Several of us live in a nonprofit apartment building across the street from the local ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) building. They lease ICE the building from a local resident. About 1:45 AM 6/26/2025 I was wakened to banging on the door of my apartment on the 4th floor. I do not know where in the building the other almost half dozen of us live.
There have been demonstrations against ICE for the last 3 or so weeks. Federal agents have been throwing tear gas canisters and "flash bangs" and the toxic feeling fumes drift around. We need rain to wash the poison out of the air !!! I have COPD (Congestive Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Oddly, Honey in about a 10:1 ratio works better than my albuterol inhaler.
This is going on all over the USA. Recently a demonstrator was shot and killed in Utah. Why that state? I watched ICE install 2 inch thick glass on the building, and then plywood on top of that. This feels much worse than the shooting at Kent State long ago.
For those of you who pray, please do.
Gwen Brown
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLy2i8euOWU
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Prayers for you, and for your friends there. And for us all. There will be dark days. Remember that hope is always a choice.
— Emma
ICE
I know a Russian who immigrated about 1990 in USA. Both he and his wife (also Russian) are historians who specialize in the Soviet Union period between 1924 and 1953.
A couple of days ago we exchanged e-mails. He mentioned that they, despite being citizens for already almost 30 years, are afraid of being deported back to Russia. (Given their political views, they likely will not survive there longer than a few days.) That ICE has been turned effectively into an American NKVD, and likely will soon acquire the other functions of NKVD too.
And he is probably among the five best experts on the history of NKVD on this Earth. I am afraid he knows darn well what he is speaking about.
For those who don't know it: NKVD was the Soviet political police from 1937 to 1953. They had complete impunity for almost everything (except for arresting Politbyuro members, if that was not ordered by their superiors). They were above law and court, a floor sweeper in NKVD could order an Army general whatever he fancied, and the general would either do it or disappear without a trace. They could - and often did - kill or send into a gulag anyone at a whim, rape women, grab whatever they like from anyone or anywhere, with absolutely no consequences to themselves... Every psychopath in USSR wanted to be a member of NKVD, and most succeeded - NKVD bosses knew that psychopaths make the best tools, they do not have moral, humanity, scruples or a shred of compassion towards anyone, so they hired them eagerly.
One thing about NKVD, they had a daily quota for arrests of "enemies of the people". When they couldn't find enough "enemies", they just grabbed whoever they saw on the street and slapped on them some accusation. These victims never got any chance for a real court, legal defense or anything. The lucky ones were sent to a gulag, for a decade or two (the average survival time there was about an year). The not so lucky died during the interrogation.
I wish I believed in praying. Unhappily, I don't. But I do believe in the people's strength through unity.