"The big news yesterday was the arrival of scores of federal enforcement agents fanning across a two-block radius around Canal Street and Broadway, steps from Streetsblog's offices. The appearance of so many heavily armed and armored - and mostly masked - men followed a scabrous, anti-immigrant video that was posted on Sunday by a right-wing commentator, a video that seemed designed to give federal troops a pretext to arrest vendors of popular faux-luxury handbags and watches."
"I ran outside to cover the raid as part of Streetsblog's interest in how public space is policed, and also because these massive shows of force are becoming more and more common in our cities ( hat tip to the Times for some good reporting on Tuesday about what happened in Chicago earlier this month). More such raids are likely in New York City, if President Trump's threats against likely Mayor Mamdani are to be believed."
"I made a little video just so you can see what it looked like (apologies for my whiny voice trying to get answers from stone masked agents). At one point, you'll see me lose control of the camera for a second after being shoved by an ICE agent who, for the record, never told me to get on the sidewalk. I repeat, I was not obstructing government operations:"
Scores of federal enforcement agents fanned across a two-block radius around Canal Street and Broadway, steps from Streetsblog's offices. Heavily armed, armored, and mostly masked agents arrived after an anti-immigrant video posted by a right-wing commentator that appeared to provide a pretext to arrest vendors of faux-luxury handbags and watches. Agents from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and multiple other agencies, including the IRS, operated on a Tuesday afternoon. A reporter was shoved by an ICE agent while filming and was not told to move to the sidewalk. DHS characterized the raids as a crackdown on illegal vending that primarily targeted African men.
Read at Streetsblog
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