FG+G Statement on Violence by Federal Agents
We are all responsible for condemning this destructive and illegal campaign.
As the news outlets, social media, and communities around us all continue to report increasingly horrifying acts of terror, abuse, and murder by federal agents, there is no denying that we're living in rising tyranny. This radical shift in federal policing has rapidly transformed the landscape of our country in the past year. But this is also the kind of violence our clients have lived and mourned and raged at through the years - extrajudicial killings and assaults, illegal and life-altering detentions, arrests, and jailings, sadistic denial of lifesaving medical care, trampling of constitutional rights that are supposed to be guaranteed to everyone, the disorienting betrayal by the very people and government agencies who were charged with keeping us all safe.
For anyone who did not understand our clients' experiences before, the avalanche of shocking violence we are all witnessing now has thrust that kind of suffering into the light. It has also awakened in many a new fear and outrage at what is plainly a campaign of terror, systematically being rolled out across the country by federal agents at the direction of the executive branch, propped up by the inaction of Congress, and, in some cases, with permission by specific judges with the weight of the courts behind them.
We're all responsible for condemning and calling out this destructive and illegal campaign by ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and all the federal agencies and personnel who are directing and enabling this onslaught. We are all responsible for ensuring that fundamental rights are protected and that everyone is safe from illegal, extrajudicial killings and state-sanctioned violence. We are all responsible for ending this nightmarish chapter in our collective history and for building a better tomorrow.
The legal community holds a special responsibility in this moment. For every lawyer or judge who ever once claimed a commitment to rule of law, now is the time to find your way of contributing to protecting the rule of law for all. For our part, we continue to stand with our clients in the long fight for civil rights, and with all the people who are standing up, protecting their neighbors, documenting illegal state violence, and building a collective movement to defend fundamental rights and freedom. We condemn and stand against this brutal campaign of terror and violence by ICE, DHS, and other federal agencies.
“For anyone who did not understand our clients’ experiences before, the avalanche of shocking violence we are all witnessing now has thrust that kind of suffering into the light.”