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Force-Fed by ICE

theguardian.com

21–27 of 27 posts

Re: Force-Fed by ICE

#22
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no actual punishment to the slave owners and they've ingrained their grievances about having to work into every generation since. If there's no punishment coming it will just continue the cycle of racists wanting to be lazy but reap all the rewards because of their skin color.

I don't see the relation here, to be honest. How is immigration enforcement about racists wanting to be lazy? The people paying illegal immigrants minimal wages under the table are far more analogous to slave owners in my mind.

So confusing how holding people in confinement, starving them, and selling their labor to others without compensation gets people tossing the word "slavery" around. Obviously it's the people paying wages to voluntary workers without giving the government a cut that are the real slavers!

Re: Force-Fed by ICE

#23

Imagine how terrible it must be to live in Kurdistan or Afghanistan that these guys are willing to be tortured to remain in the United States.

You think they have a f'n choice?? This has to be a troll comment

Re: Force-Fed by ICE

#24

I'm actually confused as to what the policy should be. Should ICE or whomever else just like the people on hunger strikes die? Or should they continue force-feeding the people on hunger strikes? Neither seem like a good solution but I don't know what the alternatives are, besides giving in to the hunger strikers, which is most likely never going to happen otherwise everyone would hunger strike to get whatever they wa…

This is essentially a health-care issue; it is not an issue of torture or human rights or discretion on DHS' part.

If EMTs or a hospital found someone who is not eating, they would feed them. They would feed them medically with any coercion required to keep them alive. Uncooperative patients can be legally restrained, compelled, and coerced into life-sustaining medical treatment; food and water are at the top of this list.

The bottom line is that food and water are not "extraordinary means" of life support. They are always considered ordinary means. It is not optional for a health care professional to feed and hydrate a patient. It is their solemn duty to the state.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Force-feeding_(suffr...

I once stumbled across an extraordinary image of a suffragette being force-fed in her prison cell. I am not sure if it's a photograph, a drawing, or a retouching, but it apparently depicts a very real and routine practice of dealing with hunger-striking activists a century ago.

Now that we are on the right side of history, we see suffragettes as the righteous victors, and so would we rather that the government had allowed them to die from hunger-strikes, in contrast to ordinary life support for medical patients?

It is also important to note that labor can be compelled from prisoners in the United States. Slavery was not abolished here after the Civil War, it was redefined! The XIII Amendment specifically states the circumstances for legal slavery, and chief among them is for prisoners. All the criminals today who willfully and voluntarily commit crimes? They are offering themselves as slaves to the state. They are recapitulating the lives, often lives of their ancestors, who were unwilling slaves, by sacrificing their freedom to become voluntary enslaved by the state in prison. Therefore, enslavement of prisoners is routine, widespread, safe, and legal in the United States, and this won't exclude illegal, criminal aliens.

Re: Force-Fed by ICE

#25

I'm actually confused as to what the policy should be. Should ICE or whomever else just like the people on hunger strikes die? Or should they continue force-feeding the people on hunger strikes? Neither seem like a good solution but I don't know what the alternatives are, besides giving in to the hunger strikers, which is most likely never going to happen otherwise everyone would hunger strike to get whatever they wa…

To expand on another comment under you, which was "Maybe take a few steps farther back"... I took that to mean proper healthcare and fair treatment for all people in (any kind of) detention, which would probably prevent people from wanting to strike in the first place. That or not even detaining them in the first place (especially for prolonged periods) if it's not for a serious offense and they're not a threat to anyone.

Re: Force-Fed by ICE

#27
post #6

Wow, this is horrific treatment. I hope to see the day the perpetrators will punished.

Just remember that most soldiers who worked in concentration camps in WW2 were never punished until very recently : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33533264

It may be unlikely, it's true, but I'm still hoping for justice.
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