It goes without saying that ICE does not care about a person’s background as long as their appearance fits the bill of ‘possible immigrant.’ That said, agents captured and detained not just any random US citizen during the California cannabis farm raid last week; they arrested a disabled military veteran. 25-year-old George Retes works as a security guard at the farm, according to ABC7. But when ICE attacked the facility, Retes tried to leave in his car. Agents reportedly smashed his car’s window and pepper-sprayed him before taking him into custody. He was released 3 days later without charges.
When hearing about the news, online users were furious. “How about charging the people who denied him his civil rights? He’s a veteran, for Christ’s sake!” remarked a Reddit user, angry about the whole situation. Another chimed in, saying, “The people that arrested him, or as they say detained him which means the same thing, need to be detained and charged. He’s not only a vet he’s a US Citizen!!!!!!” A third thinks that Retes should be even be able to take legal action against the US government: “These people have grounds to sue the government for unlawful imprisonment right?“
With thousands of upvoters in agreement, it’s more than obvious that many people are in disbelief that a disabled veteran has become a target for ICE agents. Not to mention, they sorely mistreated him with the vehicle damage and pepper-spraying.
Redditors also comment on how it’s fairly clear why ICE agents would nab George Retes in particular: his skin color. “Yes but they’re brown so it’d be best if they go away,” jokes a commenter in response to someone talking about how detaining a disabled veteran is definitely overstepping the line. “ICE could execute a brown vet on the streets an no one would bat an eye. This is where we are at now,” remarks another.
While public execution is thankfully not an extreme we currently have to worry about in today’s current society of the US, it’s not too hard to understand why some would feel like we’re getting to that point.
