Trigger warning, this video is violence pretty much from beginning to end.
This is video shared with us today of an alleged attack in Teller County last Friday on a protest caravan demonstrating against Teller’s controversial policy of providing active assistance to federal immigration authorities. According to the group Abolish ICE Denver in a Facebook post Monday, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, another of our state’s high-profile “political sheriffs” increasingly approaching enforcement of the law according to their political agenda, was actually involved with organizing the counterprotest that resulted in the violence in the above video:
This video was cut from a livestream taken during the Abolish ICE car rally to free Pablo, an immigrant man who was taken from his family, imprisoned at the GEO Aurora Ice Processing Center and then illegally transferred to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office county jail without notifying his family or his lawyer…
When [Teller County Sheriff Jason] Mikesell found out about the protest, the County Sheriff’s facebook page released a call for counter protesters to stand against the Abolish ICE protesters. Militia members with guns and confederate flags convened across the town to coordinate an assault on protesters, with multiple images captured of police collaborating.
Officers were seen chatting with counter-protesters SECONDS before the assault took place, and were there to witness the assault, however no arrests were made despite ample video evidence and multiple eye-witnesses calling for the men involved in the violence to be removed. [Pols emphasis]
The assault began with counterprotestor marching over and hitting a female protestor and then throwing her to the ground. Another woman was also hit and as the video shows, more counterprotestors ran up to pull people out of the car and physically engage them (seen in the video). Officers were approached by both women following the assault and shown their bruised faces, but refused to take any actions. All the MAGA counterprotesters were openly armed when they assaulted peaceful protesters.
Abolish ICE Denver says that despite their complaints no charges were initially filed against the attackers, which would obviously make sense if they were there on the suggestion of the county sheriff! And in an update, the Teller County Sheriff confirmed they did indeed put at least an implicit call out for thugs counterprotesters to meet this protest caravan:
On Friday July 17, 2020 the Teller County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) released information to the public concerning a “car rally” protest that would occur at our Detention Facility that day. The protest was apparently organized by a relative of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inmate who is detained at the facility and it was advertised to be against Teller County’s agreement to house ICE inmates.
TCSO learned that the protesters were planning to possibly shut down a public roadway. This could be very dangerous to the innocent motoring public on such a busy weekend-traffic day along US Highway 24. It has been and will continue to be a practice of TCSO to let our community know about such events that may affect their travel plans and safety…
But thanks to the presence of all those pesky smartphones, says the sheriff, they’re reluctantly going to “investigate” these very fine local Teller County people whose names they of course already know. At this point, we’re not even sure the Teller County Sheriff can conduct this investigation fairly:
[A]fter viewing video of the incident from multiple sources including video taken by TCSO, we have opened an investigation into what happened during the incident. If appropriate, criminal charges will be brought to the local district attorney for consideration of prosecution, and if so, arrest warrants will be issued.
Although this violence against left-wing protesters runs counter to the desired narrative for conservatives today of leftist mobs flooding the streets, it obviously deserves every bit as much attention and condemnation. If it doesn’t get as much attention as other acts of political violence in the news headlines today, it’s necessary to ask why. And some possible answers to that question are troubling.
Until we hear differently, in the interest of safety you may want to stay out of Teller County.
Who knows what the wrong bumper sticker or T-shirt might get you.
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Best and brightest.
This is a difficult video to watch. But immigration continues to be a complex issue where discussion is all too often controlled by the extremes: the open all borders and abolish ICE on one extreme; the shoot them on sight and put babies in cages on the other extreme. The far left brands anyone who wants to talk reasonably about immigration as a racist. The far right has even more names.
The primary person at fault here is the Teller County Sheriff. Law enforcement is supposed to protect all people. Jason Mikesell needs to be called out for his alleged behavior, and the behavior of his officers.
The US badly needs a rational immigration policy. The country can’t take in millions more people when we’re already the 3rd most populated country in the world. We should have a points system like Australia and New Zealand as well as allowances for ag and other temporary workers; with visas for skilled workers and students. The US should also work with NGOs in poor countries to improve local living conditions so people stay home.
Unfortunately, the Trump Turd’s answer to the “caravans” was to cut off aid to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. He could have re-routed the aid away from the corrupt, oligarchy, governments of those countries to competent NGOs. Didn’t happen because Trump has no empathy for anyone. Hopefully Biden can do better.
People have a right to protest peacefully without having to be concerned or worried about being physically assaulted by people who disagree with them, or by so-called “law enforcement.” Period. Full stop.
“But” nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Fuck anyone’s views or concerns on immigration, no matter how strongly held, as excuse or cover in the slightest for this kind of behavior.
Exactly. Sheriff not only chose sides, but encouraged this. I'm sure the county's liability insurer would be appalled. The "Blue Lives Matter" crowd ignores the real problem with cops like this. This is how law and order actually breaks down. There's a reason a lot of people rightfully hate cops. And it's shit like this that justifies that hatred.
And it is ideologues who “justify hatred”who generate more hatred and violence.
Be sure and tell that to the
ideologuewoman who got beaten . . .. . . she had it coming, huh?
You tell her, Dio. You’re the one who wants to abolish the police, so maybe she can call you the next time she’s assaulted.
Be careful what you wish for.
Where do you come up with that shit about what I want? Jesus.
PS. The police were there. So, how’d that work out?
