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petersuber
petersuber
@petersuber@fediscience.org  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

"Justice Department Says Filming Immigration Raids Is 'Domestic Terrorism'."
https://reason.com/2025/12/26/justice-department-says-filming-immigration-raids-is-domestic-terrorism/

This is the best evidence yet that the #Trump admin is turning the term "domestic terrorism" into an all-purpose pejorative for whatever it dislikes.

Three quick legal notes:
1. In the US, it is not a crime to video police making arrests, provided one does not interfere with their work. So said #SCOTUS in Glik v. Cunniffe (2011).
2. If an act is not already a crime, then even a high-level decision to call it "domestic terrorism" does not make it a crime.
3. Making an act a crime requires legislation (yea, constitutional legislation). In a country with no kings, an executive diktat does not suffice.

#EmptySignifier #FloatingSignifier #FirstAmendment #Terrorism #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

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Ricardo Harvin
Ricardo Harvin
@ricardoharvin@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

@petersuber Yes, absolutely true, and...

https://mstdn.social/@ricardoharvin/113478597021193037

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Lazy B0y
Lazy B0y
@lazyb0y@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

@petersuber

„injustice department“

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Legit_Spaghetti
Legit_Spaghetti
@Legit_Spaghetti@mastodo.neoliber.al replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

@petersuber Filming ICE? Domestic terrorism. Taking pictures of ICE? Domestic terrorism. Releasing unredacted Epstein Files? Believe it or not, domestic terrorism. Protesting the administration? Domestic terrorism, right away. Overcharging for eggs? Domestic terrorism, right to jail, right away. Undercharging for legal advice? Believe it or not, also domestic terrorism.

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caitp
caitp
@caitp@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

@petersuber @AnnaAnthro I thought they wanted to be on camera, isnt that why they sent dr phil out with them, and publish propaganda videos of arrests?

so the official subjective narrative in video is fine, but an objective, unedited perspective, that's "terrorism", sure

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Matthias Krämer
Matthias Krämer
@Kraemer_HB@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

@petersuber In Germany, some banks have recently debanked left-leaning organizations, probably after the US government used the term terrorism so loosely against antifa.
This playbook means: Not the state will charge someone for a non-existent crime after videos of police brutality make their rounds, but platforms in Trumps butt will deplatform the people that upload such videos, making it more effective censorship than a state agency could ever achieve.

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