Nov 2025. Blues Vol 41 No.11

GUEST COMENTARYPaula

GUEST COMENTARYPaula FitzsimmonsDisparaging Fellow LE Officers?A regional story surfacedearlier this week about a policecaptain who allegedly equatedICE officers with Nazis. Thedepartment is reportedly investigatingthe incident and as faras I know, it hasn’t denied thepost’s existence. So for now atleast, I will assume this egregiousclaim is legitimate.I’ve never met this captain,and have no idea how well sheperforms at her job or whatcompelled her to publish thatpost.And it’s true that police officershave a First Amendmentright to speak freely as privatecitizens, provided it doesn’tinterfere with official dutiesand is done while on theirown time. That doesn’t meantheir words and actions aren’tsubject to consequences.Command has an obligationto weigh an employee’s rightto peaceful expression withwhat’s in the best interest oftheir agency. Of course, anyinvestigation that does commenceneeds to be fair andthorough.While I haven’t met this captain,I have perplexedly encounteredpolice officers -albeit asmall number- who have saidthings about ICE agents that Ibelieve need to clarified.There are distinct differencesbetween ICE agents and Nazis.The term Nazi is used so gratuitouslythese days that I questionwhether schools are stillteaching about the atrocities ofthat period. Every time someoneaccuses a political foe ofbeing a Nazi, they’re discountingthe real horrors that millionsof Jews and other groupsincluding Christian Poles andother Slavic groups (some ofmy relatives were victims), disabledpeople, and the Romaniendured.It’s also intellectually lazy toindiscriminately use this term.To be clear, the Nazis werepsychopaths. They abductedpeople (including children!),tossed them into concentrationcamps, performed gruesomeexperiments on them, andtortured and killed them in themost horrific ways for no otherreason that they found them tobe inferior. While disturbing, itneeded to be said.In stark contrast, ICE agentsare enforcing immigration lawsenacted by Congress. They’reremoving alleged murderers,rapists, terrorists, human anddrug traffickers, gang bangers,and those who violate children,from our streets. They’re alsofocused on those who havedisrespected our laws by failingto appear for detainer noticesand who have faked genuineasylum claims.We can feel compassion forthose seeking a better life, andyes we are indeed a nation ofimmigrants that has welcomedpeople from all over the world.As a native-born Chicagoan,I value the life experiencesgained by having been introducedto a wide range of culturesand ethnicities.We’re still, however, a sovereignnation. (See my post fromlast year).How can police officers notrelate to the plight of federalagents?How does someone whoworks in a profession that peopleconsistently told lies aboutfor years, not question whetherperhaps these same lies are beingtold about federal agents.Someone who has been apolice officer, especially overthe past decade is aware ofthe loud calls to defund, theunfair criticisms, the distortedamateur videos, the fascist!accusations, the false narratives,the rogue prosecutions ofofficers, and the record numberof assaults on their colleagues;all of which have devastatedpolicing, perhaps irreversibly.26 The BLUES NOVEMBER ‘25

These distortions are nowbeing leveled against ICEagents.We hear claims that ICEagents are kidnapping innocentsoff the streets; only tolearn later that those “innocent”people are suspected of, orhave been convicted of horrificcrimes.We see curated videos of ICEagents pinning journalists tothe ground, then find out thatthese “journalists” had beenhauling projectiles at the carjust seconds ago.We read reports that agentsare arresting “peaceful protesters”when in reality, theseprotesters were blocking in ICEvehicles or throwing munitionsat them.Or we see agents arrestingwhat appears, from the back,to be a child, and turns out tobe an adult.If you work in local lawenforcement, does any of thissound familiar? At least bewilling to extend the same assumptionof innocence to yourfellow officers that some ofus extended to you when youwere being attacked.The tables can turn at anytime.Federal law enforcement isnow absorbing all the hatredthat was reserved for you nottoo long ago.Remember 2020 and the subsequentyears? One highly-publicizedincident or change in thepolitical winds, and your professionis subject to that samescenario. Though your situationis still fragile, it’s not as intenseas it has been. That’s because,in part, the object of hostilityhas pivoted, just as it can pivotagain at some point.Perhaps some introspection?As local police departmentscontinue to struggle with staffing,ICE has received 175,000applications for 10,000 positions,since this past summeralone.Anecdotally, I’ve spoken to retiredofficers from legacy policefamilies who are encouragingtheir children to focus on acareer in federal law enforcement.This juxtaposition can beattributed, in part, to internalpolitics. As federal agents arebeing encouraged to enforcethe law as they were constitutionallytrained (as assaults onthem surge and bounties areplaced on them) local policeagencies are neutering theirofficers and capitulating topolitics.When leaders can’t, or areunwilling to even differentiatebetween savage Nazis andfellow law enforcement officers,how will this landscapechange.The BLUES - NOVEMBER ‘25 27