cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47336339
On Friday and again on Saturday night, state police attacked protesters and press where hundreds of immigrants have been engaged in a hunger and labor strike against filthy conditions, medical neglect, lack of access to counsel and pressure to sign deportation documents. By Sunday, at least nine people had been arrested over two nights.
The crackdown was ordered by Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, whose rise has been bound up with the Democratic Party’s promotion of candidates drawn from the military-intelligence apparatus.
In a press conference Saturday, Sherrill claimed that the state police were establishing a “peaceful, protected protest zone” and that the state response was necessary to prevent an expanded ICE presence. In reality, the effect of the deployment was to relieve ICE agents of the burden of directly confronting protesters, placing the state police at the disposal of the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation, which serves as a spearhead for the attack on the democratic rights of everyone.
This was made clear Saturday night, when police dramatically expanded the perimeter around Delaney Hall, forcing protesters and journalists far down Doremus Avenue, away from the facility and out of sight of those detained inside. MS NOW host Ali Velshi, reporting live from the scene, said police were preventing journalists from bearing “witness” to what was taking place. As he and others were forced down the road, flashbang grenades could be heard exploding behind them near the facility.
Multiple journalists and observers reported that police used rubber bullets, pepper balls, pepper spray, flashbangs and other crowd-control munitions at close range against protesters and members of the press. Such weapons can cause severe bruising, broken bones, eye injuries and death. Their use outside Delaney Hall was aimed at terrorizing protesters and preventing the public from seeing the violence being carried out in defense of the detention center.
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The events outside Delaney Hall expose the role of the Democratic Party as a collaborator in Trump’s assault on immigrants and democratic rights. In New Jersey, as in Minneapolis and Broadview, Illinois, Democratic officials have responded to legitimate protests against ICE kidnappings and abuse by deploying police, enforcing curfews and clearing the streets so the federal deportation apparatus can continue operating.
This is being done to protect not only the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, but the immense profits of private prison contractors such as GEO Group, which operates Delaney Hall under contract with ICE.
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The violence outside Delaney Hall demonstrates that the defense of immigrants and democratic rights cannot be entrusted to any section of the capitalist political establishment. The same Democratic officials who posture as opponents of Trump are deploying police against those protesting his policies. The fight to shut down Delaney Hall, abolish ICE and free all detainees must be taken up by the working class independently of both capitalist parties, through the building of rank-and-file committees in workplaces, schools and neighborhoods.