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Leftists have a new made-up term they’re using to justify impeding federal law enforcement proceedings.
“LEGAL OBSERVERS”
Democratic politicians and left-wing allies have labeled Renee Good — the woman who blocked ICE officials with her car in Minneapolis before accelerating into an officer, prompting him to shoot and kill her — a “legal observer.”
What is a “legal observer”?
It is an informal title created by a left-wing group, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), to imply that individuals who watch and document law enforcement operations have some special legal protections.
It was first used in 1968 to describe witnesses at Columbia University protests. Those witnesses were deployed essentially to make sure that police did not respond disproportionately to campus protesters. The term had a resurgence during the Black Lives Matter era as individuals began watching and recording routine traffic stops and arrests because they believed that, without a witness present, the police would simply murder black people and lie about what they had done.
Now, the term has been deployed alongside nationwide anti-ICE protests.
The people blocking ICE’s access with their cars, getting in their faces and screaming during detainments and arrests, recklessly tailing officers, and throwing objects, they claim, are just “legal observers” making sure ICE isn’t violating the rights of suspects.
Even if these “legal observers” were literally just watching ICE operations, they would be subject to the same rules that apply to everyone else. Meaning, wearing a high-vis vest or an “ICE Out” pin doesn’t give them any special status. They too are required to obey police commands to stand back and keep a reasonable distance from enforcement proceedings.
“Legal observers,” same as you and me, can record ICE detaining Jose on their phones. But they can’t impede law enforcement and must grant them space to do their jobs.
Of course, these so-called “legal observers” aren’t actually there to just watch and make sure there’s no funny business. In video after video, we see anti-ICE protesters gathering en masse around ICE vehicles to prohibit their movement, trying to pry suspects out of custody, demanding ICE present warrants as if they’re presiding over the bench, and sticking their phones just inches from officers’ faces while screaming incoherent nonsense. In Good’s case, she used her own car to try to prevent ICE from moving through an enforcement area.
This is obstruction, and it is illegal.
“Legal observers” are about as real as Antifa’s “street medics.” Someone with no more training than your average pool lifeguard throws a “paramedic” hat on and thinks they are immune from the consequences of tossing Molotovs or committing assault. Similarly, Good was part of “ICE Watch,” a group made up of “legal observers” that encouraged its members to swarm law enforcement and extricate suspects. ICE Watch admitted such actions might be “risky,” but a brainwashed woman like Good probably never imagined they would get her killed.
She was, after all, a LEGAL OBSERVER.
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