probably also violated policy by then distracting himself by using a cell phone while engaging with a citizen, saw that the vehicle was starting to move so me moved to the side of the vehicle and his feet were to the side of the vehicle, not in front of it, when he took the first shot. The vehicle might have bumped him; it’s hard to tell. If so, it could be that he hadn’t fully gotten his body out of the way or, more likely, that he was leaning toward the vehicle so he could shoot the driver in the face. But if the vehicle hit him, it was just barely and he was absolutely not in mortal danger. And then he fired twice more through an open side window which would have put bystanders at risk when by far the safest thing would have been to let her go (and arrest her later if needed.) And then it seems like he (but could have been someone else) called her a “f-ing bitch” after she’d been shot. Sure seems like that agent WANTED to shoot a protester.

Also, while most Americans support deporting non-citizen criminals and enforcing the border, most think the Trump administration is going too far in rounding up people who are just doing jobs, contributing to society, and not harming others. I’m not looking to debate the policy with you here; just saying it’s not popular outside the Trump “I voted for this” base.

The Trump administration is turning ICE into something that in the minds of many seems closer to the radical left’s descriptions of it than to a regularly operating law enforcement agency. That’s the fault of Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Donald Trump. I submit that the polling about ICE is actually polling about ICE and not a broader message about the country.