Not In Our City, Not On Our Watch!

A Call to Active Duty City, County and State Police

I served over three decades as a city cop. I know what professional policing looks like, and I know how to police a free, diverse and democratic city.. For months now, I have watched in disgust as federal immigration agents employ deplorable tactics while our active-duty police officers and their unions remain silent.

Calling It What It Is: Fascism

Some might say “racism” is too strong a word. I disagree. What we are witnessing is the literal definition of fascism:

A far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist ideology characterized by centralized autocracy, militarism, and the forcible suppression of opposition.

It is an ideology that prioritizes the supremacy of the nation or race over individual rights, seeking a regimented society through violence and the exclusion of “enemies”. When unidentifiable, masked agents in military camouflage round up residents—and even citizens—without due process and physically abusing them while doing so, the word “fascism” isn’t an exaggeration; it’s a clinical diagnosis. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are, in my opinion, street executions!

A Half-Century of Progress Ignored

These federal agents are ignoring every major advancement we local and state police have made over the last fifty years. They have abandoned:

• The Duty to Intervene: The sworn obligation to step in when any officer acts outside the “scope of their authority.”
• De-escalation: The tactical and moral requirement to resolve conflict without unnecessary violence.
• The Policing Code of Ethics: The standard of service that protects the dignity of every person contacted.
• Constitutional Fidelity: The basic requirement to uphold the Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizure and the right to peaceably protest governmental actions.

The Failure of Leadership

I have waited for today’s professional police leaders and unions to speak out against the abuse and disrespect ICE agents show the people they contact. Reports show these agents are operating in “concentration camps in all but name,” where detainees face squalid, inhumane conditions that violate the Eighth Amendment.

When local police “stand down” and allow these violations to occur in their own backyards, they forfeit their role as Community Guardians. An officer’s oath is to the Constitution, not to a federal agency or a political doctrine.

Our Demand: Accountability Now

As a retired police leader, I will continue to call this out, but I am demanding that active-duty officers join me in calling out illegal behavior by ICE agents! By not doing so, you forfeit your future as community-oriented guardians of the people of your city. You will lose their respect and their support. And that will make your job and those who follow you much more difficult.

Not in our city. Not on our watch.