In the early morning of July 1, federal immigration officers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, pulled over a white SUV. An unmarked Immigration and Customs Enforcement car stopped in front of the SUV to block its path, while other law enforcement vehicles parked behind it, according to surveillance video obtained by CNN affiliate WGAL.
“Get out of the car now,” one officer said after he approached the driver’s side.
When the driver did not emerge after officers repeatedly ordered him out of the SUV, an officer shattered the window. The SUV then drove away, appearing to clip the ICE vehicle stopped in front of it before turning the wrong way down a one-way street. One ICE officer fired his gun as the SUV drove away from the officers and hit a parked car.
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An ICE officer discharged his weapon, and the driver escaped, the statement said.
It’s the latest example of how surveillance footage can undermine the government’s public statements, and a law enforcement expert told CNN it clearly demonstrates some of the poor tactics being used by ICE officers.
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The incident in Harrisburg occurred days before an ICE agent fatally shot a 52-year-old man during a car stop in Houston. Less than a week later, another ICE agent killed a 25-year-old man during a vehicle stop in Maine. Neither victim was the intended target of the immigration enforcement operations. The killings prompted community vigils for the victims and renewed outcry over the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics.
Following the shooting in Maine this week, the agency issued a pause on most vehicle stops conducted by ICE agents, which was swiftly overturned by President Donald Trump, who has made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second term.
Vehicle stops were not always a major component of the agency’s actions, experts told CNN, as agents would typically take people into custody from a local jail or a targeted location, such as a residence or workplace. But car stops have ramped up during Trump’s immigration crackdown, as his administration set a goal of making 2,000 immigration-related arrests a day.
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Many local law enforcement departments direct their personnel not to fire at a moving car unless there is a threat of deadly force by means other than the vehicle itself – a policy that’s also recommended by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonpartisan policing think tank.
“Shooting at the vehicle isn’t going to stop the car – shooting the driver now turns that car into essentially an unguided missile,” Corey said. “You’ve probably created a situation of even greater danger because there’s nobody left in control of that car.”
DHS policies prohibit law enforcement officials from shooting solely to disable a moving vehicle and state that officers should only use deadly force when there’s “an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury” to the officer or another individual.
Fuck those Gestapo fuckers
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