White People Must Stand In the Way of Fascism

(Photo: Joe Piette, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

I was just detained by and my dog was assaulted by plainclothed ICE agents, along with undercover members of the NYPD I believe; while trying to intervene in an ICE abduction on my block. They refused to identify themselves, were masked, produced no signed warrant, and they were in an unmarked van.

They literally snatched a family walking their kids home from school off the street, and then kicked my dog and cuffed me and my neighbors for asking questions. They illegally went through my phone, violated multiple Constitutional rights, and then sped off with a family and screaming kids in the back of a van to God knows where.

If this can happen on a corner in Harlem at 5:30 in the afternoon, we are in big trouble guys. Protect yourselves and your neighbors any way you know how. I am absolutely heartbroken, enraged, and disgusted at what my country has become and if you don’t feel the same; you either aren’t paying attention or you are part of the problem.

EDITED TO ADD: Since this is getting shared around I thought I’d make abundantly clear my takeaway from this experience. It’s this: Black and brown people in this country have been subjected to this same type of violence and lawlessness for centuries; with often far worse outcomes than I experienced. The fact the oppressors in power are now willing to also inflict it against a white man of privilege in broad daylight, in the supposed bastion of progressive values that is NYC; only shows how brazen they have become and how dangerous it must be for everyone else not as privileged as I am.

White people MUST stand in the way of fascism at every turn. We MUST put our bodies and our privilege on the line. We MUST be wrenches in the gears of this horrible machine we helped create. We don’t have much time left to stop irreversible and irreparable harm from being done to untold millions here and across the world.

— Dustin West