Why Violent ICE Confrontations Were Inevitable

The ICE Confrontations-Expected and Not Surprising

My buddies and I have been watching the incidents involving ICE agents unfold on the little-big screen like everyone else. What we could see coming, based on our common “patrol officer” experience, are the violent confrontations that have ended in the shootings and deaths of demonstrators. These are not surprising, and we expected them to happen. I will lay out my reasons based on my almost four decades of experience, both as a patrol officer and supervisor, and as a crowd-control instructor of 18 years. I want to make clear that my analysis will initially appear as a criticism of the federal agents, but it is actually a breakdown of the distinction of their duties and training, as opposed to most local and state law enforcement.

Separate Duties

Law Enforcement has many facets, and at each level, federal, state, and local, the duties and responsibilities can vary. What the general public is most familiar with are the duties of the local police at the city and county level: the City of USA Police Department and the County Sheriff. As such, these agencies handle what we refer to generically as “police work.” What does that mean exactly? This means we handle the day-to-day policing of the citizenry to include traffic and crashes, domestics, disturbances, arguments & fights, truancy, assaults, shootings and murders, sexual batteries, general crime, industrial accidents and natural disasters, drug trafficking at the street level, and anything else that might occur amongst the general population that one can think of and that does not have a similar federal counterpart, with some crossover. We also handle, with many decades of experience and trial & error, demonstrations, strikes, and civil disturbances. After the 1980 Riots, Miami-Dade Police and the City of Miami coined the term ” Mobile Field Force, which then became the response model for the nation. 

Federal agencies have distinct and different missions that do not encompass what I outlined and are regulated by federal law. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) focuses on organized crime, counter-terrorism, civil rights, cybercrimes, white-collar crimes, environmental crimes, public corruption, and weapons of mass destruction. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is mainly concerned with drug trafficking, though this crosses over to other crimes such as terrorism and human trafficking, and they work with the FBI. The United States Secret Service (USSS) focuses on counterfeiting and executive protection. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms & Explosives (ATF), handles all things related to firearms, explosives, arson, and crimes relating to alcohol and tobacco, and has a crossover with the FBI. The US Marshals (USMS) handle fugitive apprehensions and the Witness Protection Program. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its sister component, the US Border Patrol (CBP), handle immigration issues and the securing of our borders. This is, of course, a simplification of the general responsibilities of law enforcement, and there are more, but notice what I did not outline in the federal agency’s duties: Crowd Control and Demonstrations. They are simply not set up and trained for this, and they shouldn’t be. This is the purview of local police agencies and, on occasion, the National Guard, who receive some crowd-control training. 

All law enforcement is trained in firearms, defensive tactics, and subject apprehension and arrest, but how often are these skills employed as compared to local police? They simply are not because the volume of work the Feds have requiring the use of said skills is minimal compared to police who employ most of them daily. The exception being ICE & Border Patrol, who, during the last five years, going back to the Biden Border Policy, have been overwhelmed processing detainees and prisoners by the thousands. I will say that they have become more like soldiers protecting the border than law enforcement, and have done a magnificent job, even though they had their hands tied for a while. 

Crystal Ball

So, as we witness the many anti-ICE demonstrations taking place around the country, what are we seeing exactly, and what are some of the factors and causes leading to these very violent and now deadly confrontations, and how can these be either prevented or at least somewhat mitigated? I’ll lay it out.

ICE and Border Patrol are now tasked with actually doing their jobs without suffocating restrictions, but as we know, anything to do with President Trump is immediately criticized and attacked; no surprise there. Sure, their actual duties are controversial to the Left, but these are our laws, and so they must be enforced. The “protestors” are doing everything they can to impede ICE’s functions, aided by the media and the Blue-City & State politicians. ICE is handling its duties, but what it is encountering with these so-called demonstrations is the need to halt its primary functions and attempt to conduct crowd control, which they are not properly trained to do and poorly equipped for. The local police are the ones tasked, trained, and equipped for this, but they are not being allowed to by their “leaders”, therefore not rendering aid to the Feds as they should be. 

