If you have to wear a mask to enforce laws in America then you are admitting you are breaking the law.

[Augiedog]

Don’t believe for one minute that police or soldiers have to wear masks. It’s a terrorist tactic.

Snatching people off the streets while masked and wearing equipment you can order on Amazon could be a kidnapping tactic. Just because you have a vest that says ICE on the back and you are dressed in black doesn’t mean you work for the federal government or any law enforcement agency.

A legitimate law officer will gladly make sure you know who he/she is. When in doubt ask to see his/her ID Card. If they don’t it seems to me you have the right to assume you are being assaulted and possibly killed.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. " A legitimate law officer will gladly make sure you know who he/she is." "Gladly" is doing a LOT of work there lol.

[rsdsharp]

3. Half the cops in this country seem to be named "Right Here,"

and the other half are “Right There.”

As are their badge numbers.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Great Post Augiedog

No due process with trump and blondi Bondi. Six weeks and the world is seeing us morph into a shithole nation.

[live love laugh]

4. You think kidnappers will quibble? They will just forcefully take whoever they want.

[stopdiggin]

5. more than just a little problematic

there are a number assumptions offered here that a) don't really stand up.
and b) don't lend themselves as good advice, in either legal or practical terms.

[Ilikepurple]

13. I'm glad you took the time to share some declarative statements

A) with no offered support, b) and not really useful legally or practically. I’m not even sure if you’re responding to masked abductions of immigrants or the OP, but I for one want to know how we are supposed to know if we are being lawfully abducted or not?

[stopdiggin]

18. OK. Here are a couple of 'specifics' that I question in the OP

" - you are admitting you are breaking the law."
No. Sorry. As chunky and wonderful as this might be as rhetoric - it just simply isn't the case in today's law enforcement. Now you can argue whether you think that is right or not. But, as a declarative statement - it is simple false.

"Just because you have a vest that says ICE on the back and you are dressed in black doesn’t mean you work for the federal government or any law enforcement agency."
While not outside the realm of any possibility .... It remains extremely unlikely. There are fairly stringent laws involving 'impersonation' - not to mention the fact the agencies themselves tend to get very pissy about it. (on the rare occasion that someone is stupid enough .. ) Also - and very importantly - if you chose to 'react' to uniforms attempting to apprehend, as if it were 'kidnapping and assault', there's a very strong chance that you will end up with injury .. additional charges .. bail refusal .. and on down the line. None of it good, none of it bearing any advantage to you. You are not going to repel or reverse the apprehension or arrest - and the almost inevitable result is that you will make things much worse - both for yourself and for anyone that might be trying to intervene and assist ....

Summing up ... The assumption that an apprehension is 'unlawful' and a 'kidnapping/assault' - is in every likelihood faulty on its face - and, additionally, will almost certainly end up in adverse (and perhaps extremely adverse) consequence. In short - it's a very dumb idea.

And there you have a little more fleshed out version on why I entered an initial objection to the OP. The basic premise backing it serves almost no purpose - and if followed, is likely to get people hurt ...

[Ilikepurple]

19. Thanks for taking time to give a detailed reply and I mostly agree

I didn’t take OP’s title literally, although there are state and federal laws requiring officers to be identifiable in some circumstances. I didn’t catch the unwise, but emotionally understandable advice at the end of OP’s post. I was more interested in the effect of getting used to unidentifiable officer arrests and how that may make things easier for vigilantes or kidnappers.

As to the realm of possibility, there are already cases of impersonation. To think that kidnappings as a result are extremely unlikely https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/us/ice-impersonators-on-the-rise-arrests-made-as-authorities-issue-national-warning/index.html https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-charged-posing-ice-officer-fake-emblems-suv/story?id=120270516 I agree it would be unwise to resist arrest, but this is kinda scary for those that may get profiled by non state-sponsored bad actors.

[stopdiggin]

21. while I won't say it cannot happen

(there are probably always going to be the weirdos and the delusional). But - overall the motivation there would seem to be pretty tenuous and sketchy. Is there some rare occasion where some personal grudge or vendetta just happens to coincide ... Possible, I suppose ... But really .. ?
Leaving me to have to stick with it still being very much a rarity, rather than any sort of norm.

99.9% of this is still the work of some brand of law enforcement. And, 'fighting them off' is going to get you nothing but hurt.

[Ilikepurple]

22. I hope greater than 99.9% of DU members will not encounter this situation

I don’t think anyone is suggesting such impersonations wouldn’t be rare, but it’s already happening. I’m less worried about OP’s rhetoric than how to ameliorate the effects of ICE’s methods and actions under this administration. Every young woman of color, at least, should probably think about what they’d do in such a situation. Surely, they shouldn’t go along with any masked person identifying as ICE? Can this fear be used to change public opinion about the procedures used in these arrests?

[Blues Heron]

6. Its gestapo shit, on the streets of Somerville

fucking fascists are bound to lose

[SheltieLover]

7. Absoloutely!

[Sneederbunk]

8. I never trusted the Lone Ranger.

[kelly1mm]

9. Maybe Covid/Bird Flu concerns? I mean I am seeing an increasing amount of people wearing masks here

in Maryland.

[Ilikepurple]

16. Is this a serious response?

I have a hard time thinking that masked ICE agents are doing so to prevent covid. I remember masked and unidentified federal agents at BLM protests. I’m guessing this anonymous agent technique is a lot more popular when non-whites are involved. Locally, there has already been an ICE imposter and vehicle arrested. I, for one, am not sure how I’d respond to such an arrest.

[kelly1mm]

17. I am confused. Is the current covid/bird flu poetical to not wear masks? nt

[Ilikepurple]

20. It doesn't seem that they're wearing Covid masks to me?

The masks seem to be designed to make the officers unidentifiable. Is person to person bird flu a thing yet?

[EarthFirst]

10. Suddenly the sovereign citizens support wearing masks...

Interesting how that works.

[tishaLA]

11. Yet protesters are Columbia are barred from wearing masks

that's part of the deal they cut with whatshisname.. Shameful.

[Jack Valentino]

12. I am still wearing a mask in public, to protect my health....

and haven't been ill with any kind of virus for a record FIVE years.....


Of course, if any "group" does so now, it is suspect,
since hardly anyone but ME is still doing it for health reasons....


Can't remember the last time I saw anyone else wearing one, now...

[Grokenstein]

14. In my community and workplace, lots of people still mask up...BUT

...we aren't "arresting" people on the street and whisking them away to destinations unknown.

Not directed at Augiedog but applicable to some of the responses here and elsewhere: I'm sick of the argue-for-the-sake-of-arguing knobs trying to defend/deflect/despair on this and other trumpnik violations of people's rights. We're not a police state yet. This gestapo bullshit isn't defensible. Stop playing the "just asking" game and pick your side.

[BidenRocks]

15. If I were female,

I would be screaming RAPE!!
At least the cameras will be on.
Masks are so terrorist.

[Tickle]

23. If you are being kidnapped

how does it work?

[stopdiggin]

24. the OP is not very clear

on what they're trying to say.
a) an 'illegal apprehension' on the part of a government agency (which is a debatable thesis at best)

or b) and actual 'kidnapping' on the part of ??? Some theoretical non-governmental person or persons - for reasons that can only be imagined or speculated. (which is, of its own self, unlikely at best - but in any case a completely different scenario and thus discussion. if in fact that is what we are supposed to be discussing.)

Your guess is as good as mine. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -