Masked and Unidentifiable: The Risks of Federal Law Enforcement Operating Without Identification

[Heidi]

•In fact, the practice of masking and hiding identifiers can jeopardize the safety of ICE and other federal law enforcement officers by making it harder for other officers or community members to identify them as law enforcement and interact with them accordingly.

•…federal law enforcement officers who carry out their jobs with their faces covered or without properly identifying themselves can create serious safety concerns for law enforcement and community members alike.

•Masking instills fear in communities, undermines trust between residents and law enforcement and hinders accountability. It limits the cooperation between law enforcement and communities that officers rely on to do their jobs. These types of intimidation tactics are also a common tool of authoritarians who seek to stifle dissenting voices and quell opposition to their agenda.

•People with insidious motives have taken advantage of the widespread deployment of masked immigration officers as cover to allegedly harass civilians or commit violent crimes such as kidnapping, robbery, and sexual assault…

•Without knowledge of the agency or individual officers who are engaging in enforcement in their communities, there is no way for people to report or hold officers accountable for unprofessional behavior or misconduct, even in instances that may involve violence or illegal activity.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/masked-and-unidentifiable-the-risks-of-federal-law-enforcement-operating-without-identification/

[Heidi]

1. NO MASKS for armed law enforcement! (nt)

[republianmushroom]

2. Masked American Gestapo !

[Heidi]

3. Yup, but there are DUers who defend it. (nt)

[gulliver]

4. It's a good article

There really is a need to be able to authenticate officers while still protecting the officers from doxing.

Police impersonation has always been a problem. The most recent example I can think of is the case where the Minnesota lawmakers' assailant impersonated a cop. Notably, he did wear a mask, but apparently it was hyper-realistic, not just obscuring his face. (Looking it up online, it does look pretty realistic, but I wouldn't necessarily say hyper-realistic.)

But others don't wear masks at all. Preventing masks from being used by authentic law enforcement officers is in no way protection from impersonation.

This is an issue where Democrats and Republicans should be able to find common ground.

[Arazi]

5. Why is it important to protect officers from doxing?

They’re public servants doing work they voluntarily chose to do.

There’s thousands of pictures of police officers and FBI arresting mobsters and drug traffickers as examples of criminals notorious for revenge attacks/killings.

Why do officers dragging away 70 yr old abuelitas, get this special exemption?

[gulliver]

6. It protects them and honors democracy

We can't have it be that a slim population of self-elected (unelected) people can take it upon themselves, unasked, to police the police. Unfortunately, that is what you get when you make it possible to dox a law enforcement officer. You allow random people who have no valid claim to power the ability to undermine the will of the people by interfering with law enforcement.

Doxing is a huge, unsolved problem. It threatens everyone.

[Arazi]

7. lol, in fact lmao at police needing to be "protected"

There’s literally nothing wrong with police being accountable to the citizens they’re ostensibly responsible to.

In fact there’s a long and storied history of citizen oversight boards ensuring police are transparent and accountable. Policing the police actually happens everywhere and in many communities.

I have no idea why you think secret police “honors democracy”. What does that even mean?