Are we a fair society? Or are we one where the police wear masks?

And how the hell are you supposed to know if you’re being arrested or kidnapped?

By Caleb Otte

Guest Writer

I want you to imagine a nightmare scenario. You are just getting off of work and heading to your car. Parked beside you is an unmarked van. Four men in masks and vests hop out and tackle you to the floor. They ask where you are from. And they throw you in their vehicle with no indication of where you’re going.

Unfortunately, nobody is around to video. Nobody is able to come to your aid. What the hell do you think just happened?

Most sane people would realize they’ve been kidnapped. Taken against their will by folks they couldn’t identify, without a known reason.

It’s a frightening thought, but it’s also a reality that many across Orange County and Los Angeles have been threatened with in the past month. Ever since the Trump Administration sent ICE to Southern California, this has been the norm. And a fair society cannot operate in this way.

Think about it: Even if you support mass deportations and have no problem with everything that has been happening in LA, how can you ever be okay with law enforcement not identifying themselves? How can you be okay with them not giving a reason for detaining somebody? Not reading people their rights? Not telling them where they’re being carted off to?

It sets an extremely dangerous precedent for this country. How can anybody know if the officers arresting them actually work for ICE (or any other law enforcement agency) or if they are some wacko Proud Boys? Allowing the officers in these raids to wear masks and drive around with no identification allows extremists to do the same. It gives them license to snap up anybody off the street that they deem too foreign to be a legal citizen. I mean look at this video—these “officers” are wearing street clothes.

But not only does it embolden the most crazed of us, it also allows the agents themselves to abuse their power. Even with bystanders filming these raids, there is no way to hold those involved accountable. If we can’t see their face or what organization they work for, then they can do whatever shitty things they like without repercussions.

To put it simply—the masks are fucked up. Most people understand that. Or at least most people inclined to read this publication. But this is part of a larger discussion about the soul of the United States.

How can we exist as a fair and equal country if any non-white person feels deathly terrified to leave their own home? We can’t. And some will argue that immigrants and minorities won’t have anything to worry about as long as they haven’t committed a violent crime. Yet, according to the LA Times, the majority of people arrested (cough—kidnapped) in these raids have no criminal conviction.

We also know that this administration isn’t afraid to deport people with zero due process. And the Supreme Court is allowing Trump and Co. to send people off to a country they aren’t from, most likely to be tortured in prison. Yeah, I would be afraid to step outside if my skin wasn’t pasty white. Because some faceless, nameless, spineless excuse for a human being could take me against my will and send me to God-knows-where.

These are not the values our society should be upholding. Anybody living in or visiting this country has rights. They have a right to know their charges, be read their rights and to see the faces and know the names of those arresting them. Otherwise, we are a land where kidnapping is legal.

Most of the time it’s exhausting and it feels hopeless to combat the issues facing our country. It’s understandable. We shouldn’t have to make law enforcement play by the rules. But we do.

Let me provide some examples of what the average citizen can do to prevent masked vigilantes from making our communities unsafe.

In Manhattan, protestors forced an ICE raid back into their hideout. They had strength in numbers, and it intimidated those who wanted to hold the power. The best thing we can do is strip them of the feeling that they are in control of the given situation. These are power-hungry individuals, so don’t let them sniff the authority they crave.

I’ve seen countless videos taken by random people who were either at protests or just happened to see these raids happening. At the very least, showing up and documenting the situation helps. Even if you can’t identify those in masks, you can surely identify the LAPD officers helping them out.

There is no easy, surefire way to stop the kidnappings from happening. But protests have helped. Simply recording it can help. Our best options right now are to demand accountability and use our presence as a deterrence. The cops don’t exist to help us, so we must help one another.

Caleb Otte is an editor at the Chapman University student newspaper and runs the excellent Substack, My Ramblings.