Should LEOs be allowed to wear masks on the job?

[finesse]

Not exactly on topic, but has anyone figured out how cost effective or even generally effective these mass raids are compared to a quieter approach? Seems like a whole lot of "sound and fury" to me. I know this way makes for better soundbites but is there anything else to these methods?

 

[dukeman92]

Do you not read the news? This isn't an obscure assertion on my part.

June 11, 2025 Newsweek

Homeland Security has denounced an "independent media group" which is creating a database of ICE agents and asking people to report officers or collaborators. The Crustian Daily, the group which has created the list said: "The ICE List exists because we believe the people carrying out violent state policy should not be protected by anonymity."

Such a list poses ethical and privacy issues because it risks exposing personal details without consent. It could also make people who work for the government potential targets for attack, and could make it more likely that ICE agents will wear masks at all times during arrests, which in turn might provoke more unrest.

Fox News, in a February 26, 2025 article reported that "anti-ICE activists, who have been interfering with ICE operations in the Los Angeles area in recent days, have now started putting up posters featuring the personal information of ICE and HSI officers." The fliers which are appearing across LA, include pictures of ICE agents, their names, and phone numbers, with the heading "Careful with these Faces."

Homeland Security... AKA Kristi Noem & Fox News... lol

 

[HeelInTheOzarks]

If you’re ok with them wearing masks, plainclothes and riding in unmarked vehicles, do you also support all police doing the same? Would you want your town’s police to be able to pull you over in an unmarked car? Or just some guy who you don’t know is a cop come up and arrest you?

Or is it only OK when they do it to brown people?

 

[HintonJamesHeel]

If you’re ok with them wearing masks, plainclothes and riding in unmarked vehicles, do you also support all police doing the same? Would you want your town’s police to be able to pull you over in an unmarked car? Or just some guy who you don’t know is a cop come up and arrest you?

Or is it only OK when they do it to brown people?

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

 

[Healing]

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

So do people getting approached by masked, un-uniformed, casually dressed, thugs who refuse to present badges, refuse to issue warrants, and drive unmarked vehicles.

 

[finesse]

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

No you don't. You have the right to do what your employment contract tells you that you can do. If you think your job is a threat to you, quit your job. Most law enforcement oaths stress service to the community and the organization and doesn't even mention risk to the officer. Only a moron doesn't realize that it's a job condition. It's always close to one of the top twenty most dangerous professions. Suck it up, sweetheart and quit trying to hide behind a mask like a paramilitary bully. That's shame, not fear, that they are hiding or should be.

 

[8992Tiger]

I don't know about y'all, but I think federal "law enforcement officers" running around in plain clothes and masks, carrying guns and driving black vans is some serious deep state shit.

This got me thinking... could the Proud Boys and other such groups who wear plain clothes, masks and carry around guns be arrested for impersonating law enforcement officers?

 

[dukeman92]

If you don't want to suffer the consequences of gestapo participation... don't participate.

 

[UNCatTech]

I hate the “Gestapo” references because I think the Nazi/Gestapo claims shut down conversations before they can begin. But this certainly looks like criminal activity rather than law enforcement…

Yes and without a uniform, this is just an open invitation for criminal activity.

 

[stankeylegjones]

I guess I'm fine with them wearing masks, if they're worried about harm to them or their family/friends/etc., but I don't understand why they're not required to wear "ICE clothing." There's no reason, that I can think of, why they shouldn't have to wear clothing, or something, identifying them as a member of ICE.

 

[gtyellowjacket]

I guess I'm fine with them wearing masks, if they're worried about harm to them or their family/friends/etc., but I don't understand why they're not required to wear "ICE clothing." There's no reason, that I can think of, why they shouldn't have to wear clothing, or something, identifying them as a member of ICE.

This is where I'm at.

I don't think it's great policy to be detaining all these nonviolent immigrants but democracy sucks sometimes. But I do think they should be doing it as professionally and humanely as possible. Wear a uniform and stop looking like something between a vigilante and a bum.

 

[wmheel1287]

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

Lol, ok, let's see how you feel when your family is approached by people in masks and plain clothes and demands them get into an unmarked vehicle.

 

[TangledUpInBlue06]

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

I'm sensitive to the possibility that government actors might receive threats. Threats are wrong.

But the government should be held to certain standards in their interactions with the governed. They include transparency and accountability, and they are of particular importance when the government is attempting to deprive someone of their freedom. Anonymous government actors - with no uniform, agency identification, badge number, name, or face - are not transparent or accountable to the public. A democratic government's legitimacy is rooted in the consent of the governed. Consent requires knowledge. Anonymous state action frustrates knowledge.

The government should fear the people, not the other way around. Weighing the interest of some government actors to avoid the potential for threats against the interest of the general public in understanding what its government is actually doing, I come down strongly on the side of the general public.

 

[stankeylegjones]

This is where I'm at.

I don't think it's great policy to be detaining all these nonviolent immigrants but democracy sucks sometimes. But I do think they should be doing it as professionally and humanely as possible. Wear a uniform and stop looking like something between a vigilante and a bum.

Oh, you misunderstood me. I completely disagree with what they're doing.

 

[gtyellowjacket]

Oh, you misunderstood me. I completely disagree with what they're doing.

I don't agree with what they're doing either but once again that's the way democracy works sometimes. But if they are going to do it, I definitely think they should be doing it with professionalism and as much humanity as possible. These folks aren't murderers.

 

[ChileG]

Don’t do shameful things and you won’t need to hide your face.

 

[superrific]

I'm sensitive to the possibility that government actors might receive threats. Threats are wrong.

But the government should be held to certain standards in their interactions with the governed. They include transparency and accountability, and they are of particular importance when the government is attempting to deprive someone of their freedom. Anonymous government actors - with no uniform, agency identification, badge number, name, or face - are not transparent or accountable to the public. A democratic government's legitimacy is rooted in the consent of the governed. Consent requires knowledge. Anonymous state action frustrates knowledge.

The government should fear the people, not the other way around. Weighing the interest of some government actors to avoid the potential for threats against the interest of the general public in understanding what its government is actually doing, I come down strongly on the side of the general public.

tl;dr: No justice, no peace.

 

[superrific]

Lol, ok, let's see how you feel when your family is approached by people in masks and plain clothes and demands them get into an unmarked vehicle.

Once again, conservatives show off their self-absorption. If it isn't happening to them, they figure nobody has anything to worry about. It's one of the most toxic elements of the GOP. Well, more toxic elements. It has a lot of competition.

 

[BlooVooDoo]

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

In 2025, everyone faces that possibility. Reporters, judges, teachers, doctors, lawyers, city council and board of education members are being targeted for doing their jobs. Unlike law enforcement officers, they don’t have the option of hiding their identity and none of them signed up to put themselves in harm’s way or are given (except judges, maybe) the leeway to carry weapons everywhere they go.

This tactic isn’t about preventing harassment of ICE agents, it’s about preventing accountability.

 

[HeelInTheOzarks]

In 2025, folks have the right to wear masks. When you can get threatened and your family can be targeted when you are doing what you are told, you have a right to protect yourself.

You are OK with zero identification of them being legitimate law enforcement? How can I tell that the people throwing me into a car are kidnappers or if they are doing police work?