Let Them Carry ICE-icles

Take Their Guns Away

Mussolini with a few friends.

Some people have suggested that ICE and its cognate covens on thuggery (the border patrol etc.) should not be called Gestapo. I agree that the analogy is not perfect. In its full flowering, the Gestapo was the German national police force. Having one national police force was actually a huge change for Germany, which had traditionally seen law enforcement as a local issue.

There are good reasons not to have a national police force, and the Gestapo provides many examples. But it was a police force. ICE etc. are paramilitary thugs. A better analogy would be the squadristi who helped Mussolini to power. They're also called the blackshirts because they wore black shirts on duty. They were supposed to wear khaki trousers, but like ICE they were generally dressed in motley from the waist down. I don't recall seeing any blue jeans in the old pictures, but they were clearly catch as catch can. 

The blackshirts had firearms, but their favorite weapon was the manganello, a type of cudgel. They just loved to beat the crap out of people they didn't like. Occasionally, they would alter their approach and take a victim to the town square, where they would make him drink castor oil until his bowels turned to water. Other humiliations include home invasions, where the entire contents of a house would be thrown into the street, sometimes from upper floor windows. Valuables of course, like gold coins and silver flatware, would simply disappear.

I think the indiscipline and depravity of ICE etc. match well with the activities of Mussolini's black shirts. But I think the term Gestapo is more useful in our modern context, because I think the average  American has no idea what a blackshirt was. They don't know much about the Gestapo either, but they do know the Gestapo was evil. And I think that is the point people are trying to get across.

And here's the first thing you do with a paramilitary force that is out of control: Line them up and take away their guns. Then, whatever you do, don't disband them. Put them in their barracks (any disused military bases will do) and make sure they stay there. Then you can sort things out at your leisure.

Oh - and take away their cell phones.

See also Jim Crow Was a Failed State, What Happened in Ferrara? And one of my personal favorites: Somotomo.