@Dio: may I gently suggest that you read my post. I made it very clear that the county sheriff is the person to blame for this violent situation.
And, I'll politely also suggest that if you don't like to hear "But," too bad.
The immigration issue needs solutions, not more extremist rhetoric.
Bullshit. This assault was not an issue of rhetoric.
Let’s try a little cognitive exercise.
#1. Do you think is most likely, that?:
a. The assailant was expressing his long held deep convictions about, and frustrations with, the correct solutions to “the immigration issue”,
or
b. This petty piece of excrement thought it would be great good fun to take this opportunity, particularly at this auspicious Ttumpublican moment in history, to throttle some brown people,
or
c. Elephant.
#2. Tree or forest?
Uhhh, careful reading and close analysis isn’t really Dio’s style, CHB
p>
@VG: yeah, I get it about Dio. His 7:54AM post, and I'm trying to be polite, reminds me of some of the Russians who used to post on Yahoo, until Yahoo suspended comments on articles. I was tempted to call him Comrade Dio.
Okay, Vger. We get it. You're fine with this.
And you hate cops, spacy.
I get that.
So do a whole class of people known as criminals: rapists, murderers, thieves, meth dealers, child molesters and other sweethearts.
You celebrate, defend and “justify their hatred.”
What the world needs now
Is hate, more hate.
It’s the only thing
That makes this country great.
How is that hater thing working out for you?
Humanity's collective light will shine a bit more brightly when this particular p.o.s. leaves office, and more brightly still when he dies.
In the meantime, the clear solution is to throw more taxpayer money at the Teller County Sheriff's Office.
lol
Well said, Dio. There is no excuse for this. None.
To CHB: Of course, we need “solutions”. Stop locking up kids and separating families. Make the asylum system work again. Make the private prisons accountable or better yet, make them public “halfway houses” to citizenship, where people are treated humanely, and can learn English, get vaccinated, etc. Have a path to citizenship less than 2 decades long. Let Dreamers stay.
Cory Gardner, and the entire COGOP delegation,* has voted against all of these measures, or refused to let them be voted on, so your party has some reckoning to do here.
But first and foremost, stop the hatemongering. Stop characterizing all (non-white) immigrants as criminals and terrorists. That comes from the top of your party. Leftists and Democrats have contributed very little to this situation.
In case I’m not clear, pull out the gigantic beam from your own eye before using the tweezers to get that speck from a left eyeball.
*With the exception of Tipton, who did in fact vote for a measure to allow agricultural workers to stay legally . Apparently, this pissed off Lauren Boebert, and inspired her to run against him.
Kind of hard to say what "my party" is these days, or isn't.
Is it the party of Trump, Ken Buck, "Bubbles Boebert," Dave Williams or Jason Mikesell (I have to assume that the Teller C. sheriff is a Republican)? But I'm guessing he's not a "real sheriff" like Tony Spurlock in Douglas County.
Or is it the party of The Bulwark dot com, The Lincoln Project, Republicans for the Rules of Law, Republican Voters Against Trump, Mitt Romney?
I mean the party with the big red R.
I'm pushing back against your "both sides do it/ left extremist = right extremist" schtick.
The Dems who contributed to today's border crisis were centrists – Obama and Clinton, the "deporter in chief" and the original "wall builder".
It is the first one. Who’s calling the shots?
Reality bites.
I'm all for the discussion of immigration policy …. and a restoration of what had been a reasonable recognition of varying reasons for having people come to the US. A fertility rate below 2.0 (and falling) hints that we will need younger workers in the not very distant future.
We ought to be providing a welcome for those providing wanted services which were not being filled by citizens, and providing certainty of how status will be determined. We ought to allow asylum for those persecuted who come to our country and are able to find local sponsors. We certainly can do whatever paperwork is required in a more efficient and timely manner.
Frankly, if you have a billion more third world residents enter this country and live at American standards of diet, energy consumption, and other resources, the planet will break under the strain.
Bring in Weisser, now!
Is the dude with the beard and the Trump shirt related to Cliven and Ammon Bundy?
Physically…maybe.
Spiritually…without doubt.
Cliven is his Spirit Animal (I’d forgotten how hard it was to watch this fuckery).
Wouldn’t be too terribly surprised to find out that MAGA boy and the Bundys are from the same general genetic Superfund site.
Hard to watch Chad Wolf on CBS this Morning, this morning. The lies are so deep, they are really starting to have trouble wading through them.
The Orange King will push until someone stops him.
Open Borders!
Abolish ICE!
Immigrants can make America great again.
Right on, dave. I agree.
Yes, given that immigrants are what made America great the first time.
My Cherokee relatives aren't so sure that those original immigrants were such a good thing, Michael.
They brought smallpox, slavery and the designated hitter rule!
@Dave Barnes: didn’t you know that Trump is an open borders kind of guy? How come Trump says and does nothing about people who overstay visas? Excluding Alaska, we’ve got a relatively unguarded 3,000 mile border with Canada. Trump says and does nothing.
Security in our Gulf ports is near non-existent. Why, a bunch of illegals could pool their money; charter a big boat; set out from Tampico or Matamoros; and be in Corpus Christi, Galveston, Houston, Beaumont, or New Orleans and quickly disappear. Trump says and does nothing.
I wonder what Moderatus or Powerful Pear think of this?
Turn this into a campaign ad. Send this clip to the Biden campaign and every other Democrat leaning group.