ICE at the Olympics: America brings fascism back to Italy
Italians are very familiar with what happens when masked thugs wield unchecked power
Italians are very familiar with what happens when masked thugs wield unchecked power, and they don’t want to go backwards. The IOC has had to plead with fans not to boo Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who have oddly chosen to arrive with ICE as part of their protection detail.
The Department of Homeland Security sparked an international outcry last week when it confirmed that members of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit would help provide security for the Games.
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“This is a militia that kills. It’s a militia that signs its own permits to enter people’s house, like we signed our own permission slips at school, except it’s much more serious,” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said last week during a radio broadcast. “They’re not welcome in Milan. Can’t we just say ‘no’ to Trump for once?”
…The news of ICE’s attendance came as tensions between the U.S. and Europe were already at an all-time high after the president threatened to invade Greenland and effectively destroy the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last month, leading to another possible point of contention during the Games.
The decision to send anyone from ICE to the Olympics to provide security is a baffling diplomatic misstep unless it is done to demonstrate the United States dedication to fascism. Watching the United States export that theater back to its birthplace is less ironic than it is instructive, and no amount of Olympic pageantry or pleading can make it look normal.