Nobody forces anyone to be a police officer.
These thugs have all willingly chosen to do that job. They could quit any time they want.
Remember that.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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Thug life! Dave Chappelle, that ain't your wife
True for all cops. True for all garbage careers built solely on harassment and fucking with people.
Fuck em all.
Well, yes, but this is a necessity.
You can't (yet) run such a system otherwise, it would take way too much funding & time/indoctrination to get unwilling-ish people to do this shit.
Currently ICE HR uses the base mass unemphatic culture with strong branding (+propaganda) & sense of belonging. Which are cheap to exploit/already there.
But even the most sadistic such agents have a limit, more of a hardwired shellshock type of thing that builds up (the more extreme example is how Nazis just had to stop mass executing villages bcs even soldiers that really wanted to do it had like a gore limit that built up to the point of them being unable to physically work).
With ICE agents not seeing the full horror first hand (and just willing to not imagine the consequences) this limit is far off I imagine, unfortunately.
I'm not advocating violence, this is just as a system explanation/mechanic, but ICE agents morale (and thus the effort) is def very vulnerable to any violence at this point. That is the reason why they are getting only the tamest job assignments (=human targets), suspiciously so. It's not like it wouldn't help the propaganda machine if they busted violent gangs (they have all the equipment & overwhelming numbers, just not the people capable of not falling apart with such actions).
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they get paid absolute dick so many of them are just in it for the love of the game https://www.liveabout.com/ice-agent-career-profile-974493#toc-ice-agent-salary
From your link:
- Median Annual Salary: $63,380 ($30.47 /hour)
- Top 10% Annual Salary: More than $106,090 ($51/hour)
- Bottom 10% Annual Salary: Less than $36,550 ($17.57/hour)
Unless you're living someplace like Martha's Vineyard, those are definitely respectable numbers - particularly for those usually on the low end of the income scale it's at the very least not "absolute dick." Never mind it says those numbers are from 2018, so they're probably going up considering the recent abomination of a budget bill that was passed having increased their budget to an absurd (practically suspicious) level.
~$30 dollars an hour is, across the whole country broadly, just shy of a basic, liveable wage.
~$30 dollars an hour is what the minimum wage would now be, if it was still as it was originally intended to be, a wage allowing for a reasonably comfortable, non poverty existence.
If you think those are respectable numbers, you've normalized the idea of tens of millions of people living in poverty.
https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-year
If trends continue, the average renter will pay $19,801 in 2025 ($1,650/month).
There ya go, 1:3 rent to income ratio means you need to make ~$60k to afford the average apartment.
Annual rent per square foot in 2025 is an estimated $27.67//ft2, up 47.3% from 2020 ($18.79/ft2).
Yep, ~50% increase in rent prices in 5 years.
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/renter-households-cost-burdened-race.html
A household has on average ~2.6 people, so thats uh, ~55 million people that couldn't really afford rent in 2023... and those are the people who have since 2023ish been putting everything on credit, on klarna, on afterpay... you don't even want to know how bad the US looks if you take net wealth into the equation... basically, at least 25% of US households have negative net wealth, and that's obviously going to be more concentrated amongst those who can't afford rent.
And no, I'm not using the US gov's definiton(s) of 'poverty', because they are bullshit that doesn't account for what I have above described.
Also, thanks Mr. Trump, bye bye Section 8, bye bye foodstamps/EBT, bye bye Medicaid! I'm sure all those things weren't helpful or needed by anyone struggling to afford rent.
I didn't "normalize" anything. You're looking at nationwide averages when the reality can vary wildly according to specific area. In the Republican stronghold states especially there are plenty that are responsible from keeping those averages from being noticeably higher. I've got to go, so no time to research this now, but I'll wager there's plenty of areas in southern states & maybe the Bible belt where that income would be considered pretty decent.
I've got to go, so no time to research this now, but I'll wager there's plenty of areas in southern states & maybe the Bible belt where that income would be considered pretty decent.
Yes, it would be more decent in the poorer areas with even higher rates of being rent overburdened, higher rates of poverty.
You gave an average, I gave an average.
You wanna break it all down state by state, both metrics, you'll still find the same broad trend, using averages is a neat way to talk about broad trends without outputting a full 30 page comprehensive analysis.
I didn't "normalize" anything.
Not in the statistical sense, no.
But your massive internalized privilege has left you bereft of a realistic frame of reference for how bad the economic situation really is for so many millions of Americans.
You've thus normalized, in your own mind, the idea of it being ok for a massive chunk of society to be in a horrendously precarious material and financial position.
You gave an average, I gave an average.
I quoted a job posting from a link provided by someone else.
But your massive internalized privilege has left you bereft of a realistic frame of reference for how bad the economic situation really is for so many millions of Americans.You've thus normalized, in your own mind, the idea of it being ok for a massive chunk of society to be in a horrendously precarious material and financial position.
Wow, talk about assumptions and leaps in logic! I did no such thing, nor do I believe such things.