I invite you to read my OpEd of October 22nd: Refusing to Back Up Federal Officers is a Disgrace to the Badge. Why? Because this refusal to render aid is not only reprehensible, but has directly led to these violent encounters, where local police could have easily handled the demonstrations by enforcing perimeters, arresting those under state charges for throwing deadly missiles (that’s what it’s called), along with blocking the streets and using their vehicles as weapons. A vehicle is as deadly a weapon as a firearm is, and this takes me to what occurred on January 8th, where an ICE agent shot and killed the driver of a vehicle after she attempted to drive off and through the agent, striking and injuring him in the process. He opened fire, and she was subsequently killed for her actions. Could or should this have been prevented? Here’s my take.

Specific Training & Experience

As I outlined, ICE should never have had to contend with crowd control. If the local PDs were allowed to assist, they would have had proper perimeters established with the resources necessary to make immediate and mass arrests. ICE can’t do this, police can. Corrections buses and transport vehicles would be standing by for the large number of prisoners, and they would be processed and taken out of the area quickly and efficiently, allowing ICE to focus on their mission while police handled this one. A specific delineation of duties. 

Immediate Arrests

I can tell you that once someone refuses to comply with our orders to leave the area, move their vehicle from the roadway, or otherwise refuse to comply with us, an arrest is the only course of action, and it should be immediate. While we would give a customary warning to vacate and the opportunity to do so, when you don’t comply, the only recourse is a ride to the Gray Bar Hotel (jail). You have decided that laws, rules, and orders don’t have to be followed, so we will not dilly-dally around, and you’re under arrest! And when you say, “Oh, but I’ll leave now,” Nope, too late! When Ms. Goode was continuously confronting the agents during the morning, she should have been arrested then, and it probably would have saved her life. Then we saw what happened; she struck the agent and injured him, and yes, she died, and it’s very tragic, but it could have been prevented. The ICE agents should never have been conducting traffic and perimeter control. They’re not trained for this, and it isn’t their responsibility, and frankly, they’re just winging it. 

Trial & Error

Here is where I may upset some in federal law enforcement, but understand that it comes from long experience that my agency and others have learned through real-life incidents that have resulted in not only the deaths of subjects, but serious injuries to officers. We used to stand in front of and shoot at vehicles all the time. A subject tried to run us over, and we believed that a 9mm round was going to stop a car. No, it’s not! We made the vehicle look like Swiss cheese, but even if you strike the driver as in the ICE case, you may disable and even kill the driver, but the vehicle doesn’t stop. It keeps moving forward, either slowly or at speed if the now wounded driver’s foot goes to the floor. Where did Ms. Goode’s vehicle end up? It kept moving forward for another 20 or so yards until it struck a parked car. So when this type of encounter happens, where is the officer standing? Yup, in front of a 3500-pound bullet or battering ram because that’s what a moving vehicle is. 

A Banned Practice

Many police agencies, including mine, have banned the practice of intentionally putting yourself in the path of a subject’s vehicle during a confrontation. Though it took a while to sink in as we are slow to change, we have almost eliminated officers getting struck by vehicles by placing themselves in harm’s way, and I’m glad we stopped doing it. You can’t win against a multi-ton bullet. So why are the Feds still utilizing this practice? As I’ve stated, they are not supposed to be doing perimeter and crowd control, and our training and practices haven’t carried over to these agencies. It’s not the fault of the front-line agents. It falls on the shoulders of the administrators to look at “best & worst practices,” and change what doesn’t work and endangers not only their personnel, but also limits the injuries and deaths to subjects. Some will say that the subjects put themselves in that position and therefore deserve what they get. Don’t be blinded by the political realities of the use of deadly force like this one that could have possibly been prevented.

Summary

I want to make it clear that any officer or agent who’s “in it” has to make a split-second decision of what to do at that moment in space and time, and no one can tell him or her what they feel. If they are in fear for their safety, then deadly force is probably authorized. I’m only pointing out that perhaps we need to change the way we do some things to reduce risk to all involved. And I’m going to beat this horse one more time; if the local police agencies were allowed to assist ICE & Border Patrol, then maybe we wouldn’t have had this one and the many other incidents that are sure to come. My hope is that no more agents or citizens get injured or killed during this volatile time in our history; experience and history have taught us that it will.