DELANEY HALL AND THE DEATH OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT
The people imprisoned inside of Delaney Hall Concentration Camp are on a hunger and labor strike — innocent people kidnapped by ICE and kept in inhumane conditions all for the profit of private prison company GEO group and at the behest of the fascist Trump regime.
For days, ICE brutalized peaceful protesters, beating them, spraying them directly in the eyes with pepper spray, pushing them under the tires of oncoming semis. Detaining and severely injuring civilians who are exercising their first amendment rights.
The crimes of ICE recorded for everyone to see. Viral videos showcasing the absolute war-zone that a paramilitary with an unprecedented budget that has been allowed to murder civilians on the streets with impunity, create when they are criticized and condemned for the atrocity they are committing.
In a feeble attempt to mitigate the situation, NJ Gov Mikie Sherill made a deal with the Trump regime. In place of ICE, she sent the NJ State Police to “protect protesters.”
What did the police do?
The same thing that ICE did.
Escalate with violence and brutalize peaceful protesters.
They didn’t come to protect the protesters or the first amendment.
The police came to protect ICE and their operations. To maintain keeping innocent people in an inhumane concentration camp operating for profit.
Gov. Sherill’s response? She lied. Saying the police didn’t act the same way ICE did. That they didn’t beat people with batons, or pepper spray them, or shoot projectiles at them.
The police did all of those things. All while ICE stood on the roof and behind the gates to shoot pepper balls into the crowd like some sort of sick game.
Ian Austin, military veteran and activist who has maintained a consistent presence on the ground was shot six times on the night of May 30th with pepper balls and rubber bullets. All because he used nothing but his voice, and they didn’t like what he had to say. He wasn’t shot by ICE. He was shot by the police that were called in by the Governor.
Because the police aren’t there to protect the people. They are there to protect what they’ve always protected - property, profit and power. They move the crowd to let ICE vehicles by to continue their kidnapping efforts.
It was peaceful before the night’s escalations. Songs were being sung. Interviews were being conducted by journalists.
My friend Jessica Kelly used her megaphone to speak to those trapped inside and instill hope, letting them know that the people were still fighting for them outside while they continued to fight inside.
The peace would not last long.
Everything was quiet as the sun set. But when night came, the police lined up in their riot gear in preparation for their escalation.
Earlier that day we had seen them staging miles down the road. Twenty police cars/ unmarked vehicles where police began to gear up. Horse trailers were in tow.
Narratives spun afterwards condemned the protesters, saying they were paid. Propaganda called them terrorists.
The protesters came with their cameras, goggles, signs, and their voices.
The police with their seemingly unlimited resources, funded by the state, came with batons, riot shields, tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, flash bangs, horses and drones that flew overhead.
The police escalated with violence, not the protesters. And they gassed and beat protesters back for over a mile.
Sparks flew as they launched projectiles into the crowd. Long trail lines of gas arched overhead as far as the eye could see. The full moon peaked through the smoke.
Gov. Sherill sent the police out there to continue violating the first amendment rights of the people. All the while a concentration camp still stands.
The next night there was a curfew issued at 9pm. They shut the road down a mile from where Delaney Hall sits. Protesters and press remained at the intersection to continue exercising their first amendment rights in the face of such inhumanity.
What did the police do this time?
They came with even more resources. They formed a wall around a much thinner group of protesters than the night before, completely trapping them in a circle.
One by one they removed credential press from the crowd and pushed them back down the street. As they beat and arrested the remaining protesters in the circle, they continued to try and push press back to keep them from filming what was occurring.
The credentialed press, usually not vocalizing their own protest and remaining observant, stood their ground. They refused to move and they even vocalized their anger at the police.
Because they knew what was happening wasn’t right.
What was happening was just another step into authoritarianism.
The police, in collaboration with ICE, care nothing about the first amendment. They don’t care about the rights of the people. They are protecting these concentration camps.
And if this is what they do to protesters while a hundred cameras record them, imagine what they do behind closed doors to the innocent people they have inside.
Keep your eyes on Delaney Hall.
 | A guest post by
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DHS is posting Delaney Hall menus as if it was a fine dining establishment. This crap needs to be national news.
Sherrill is off-balance and unable to pivot from a reflexive "obey orders" and "law and order" reaction. Military career baggage must be shed. Her attempts to rationalize this by blaming the protesters for violence is abhorrent. She needs to make this right, but is running out of time.