I was walking my dog in the neighborhood this evening and was passing a home on the corner that I’ve passed many times before when three cop cars pulled up and what seemed like a SWAT Team poured out. Some of them went towards the front door and a couple others came by me and went towards the rear.
I was a bit worried as I thought might get caught in some crossfire. I have been caught in crossfire before and it’s not the most pleasant thing. They didn’t have their guns drawn but were wearing their vests.
I walked across the street then turned to watch the operation and noticed that some of them had ICE on the back of their vests. I watched for about 20 minutes and the guys at the front knocked on the door and eventually someone came and answered it. There was some back and forth conversation, I couldn’t really see or hear anything from where I was but two officers went in I think. One of the ICE guys waved a neighbor away that was watching the event from her driveway and she complied and went in her house. I was across the street and decided if he tried to get me to leave I would resist as I was on public property and not obstructing anything. I lived in a very high crime area once and always watched when the police stopped people, especially the youth.
Things calmed down and the ones outside were just milling around so I continued on my walk. On my return I decided to knock on the door and ask the people inside if they were OK and were they being harassed. I knew they were a Latino family as their back yard has a low fence that I walk alongside on my way past the house and the fence is easy to see over.
I knocked on the door and could see a young girl in the kitchen two rooms toward the rear of the house. She looked and then went back and got an adult who came and opened the door with her. I introduced myself as from around the neighborhood and they had seen me before with my two black and white dogs. I said that I was concerned and wanted to see if they were OK and not being harassed at all.
They were both real friendly and the guy, who was the young girl’s father said that the cops were there looking for his brother in law who used to live there; he was on probation. I said that I always watch when I see these types of actions although I’ve never seen an ICE raid before; I am sure it must be a terrorizing event for the victims and their families.
“What were they doing there if they just wanted to get in touch with him”? I asked.
“Yeah, why didn’t his probation officer or just one person come round and what was immigration doing here? “. The man replied.
Why appear on the scene like it was some crack house or something? I got the impression that the probation was not a major issue and that the brother in law wasn’t even required to make regular visits to his officer. They didn’t have weapons drawn so they must not have felt there was a life-threatening situation likely.
These people have lived near me for a while and it was pretty bad I reckon. We got to talking about immigrants, both being from other countries.
“They ought to be raiding the corporate offices downtown.” I said, as I was about to leave.
He agreed, “Yeah, I want to see that capitalism film” he said referring to Michael Moore’s latest movie, Capitalism A Love Story.
That took me by surprise and I nodded and told him about the Facts For Working People that the supporters of this blog put out and agreed to bring the latest issue round for him to read.
It was a nice chance meeting. I was a little concerned at first wondering if I should inquire after them as people can be so suspicious but I thought they might have been a bit upset by the event, three carloads of cops and immigration turning up at their house, and I wanted them to know there were people in the neighborhood that welcome immigrants undocumented or not; I’m an immigrant but have an English accent and white skin which does make a difference.
Sometimes you get closer to your neighbors when you least expect it. I can thank the cops for that I guess.
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