It got flagged, but this is happening and isn’t being talked about because it isn’t happening to people who have influence.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
You’re saying this is trivial and uninteresting? Or just everything relating to the US government is “politics” and we can’t talk about it? Because I think the guideline is meant to be about the former.
There are a lot of other platforms, that are open for any topic, including politics. Reddit is probably the most similar one to hn.
Innocent people are being rounded up by a faceless secret police, violently, in a terrorising manner, and taken to detention centres, with their human rights abused at every stage, with no due process and their fate unknown. This is beyond reporting to the local police department.
An arbitrary group has been selected as being an enemy, they are used to present justifications for breaking law and due process, you then develop a large organization (Gestapo/ICE) accustomed to following orders and ignoring the law - if you're going to subvert the political system, you need to possess the means to force you will on the population. You need a large group of men who will perform violence when ordered to do so, regardless of law and due process.
I mean we all know where this is going. There are not going to be free and fair elections again. This isn't a blip, it's a plan.
But from reading this article I couldn't tell if there is a massive crime surge in Chicago, or if it's police brutality, or both. Which is funny, because the article claims to explain ("I want you to understand").
However, in years past, everybody just kind of overlooks it--and on the local level, it's basically not a problem beyond the normal folks being mad at demographics changing. Most all of the immigrants are working and participating in the economy--ironically, making them more vulnerable to the .gov than if they were just criminals!--and that's fine for the cities.
But, now, the federal .gov (under the direction of Trump et al) is deciding to finally enforce the law and doing so in the most cartoonishly thuggish and evil way possible.
It's not for no reason this particular issue has been used so effectively. I'm not saying you have to agree with them, and I'm not saying that you have to believe their belief is coherent or sensical, but if you don't recognize that those beliefs are held honestly and widely you're in for a rude surprise...as we saw in the 2024 election (and before that, the 2016 election).
Why do they use weapons extensively? Are they chasing violent people who shot at them earlier, or just for fun? It just raises more questions, and doesn't help understanding the situation at all.
To make this more substantive and on point, I get the argument you are making -- if there were no "illegals" here, then there would be a stronger job market for the lower end of spectrum. That is true to some degree. It is healthy to discuss the issue, but the discussion should be based on all the facts, not some of the facts, and not made-up facts.
Secondly, the article of the thread was talking about how the federal government is spending tens of billions of dollars to put masked goons in unmarked cars, often with no identification of who they are, jumping out of cars and abducting people. If you think this is just about rounding up people who came across the border illegal, you are sadly mistaken. This is about asserting power and terrorizing the regions that didn't vote for Trump.
There are plenty of other undocumented workers in red regions. There are many red states with higher crime rates than the cities ICE is targeting. This isn't about law and order -- it is about intimidation and centralizing power.
It would be hilarious if the consequences weren't so dire, but all the states rights people apparently have no problem with Trump exerting his will in states' business just so long is it is harming "libs".
With an account created just before this comment, I’d assume this is just low-effort trolling.
I would think we should go after those employing the "slaves" then. No one ever talks about that.
The problem is that topics like this are incredibly hard to keep civil, and the "HN factor" ("prominent" people involved chiming in) is not really there, either. It also frequently ends up in the exact same repeated arguments (at best).
Personally, I'm not flagging posts like this and I'm always very happy when the tone stays civil and the discussion interesting, but I can see why people would.
It makes no sense that habitual criminals are protected and not deported by the local government. I think if the local government worked with ICE to deport criminals, this probably wouldn’t be happening the way that it was.
I think the City of Chicago is totally ineffective at many many things like closing murder cases, keeping habitual criminals locked up, etc etc.
It’s sad that this has become a political discussion instead of an effort to fix all the horrible problems in the city.
Every American citizen deserves due process and a fair punishment. This is outlined in the constitution and its amendments, and is not up for negotiation.
If you live in the US and don't believe in these values, I don't see how any other citizen of the US could people like you as anything other than a dangerous and existential threat.
htgb•2h ago