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Earlier this week, I opened the online news and found an image that twisted my guts: hundreds of men, bent and shackled, their heads freshly shorn, being marched through a huge room with the blank-white walls of an institution. The headline informed that despite a judge’s orders — that is, despite American law — these men had already been deported without having been convicted of a crime. No hearing, no evidence presented. No due process.
No justice.
As I pondered the photo in horror, I wondered: Why are the so-called authorities — the guards pressing the shaven heads down with such rough vigor — hiding their faces? Why are they wearing masks? They likely know their orders are illegal, so some level of self protection is involved.
But I argue that it goes farther than that: Those in power want us, the general public, to see these actions as vigilante justice rather than what it is: a gross overreach of executive power that has me very, very scared.
I grew up in Piscataquis County. Common sense there is to never trust the government — and right now the government is Donald Trump.
Erica Dubois
Bangor