Excerpt from 'Gestapo!' Immigration agents swarmed and tires slashed in explosive standoff:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who moved to make an arrest in an upscale neighborhood of Rochester, New York, were blindsided as a crowd of angry protesters descended on them and vandalized their vehicles, according to WXXI.
"The group shouted 'shame' and 'Gestapo,' and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed," said the report. "One of the roofers was taken into custody, but agents left others apparently unchecked on the rooftop of the Westminster Road rental house."
The crowd in Park Avenue accosting ICE and CBP agents was said to be around 200 people.
This is the first incident where citizens behaved something like the Resistance did during World War II. During the war the actions of the Resistance were planned and this was spontaneous. Resistance cells were small groups of men and women who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers.
The Resistance also spied on the Nazi and conveyed vital information to the Allies.
Consider this from the DDay Center article: The Role of the French Resistance in Intelligence for the Allies: Strategies, Impact, and Legacy
The intelligence work of the French Resistance gave Allied forces critical details about German defenses, troop movements, and military plans. These men and women risked everything, collecting info on German positions along the Atlantic Wall, Wehrmacht deployments, and communication networks.
Their efforts helped Allied commanders make smarter decisions, saving lives and, honestly, probably shortening the war.
The story of French Resistance intelligence is full of ordinary people who became extraordinary spies when things got dangerous. University professors published underground newspapers, and farmers reported German troop movements.
These resistance fighters built networks that stretched all over occupied France. They worked with British and American intelligence, creating a tangled web of information sharing that played a crucial role in Allied victory.
Resistance spying was depcited in the Pulitizer Prize winning novel and NetFlix miniseries “All the Light We Cannot See” (reference). In the dramatic story a blind girl radioed coded messages about the Nazis to the Allies.
In real life well known entertainer, jazz singer Josephine Baker who was known as “The real Goddess,” became a spy for the French Resistance. Baker used her celebrity to gain access to high-ranking Axis officials. (Reference)
Lepa Svetozara Radić was a 17 year old Serbian Resistance fighter executed by the Nazis for shooting at German troops. This is from Wikipedia:
“As her captors tied the noose around her neck, they offered her a reprieve from the gallows if she would reveal her comrades' and leaders' identities. She responded that she was not a traitor and that her comrades would reveal themselves when they avenged her death.”
The Nazis made villagers pay with their lives when the Resistance had successes against them. Residents would be rounded up and be shot or hung in the town square. If one Nazi was killed by the Resistance, many more would be murdered in retribution. Bodies would sometimes be hung on utility poles and noone was allowed to cut them down.
This was all done to send a message to others who dared go against them, whether through sabotage or actual violence.
For example: “When the Nazis Massacred Greek Civilians to Send a Warning to Those Who Resisted. German soldiers killed an estimated 500 Cretans in Viannos and Ierapetra in retaliation for an attack by local partisans.” (Read article)
In the photo above I was struck by how “The Butcher of Crete” bears more than a passing resemblance to Tom Homan.
How soon will it be before a non-bloody version of retribution for resistance to immigration actions happens here?
While there is a visceral satistfaction to be had in the story about what the residents in Rochester did, such actions are unwise. If people are to use the World War II Resistance as a model, it is best to limit themselves to what the spies did and not do anything that will give an excuse for Trump to escalate towards either something that might as well be martial law whether of not he actually declares it.
The non-violent, though illegal, sharing of information that may help people avoid imminent ICE raids would be similar to what Resistance and other allied spies (like Churchill’s three female spies) did.
Check back later… it’s 5:00 AM here and I haven’t even read the news…..
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