Frantz Fanon says that all the native knows is that the colonizer, the oppressor, can come into their spaces to harass, beat, kidnap and kill them. And there is no one who comes to help, either during these brutal attacks or to bring relief afterwards. This is reality unless there is a broad fightback based in solidarity against the common enemy.
Right now, from coast to coast, populations find themselves subject to these beatings, kidnappings and killings. Across the country, immigrant communities, along with Indigenous communities, find themselves under attack by ICE agents.
These modern slave catchers and lynch mobs attack men, women and children when they are most vulnerable. They destroy the sanctuary and peace of schools, churches, hospitals, offices, work sites and homes in the name of white supremacy and to maintain the colonial occupation of these communities.
These roaming gangs hide their identities, dressing in plain clothes, wearing masks and sunglasses, to instill fear in the communities they target. This deception extends to their vehicles. Unmarked cars and trucks lurk on the roads alongside those of workers and people simply trying to live their lives.
As these fascist attacks escalate, communities are finding ways to keep themselves safe and fight back against ICE. Patrols and direct action to bust up ICE operations are methods that have proven successful in hindering the slave catchers trying to meet their quotas. These tactics – forms of community self-defense – pave the way for communities to be able to maintain their own safety without the need of police agencies, which ultimately prove incapable of doing anything but assisting in the occupation and oppression of the communities they are supposedly protecting.
There is a sentiment that the fight against ICE is not a fight that Black communities should take up in the Belly of the Beast. There are many reasons why this state-sponsored opinion and narrative are false and ultimately damaging to the struggle of Black Liberation in the United States. Firstly, Black immigrants are being deported at a higher rate than other POC and white counterparts.
Next, this idea that “well, they voted for it to happen” does nothing but further divide the working class of this country when we really need to work together. That sentiment upholds the colonial domination of both Black and Brown communities and does the state’s job of divide and conquer based on race.
Also, these ICE attacks on immigrants have resulted in the kidnapping and disappearance of U.S. citizens simply because they “looked” like immigrants. This sets a dangerous precedent that will ultimately lead to these modern lynch mobs descending upon Black citizens and anyone they may deem fit for deportation.
Finally, the tactics employed by ICE are similar to the tactics employed by police departments to occupy and torment Black communities across the country.
In Baltimore City, Black neighborhoods are in constant contact with the occupying forces. Over 80% of Baltimore City officers live outside of the city and use their racist understandings of the city to enforce white supremacy in a predominantly Black city. These officers, and, by extension, city leadership, view Black communities as inherently “high crime.” This designation leads to police following rules of engagement similar to those of the occupying U.S. grunt in Iraq or Afghanistan and the Israeli Occupation Soldier in occupied Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
Recently, Baltimore Police have carried out killings of Black men under the “need” to remove guns and armed individuals from the streets. Under the guise of “public safety,” these orders erase the ability of the Black community to defend itself from attacks in the future. Across the country, violent crime is declining, yet police departments repetitively say they do not have enough officers to police their areas.
The decline in violent crime is not related to good policing but reflects a cultural shift in communities to squash longstanding beefs to find a sense of unity against the continued attacks by the state on their friends and family. In Baltimore City, there have been multiple police murders of Black citizens, justified because they “fit the description of an armed individual.”
Some notable deaths include the killings of the 17-year-old father, William Gardner, on Aug. 5, 2024; 54-year-old Robert Phillip Nedd Jr., on Oct. 9, 2024; 26-year-old Jai Marc Howell on May 12, 2025; and recently the brutal execution of beloved arabber Bilal “BJ” Abdullah Jr. on June 17, 2025.
In each of these murders, the police announced that they would shoot and kill the men — no calls for de-escalation, no justice or trial, just straight to execution.
These killings and attacks on the ability for Black communities to defend themselves coincide with the attacks by other sections of the city government and private developers to displace Black communities in the name of gentrification.
The Black community in Baltimore is approaching a crossroads. The capitalist class will continue down its path to remove us and return us to slavery. Black and Brown immigrants are being deported to concentration camps out of the country, and our citizen Black brothers and sisters are killed or locked up. The time has come for the oppressed and working-class people of Baltimore to stand up to occupation, injustice, and apartheid – just like the Black Panthers of the 1960s-70s, the masses during the rebellions against police brutality from 2014-2020, the city of Los Angeles battling against occupation and slave catchers today in 2025, and the historic Palestinian Resistance fighting extinction at the hands of Zionism to this day.
All Power to the People!
Down with Occupation!
Up with Liberation!
Long Live oppressed and working people!
Long Live Baltimore!
Rest in Power to all Martyrs of U.S. Imperialism!
Long Live International Solidarity!
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