Whatever, you're obviously too enraged to be objective & I've gotta go.
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they get paid absolute dick
Maybe op just values (absolute) dick way higher than you do!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
/s
(So only the bottom 10% get paid about the national median income, 90% are above that. That's about how much one would pay a "public-"private militia to get. But it's not even a new organisation, so ofc they are paid OK-ish. And their funding just exploded like an infected haemorrhoid.)
...exploded like an infected haemorrhoid.
There's a visual that's sure to help me keep to my diet...
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all I know is that if I was actually interested in being a federal officer, I could be an FBI agent for the same pay but not nearly as much kidnapping duty
But are the requirements to get hired the same? I imagine/hope there's not as much expected for the "hired thug" role as for an FBI agent, but then we are talking about things under the Trump administration so I guess nothing's off the table... * sigh *
I know I'm gonna get shit for this, but I'm someone who always tries to be fair and look at things from all sides so...
I suspect like many things in late stage capitalism, for at least some not insignificant portion of them, it's not much of a choice. I'll lay odds a good number have a hard time getting jobs that pay worth a damn. I wouldn't be surprised if many were ex-cons, for example - which is why they're encouraged to wear masks, because those in charge don't want to allow that fact to be used to "de-legitimize" what they're doing. The "choice" from the agent's perspective is quite possibly do this, or be homeless & hungry. It's more deliberate cattle-herding of the powerless by those at the top.
I'm sure the majority are probably into the job, but I suspect those that are just doing it for lack of options is not a small percentage.
It’s always been class warfare. The rich and powerful subjugate the poor, and hold poverty over us to ensure that we do what they want, and we hate who they want us to hate.
Us infighting doesn’t stop the ultra-wealthy from continuing to win, it enables them to. The only way to win is to band together as a people regardless of our race, status, or job, against them.
Fully agreed. The problem is getting that to happen - particularly when they own the bulk of the media from which so many of us "commoners" get what passes for "information." Never mind overcoming the long-ingrained tribalism keeping the infighting going so strong.
Nah, fuck em.
Plenty of ex cons or people in shitty situations in general do their best to get by without directly harming people, by having or gaining morals and trying to genuinely be a good person.
Taking the path of least resistance in terms of 'career options' just makes you a bully and a coward.
I am a person who has gone homeless and hungry, from being the victim of these kinds of people... I've never hurt anybody, I put up with all the bullshit and paperwork and constant harassment from every member of society that comes along with being homeless, and managed to crawl my way back to not being homeless, and doing PT, and repairing my credit after having my wallet/bank cards/id stolen.
I have infinitely negative sympathy for people who have actually done crimes and then victimize more people out of the mere fear of ending up dispossed.
Fuck, they could just go work on the farms instead, that would be a legitimate line of work, lots of job openings there!
Your logic is horrendous and allows for a society where anyone doing anything shitty for basically any reason can be pearl clutched and crocodile tear'd away by unduly sympathizing with their personal sob story.
You really think you'd feel the same if these ex con neo nazis fucks busted down your door and sent you to GITMO, CECOT, or Alligator Auschwitz, simply on account of your skin being too melinated and you having a foreign sounding last name?
Gimme a break.
You gonna sympathize with their victims? Write an opinion piece from their perspective?
You are doing apologia for the modern Gestapo, that shit didn't fly at Nuremberg, if it flies with you now, you're a fascist apologist.
These motherfuckers looked a job description that read 'You will routinely carry out crimes against humanity' and said 'Hell yeah, sign me up!"
They deserve all the sympathy of the Nazis captured by the Inglorious Basterds, tap tap tap goes the baseball bat.
EDIT: But hey, at least your user name is apt, Sanctimonious Ape.
And Putin doesn't have a choice either or he will be killed, same with Kim Jong Un and Trump would be in prison if he wasn't a tyrant.
It's always a choice no matter how you try to paint it, stealing from supermarkets to eat is above being an ICE officer morally speaking.
I don't really get your first paragraph - there's a world of difference in options between those at the top & those at the bottom.
Nonetheless, I agree it's always a choice... to an extent. When you've got others depending upon you to provide, or you're not educated or mature enough to understand what all this means and are just trying to survive - how much of it is really a choice?
I'm not saying they're saints, but I expect at least some of them would rather be doing something else if they could get enough pay for it.
or mature enough to understand what all this means and are just trying to survive - how much of it is really a choice?
Then nothing is a choice, everything is a product of your nurture and nature and free will is an illusion
nothing is a choice, everything is a product of your nurture and nature and free will is an illusion
I unironically believe this, yet I also believe that all fascists (including ICE, obviously) need their "medicine" (lead)
There can be a noticeable difference in choices when there's a lack of understanding what that choice means. If Trump getting into office again didn't make that clear, I don't know what to tell you.
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Likewise, "just following orders" didn't fly at Nuremberg, it should fly anywhere.
-not
I think you dropped this
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