Society
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January 27, 2026
As a Black man, I do know firsthand how usually state violence is used to perpetuate white supremacy on this nation.
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Protesters conflict with legislation enforcement whereas holding a “noise demonstration” exterior of a lodge believed to be housing federal immigration brokers close to Minneapolis, on January 26, 2026.
(Arthur Maiorella / Anadolu by way of Getty Images)
The deployment of federal armed forces in our cities is creating a new, terrifying actuality for communities throughout the nation. Some individuals might by no means have suffered something prefer it earlier than. But as a Black man who grew up within the South Bronx on the tailwinds of the civil rights period, over-policing is one thing I’ve skilled my whole life.
On January 17, federal brokers murdered ICU nurse Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis after he tried to assist one other protester. Only 10 days earlier, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mom. These horrific acts of state violence occurred simply a brief distance from the place a white police officer brutally murdered George Floyd in 2020.
This is what state violence has at all times been—horrific and brutal. And as soon as President Trump unleashed his ICE goons on cities throughout America, these tragedies had been inevitable. As Americans, we must always all pray for an finish to this state terror. Sadly, historical past tells us the murders of Alex and Renee are unlikely to be the final.
When I see federal brokers in our cities and violent assaults by masked males on 1000’s of individuals assumed to be undocumented immigrants, I acknowledge an outdated playbook wearing new language.
When I used to be within the sixth grade—nearly the identical age as my grandsons now—4 armed cops got here into my classroom and took away my good friend David. We didn’t see him once more for a week. Uniformed white males with weapons had proven up and disappeared our good friend, and there was nothing we might do about it. It turned out that David had been accused of a theft, and he finally got here again to high school. But I noticed then, at simply 11 years outdated, that there was no place secure from the police–not even a college classroom–and that any of us could possibly be taken away at any time.
As a teenager throughout the crack epidemic, undercover police automobiles with tinted home windows would repeatedly pull as much as the playground the place we performed basketball. Armed cops carrying bulletproof vests would get out and make teams of 13-to-14-year-old children cease our sport and line up. Then they’d pat us all down, although we had been carrying basketball shorts. It felt like a lesson: We had been powerless, and the cops might do no matter they needed.
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Then, simply as now, “public safety” and “law and order” had been used as excuses for a violent system of racial management and oppression. Then, as now, this violence was disproportionately focused in the direction of individuals of shade. It’s no coincidence that the majority of the cities the place Trump has deployed the National Guard are led by Black mayors–whether or not it’s Karen Bass’s Los Angeles, Muriel Bowser’s DC, or Paul Young’s Memphis.
These cities, and others on the president’s listing—together with Minneapolis—are tarred with false claims of “out-of-control crime” and “disorder.” But Trump’s claims don’t replicate actuality. Across America, homicide charges declined by 14 p.c in 2024, and preliminary knowledge means that the decline was even bigger in 2025. In Washington, DC, violent crimes had been already at a 30-year low earlier than the arrival of the National Guard.
Deploying armed federal brokers to our cities has by no means been about retaining us secure. It’s about exerting energy and management. It’s about making us really feel powerless.
Since America’s inception, our authorities has deployed armed forces again and again to regulate individuals at residence, harming Native American, Black, and brown communities.
Federal troops enforced Native removals, oversaw the reservation system, and dismantled Indigenous political energy—actions packaged as “law and order” to clean the way in which for settlers.
The 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District—which noticed Black prosperity diminished to ash by a white mob backed by elected officers—reveals how “public safety” can turn out to be racial terror when state energy appears away or joins in. That state-sanctioned violence was half of a lengthy sample stretching from Reconstruction-era reprisals in opposition to newly freed Black communities to crackdowns on civil rights protests within the Sixties in Watts, Newark, and Detroit.
In Los Angeles in 1943, authorities answered rising tensions between communities with biased investigations and policing that focused Mexican Americans. Police allowed—or joined in—mob violence in opposition to Mexican, Filipino, and Black youth carrying zoot fits.
Now Trump is as soon as once more sending the message that racialized state violence is critical for “public safety.” But whose security is Trump defending? Certainly not mine or my household’s.
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These militarized responses are half of the identical system of racial oppression as the present assaults on affirmative motion, voting rights, and social security nets, they usually deepen the very crises they declare to resolve.
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My coronary heart breaks for the households of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, simply because it broke when George Floyd referred to as out for his mom along with his final breath. No one is really secure when state violence goes unchecked.
If we would like true security and justice, we should break the cycle of state violence in opposition to Black and brown communities. The path ahead should embody restorative justice, collaboration, and accountability.
That means redefining security round dignity and sources; strengthening civilian oversight; defending the appropriate to protest; increasing psychological well being, housing, and youth alternatives; and trusting native management to steer.
Only then can we transfer towards the longer term I need for my grandkids—one wherein they by no means have to fret that their associates could possibly be disappeared from their college classroom, or dwell in concern of the police; a future the place each neighborhood is handled with dignity and respect, free from the shackles of historic oppression and ongoing hurt.
Robert Willis
Robert Willis is a previously incarcerated jail abolitionist and the Justice Advocate Coordinator at LatinoJustice PRLDEF.
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