Netizens are not taking it easy on a group of men in Chicago, Illinois, who many believe to be self-proclaimed ICE agents, accused of going overboard with their supposed authority. A video posted on Reddit opens by showing three men, two wearing bulletproof jackets and one without.
The jackets had “POLICE” written on the back, with a phone strapped to the chest, seemingly used as a body cam. One of the agents had a golden pin of Trump’s face attached to his vest and was leading the other two. The second man, fully bearded, held on closely to the third man without a jacket, insinuating an arrest.
In the background, one of the agents could be heard repeatedly shouting, “Back off, back off,” while a female bystander yelled, “Come off me.” When the camera refocused, it showed the man who appeared to be under arrest being shoved into a car. He spoke Spanish before the officer disrupted the recording.
Online users were quick to dismiss the idea that the men were legitimate officers, filling the comments section with ridicule and suspicion, “Big blob of fake bling,” one person wrote. Another compared them to Capitol rioters, commenting, “Funny how this guy looks a lot like many of the people that trashed the Capitol on Jan 6. The orange anus’ private militia.”
Pointing out the phone strapped to the vest, someone added, “This guy is using an iPhone as a body cam. Dead fucking give away these c*nts aren’t legit.” Others questioned their credibility further, “Real cops don’t wear felon pins. It’s not hard.” This Redditor wrote, with little regard for politeness, “ICE agents, my a**. The guy with the raggedy hillbilly beard is a fucking Oath Keeper, I guarantee it.”
A former federal worker also weighed in, “When I worked for the feds, there was a dogged obsession with avoiding political insignia on your person & office. You needed to ensure that folks you were impacting through your work didn’t perceive you as biased. Now, they’re flaunting their illegal acts (check out the Hatch Act!).”
Countering the video’s caption, which described them as “unknown federal government agents, supposedly ICE,” one user argued, “These are not ‘unknown federal agents.’ These are Nazis. Period. Plain and simple.” Wrapping up the thread, another commenter mocked the very idea of ICE’s recruitment process, “Full-blown cult, I can only imagine the lunatics attracted to ICE hiring. It’s bad enough they rock that ‘thin blue line’ gang symbol, now some NK-like nonsense.”
As of the time of writing, it has not been officially confirmed whether the men in the video were real agents or impostors.
