A federal judge again Friday ordered agents in Chicago for immigration operations to wear and turn on their body cameras, telling them “that was not a suggestion.”

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issued the order Thursday, citing concerns about increasingly violent clashes between federal agents deployed in Operation Midway Blitz and the public, and their use of tear gas against protesters.

Ellis said her order requires any federal agents working under Operation Midway Blitz to wear body cameras and keep them on during all “law enforcement activities.”

  • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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    23 hours ago

    Let’s take all that “judge issues verbal ‘smackdown’ to government lawyers who aren’t the source of problem and don’t even want to be there at this point” energy, and push it over to:

    “And since you can’t follow court orders, I’m directing the prosecution to draw up an order for me to sign designating which law enforcement body is going to be enforcing this on your officers going forward. Any federal personnel not wearing an activated body camera, starting on Tuesday, are going to be subjected to a 3-day stay in custody for civil contempt of my order. I trust they won’t attempt to resist that enforcement and so they won’t have to face criminal charges for obstruction, is that right, counsel?”

    • CompostMaterial@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I’d like to up your suggestion one notch, how about any charges brought by federal agents not complying with judicial order are summarily dismissed with prejudice. ANY charge. Trespass? Dismissed. Disorderly conduct? DIsmissed. Punching a nazi in the face? Dismissed.

      • AxExRx@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Add in "agents without an active body cam cannot be considered to be acting in an official capacity at the time, and therefore do not have immunity from state charges granted under the supremacy clause, nor do they have qualified imunity. "

        Then were cooking.

      • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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        22 hours ago

        That is generally how it works, that’s why reading Miranda is something that’s always done. It’s called “fruit of the poisoned tree.” I have no idea if it’ll play out that way, but given that they’ve had trouble even getting grand juries to return indictments in the first place it seems pretty plausible.