Andrew Whitten’s letter said what we who are old enough to remember, or we who read history books, were already thinking. Trump’s storm troopers wear 21st Century gear, but their behavior is indistinguishable from the Gestapo or Stalin’s NKVD. Actually, there is a difference. ICE and company are almost like Keystone Kops. Still, damaged people and dead people are no less damaged or dead because of ICE and border patrol incompetence. Maybe Kristi Noem will get around to issuing them white storm trooper armor a la Star Wars. Those helmets are completely anonymous, and probably gas-proof, and the rest is probably no less protective than the gear they flaunt now. One possible problem with that—”You don’t need to see our identification. These aren’t the immigrants you’re looking for. Move along.”

The grim thing is that these hot dogs act as if American civil rights are a nice idea, but play no part in their actions. Remember the quaint idea of probable cause? Or the right to… free speech? Peaceful assembly? Legal process? President Trump claims that he is arresting the “worst of the worst”, but it seems to me that that is who he is hiring for the job. Iran’s Guidance Patrol has killed nearly a thousand protesters. Do any of us really want that here? I fear that the answer may be …maybe.

In the spirit of ICE as Gestapo, President Trump has had his labor department make an astonishing post: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage…” Every historian knows the slogan, “Eine Volk, Eine Reich, Eine Fuhrer.” Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller is many things but he is not stupid. This parallel was not accidental.

Bill Gillmore

Columbus