It’s 1990 and I’m in a Poli-Sci class and we’re talking about El Salvador. The cops, or maybe cops – sometimes you can’t tell, running around with assault rifles and armored vehicles were called paramilitaries. Some of them were police, some of them were national guard, and others were just regime supporters wearing a mask. “Paramilitary” is not a particularly positive term. It either connotes over-armed enforcers or poorly trained military. But that’s what I see on the streets of Minneapolis. The same over-armed, hyped-up, highly partisan paramilitaries wire-brushing a “blue” city under the guise of rounding up “criminals.”

It’s hard to sometimes look at yourself and see what it is. It’s easier to say “shooting” or “officer involved shooting” instead of murder at the hands of regime paramilitaries, it makes it easier to take. The paramilitaries in El Salvador were engaged in targeted, extra-judicial murder. These were the death squads. Do I think we’re in death squad territory? No. But is there anything left that I think would prevent that? Yes, but the system isn’t as robust as it once was. Largely, I think, it would be how it polls. Could I see the ICE/CBP paramilitaries deciding to start down that route if they have blanket immunity from prosecution? An FBI that will bury the investigation? Maybe. The only thing that stops that is broad and intense public disapproval. It used to be the case if you tried that you would be charged with murder. Now, there’s no risk of these paramilitaries being charged with murder unless the right wing media machine loses control of the narrative.