ICE Agent Uses Genitals For Warrant: Story Must Be Told

If ever there was an incident that highlights the reason we started NewsTaco, it’s this, as we reported yesterday: an I.C.E. agent in Tennessee, along with a team of federal agents and police officers, forcefully entered the apartment of two unsuspecting men and grabbed his own crotch when asked for a warrant. The incident was reported by the ACLU:

“We don’t need a warrant, we’re ICE,” and, gesturing to his genitals, “the warrant is coming out of my [genitals].”

Three things I want to mention here. One is that I decided to include the quote because the language is relevant. Two, that the gesture and the language is offensive in a different way to men than it is to women – from the playground to the board room men have seen and heard this all their lives; it doesn’t make it right, and when a man does that to another man there is an untold amount of implication (territory, dominance, humiliation) that has a different connotation in the male world.

Done to a woman the gesture is incredible cowardice, humiliating and ultimately dehumanizing. Between men it is demoralizing and hits at that intangible thing that props-up the structure of how most men view the world and their place in it. I’ll leave it at that, there are parts of the female world view that men will never understand, and there are aspects of the male world view that women will never know – this gesture illustrates that difference, and fishing for an explanation is futile.

The third thing is the most rational. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

That a law enforcement officer would use that gesture to justify his blatant violation of our constitution is offensive beyond words. And if the men who read this find themselves unconsciously clenching a fist, I’m with you. If ever there were a motive for bendito coraje, this would be one. And sadly, the incident is not isolated. Violations of basic civil rights have been reported for many years in relation to immigration raids and operations.  It’s not a matter of separating immigration and I.C.E. incidents, it’s a matter of assuring that the basic guarantees of our constitution extend to all persons, period.

This is one of those incidents that may have gone unnoticed in the past, but now with communities forming around shared interest, heritage and sensibilities, these stories are told and amplified. They will no longer be relegated to silence. This puts a burden on all of us to tell these stories, to repeat them so they are noticed. It’s not about immigration, it’s about thugs and the protection offered by our constitution. If we say nothing, nothing will be done.

Women know how to do this, there is a natural push to connect and protect. Men, un-clench your fists for the moment, and share this story.