"At a low-rent apartment complex on Chicago's south shore, people started hearing the boots hit the roof around one in the morning. The oh-dark-thirty immigration enforcement raid in the early hours of 1 October featured an air assault from helicopters. Officers went door to door in the building, using charges to blow the hinges off doors and flashbang grenades to clear apartments. They hauled men, women and children from the building in zip ties and often little else, ostensibly to capture undocumented gang members."
"With the remains of doors and furniture and the bloodied, scattered belongings of former tenants in tatters, it may struggle to pass another. So many of these people remain without shelter or a place to live because it essentially rendered their homes and that entire apartment complex uninhabitable, said Colleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. She described the apartment raid as a military-style attack."
Federal law enforcement agencies have deployed military hardware and tactics against civilian targets, performing aggressive raids in residential buildings. In one Chicago operation, helicopters provided an air assault as officers used explosive charges and flashbangs to force entry and detained men, women and children in zip ties. The raid left apartments with ruined doors, bloodied belongings, and many residents displaced and homeless. The apartment complex at 7500 S South Shore Drive became effectively uninhabitable after the operation. Civil liberties advocates described the action as a military-style attack. Political leaders have publicly suggested using American cities as military training grounds, intensifying fears about domestic militarization.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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