I went on air to break down the video from the Bronx, where ICE agents allegedly shot into a vehicle with a five-year-old child inside. I spent two decades policing, and I’ve written operational plans just like this one. Plenty of mine got denied by my supervisors for exactly these reasons. 4 p.m. School’s letting out. Daycares nearby. Kids everywhere.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called it a “targeted operation.” So where’s the operational plan? Who signed off on this location at this time? Why were plainclothes agents making the arrest instead of uniformed officers who people could recognize? And what was the justification for shooting into a moving vehicle? That’s been a no-go in policy for decades. Departments, including mine, have prosecuted officers for it.
Mullin’s response was to point at a completely separate incident involving an NYPD officer. That’s not an answer. That’s a deflection. If this were a local department, somebody would be getting fired. I said Mullin should be, and that the supervisors who approved this should be investigated, along with the agent who fired. Whether that rises to criminal charges is for prosecutors to decide, and I hope the State Attorney’s Office is looking hard at it.
I’m not an anti-cop activist. Policing is hard and dangerous, and I usually give officers the benefit of the doubt. But I also pointed to the Minneapolis case: an agent whose account of being attacked with a broom and a shovel was contradicted by video, a grand jury indictment, and a governor who wouldn’t hand him over.
Agency after agency, no accountability. That’s why I’m saying this one needs to be disbanded.