There’s also the “one death is a tragedy, 100 deaths is a statistic” situation happening.
Another factor is that these murders are breaking through to the folks that see the violence of arrests and raids and the deaths and injury of detainees more as a necessary cost. They can’t justify these murders in their world view and they can empathize with them because they know these people did “nothing wrong” and were still killed. Maybe it could be them next?
The big difference with the two recent ICE murders is that the video evidence:
Is graphic
Clearly shows no wrongdoing on the part of the victims
Shows sudden and completely unnecessary escalation to murder
And they were both US citizens, so ICE has no jurisdiction. So it doesn’t even matter if they were serial murderers—that’s a police matter, not immigration. (And, obviously, being white and valued members of their communities matters, too.)
Contrast that with:
The Canadian who died in custody because they were denied access to necessary life-saving medications has plausible deniability.
Many deaths by suicide in custody are “their fault” because they did it.
ICE shootings without video evidence could plausibly be self-defense.
Etc.
Plus, they’re (mostly) not American citizens, so ICE could have a legal reason to detain them “with force” for “resisting arrest” (or whatever they want to spin).
I do think it’s important that we check ourselves. Having a lot footage I think also plays a big role, George Floyd being another example.
I don’t know of footage of the other ICE deaths, but maybe that’s a bias at play.
There’s also the “one death is a tragedy, 100 deaths is a statistic” situation happening.
Another factor is that these murders are breaking through to the folks that see the violence of arrests and raids and the deaths and injury of detainees more as a necessary cost. They can’t justify these murders in their world view and they can empathize with them because they know these people did “nothing wrong” and were still killed. Maybe it could be them next?
The big difference with the two recent ICE murders is that the video evidence:
And they were both US citizens, so ICE has no jurisdiction. So it doesn’t even matter if they were serial murderers—that’s a police matter, not immigration. (And, obviously, being white and valued members of their communities matters, too.)
Contrast that with:
Plus, they’re (mostly) not American citizens, so ICE could have a legal reason to detain them “with force” for “resisting arrest” (or whatever they want to spin).