{"id":431481,"date":"2025-12-07T18:04:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431481\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T18:04:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:04:58","slug":"federal-agents-tactics-needlessly-risked-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431481\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal agents’ tactics needlessly risked safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Operation Midway Blitz flooded Chicago with federal immigration agents, fueled frequent protests and \u2014 to policing experts \u2014 offered something else.<\/p>\n

The operation showed how not to police.<\/p>\n

In incident after incident, experts said, immigration and Border Patrol agents routinely took actions that not only infuriated civil libertarians and everyday residents but broke urban policing protocols meant to limit danger for suspects, protesters, passersby and even officers themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t done anything that is anywhere close to a standard police practice,\u201d said former Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief and an Obama-era appointee.<\/p>\n

Added former Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson: \u201cIn my humble opinion, it\u2019s a breeding ground for disaster, the way they apply their tactics and methods. \u2026 From what I see, they just seem to be just really reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tribune review of the feds\u2019 policing tactics follows a scathing, 233-page opinion<\/a> by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis that called out<\/a> many of the federal agents\u2019 tactics from a constitutional perspective. And the subsequent release of footage from agents\u2019 body cameras late last month not only contradicted claims they made in use-of-force reports but chronicled some of the chaos<\/a> on the streets.<\/p>\n

While some of that chaos for sure could be blamed on the actions of some protesters and arrest targets, career urban policing leaders blamed much of that chaos \u2014 in both incidents cited by Ellis and others \u2014 on what the leaders described as shoddy policing tactics shunned by more advanced big-city police forces.<\/p>\n

The questionable tactics were on display in ways big and small, experts said, from the way agents regularly tossed tear gas, to how they pointed guns at protesters and the media, sped around town and handcuffed arrestees.<\/p>\n

They were on display in incidents from the most violent, including when a man was shot and killed as he tried to flee. And they were on display in the most banal exchanges, including when a caravan of agents was confronted by angry protesters at a gas station where their commander was trying to get a snack and use the bathroom.<\/p>\n

When asked about criticism of its policing tactics, DHS said its agents are well-trained and did what they could to \u201cmitigate dangers\u201d in a place where it said agents routinely were assaulted as they fought \u201crioters\u201d and \u201cdomestic terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disgusting attempts by the media and \u2018experts\u2019 to say these agents are not trained to enforce the law is shameful and laughable,\u201d according to a statement by DHS<\/a> spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin issued Nov. 26, about two weeks after many federal agents left Chicago for other operations. <\/p>\n

The face of Operation Midway Blitz, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, argued that his agents showed expertise and restraint in the face of constant confrontation with angry Chicagoans \u2014 one of whom allegedly put a bounty<\/a> on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely Chicago \u2014 it\u2019s a pretty tough place. But you know, the border, it\u2019s a tough place also. That\u2019s why we do so well here,\u201d he told reporters during that gas station stop, as protesters gathered near his agents outside.\n<\/p>\n

But those with deep experience in urban policing say the growing pains appeared obvious, as many agents were dropped into a city most didn\u2019t know well and told to do policing tasks most had little experience doing, in a political environment their bosses helped stoke to produce the confrontations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not blaming the majority of these agents,\u201d said Kerlikowske, who also testified in federal court on the Chicago tactics. \u201cI\u2019m blaming the lack of supervision, the lack of training, the lack of leadership for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said the tactical concerns are separate from the goals of immigration enforcement, which \u2014 while controversial in a polarized America \u2014 had been going on in Chicago for decades before the blitz, albeit more strategically and quietly: \u201cIt\u2019s not always what you do. It\u2019s how you do it. \u2026 Sometimes law enforcement can create their own chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Granted, Illinois Democrats have claimed<\/a> that Trump\u2019s DHS has purposely tried to stoke chaos as a pretext to justify sending in troops \u2014 something DHS denies but shows just how toxic the politics have become.<\/p>\n

Regardless of motives, unnecessary chaos can lead to tragic outcomes, experts said, and not just of the supposed \u201cbad guys.\u201d Cops and innocent civilians can get killed too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a way for (DHS) to do it better, to do it smarter, where fewer people get hurt, that they get the same result in terms of the people that they want to arrest,\u201d said Kenneth Corey, a former top New York City police leader. \u201cWhen you use proper tactics, things don\u2019t escalate into uses of deadly force when they don\u2019t need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatal shooting<\/p>\n

Five days into Operation Midway Blitz, and as part of a stated mission to hunt<\/a> \u201cthe worst of the worst,\u201d U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeted Silverio Villegas Gonz\u00e1lez Sept. 12 for what DHS described as \u201ca history of reckless driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two agents, in a Jeep with flashing lights, got Villegas Gonz\u00e1lez to pull his car to a curb in Franklin Park, but then chose to pull their Jeep in front of the car at an angle, presumably to keep Villegas Gonz\u00e1lez from driving forward.<\/p>\n