An Altercation With ICE Prompts a Police Chief to Push Back

Brice Current, the police chief in Durango, Colorado, knew there was a problem the moment he saw the video of an immigration agent putting a protester into what the chief saw as a chokehold and throwing her down an embankment.

Immigration agents had arrested a Colombian man and his two children on their way to school last week, provoking a furious response from this liberal college town of 20,000 in the mountains of southwest Colorado. Dozens of residents — many with their arms linked — descended on the small Immigration and Customs Enforcement building where the family was being held, set up camp outside the razor-wire gates and tried to block authorities from removing the family from Durango.

What set the protest apart from similar clashes between residents and immigration agents in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities was Current’s determination that the masked federal agent involved in the scuffle had crossed a line and his request for an investigation. He said he even considered filing criminal charges against the agent.

“It appeared to be an out-of-policy and possibly illegal use of force,” he said in an interview at police headquarters.

The scene from Durango, captured by fellow protesters and put on social media, was violent and jarring, but no more so than many others across the country. Several protesters, including elected officials and a Democratic congressional candidate, have been arrested or charged with federal crimes at immigration detention centers. American citizens have been whisked into unmarked vehicles and charged with resisting arrest or attacking officers, though the people arrested have maintained they did no such thing.

More at:

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(Originally published in the NYT … republished in the Seattle Times)