US Representative McIver Indicted

Via NBC News: Rep. LaMonica McIver indicted on federal charges over clash with law enforcement at ICE facility in New Jersey.

The indictment alleges that McIver interjected during Baraka’s arrest, yelling, “Hell no! Hell no!” and that she “attempted to thwart” the arrest by putting her arms around Baraka.

It goes on to say that McIver “slammed her forearm” into an officer and “reached out and tried to restrain” the agent by “forcibly grabbing him.” It further alleges that she pushed past a second agent, “using each of her forearms to visibly strike” him.

Habba said Tuesday that two of the counts carry maximum penalties of eight years in prison and that the third count carries a one-year penalty.

There is video at the link which I don’t think is any different than what we saw when Mayor Baraka was arrested (those charges were eventually dropped).

There is little doubt that there was a heated confrontation with pushing and shoving in the context of a crowd of people and an emotional interchange. I am not a lawyer and only have the bits of videao available at the lins provided, but it seems absurd to me to charge Representative McIver with a mulitple felonies.

Here’s one assessment of the existing video from an AP write-up about the charges.

A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting “surround the mayor.” The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police” on it.

It isn’t clear from bodycam video whether that contact was intentional, incidental or a result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

Again, I am not a lawyer, nor do I have full access to what the grand jury saw, but given the basic context, it would seem to me that proving intentional assault is going to be rather difficult. (I would hasten to add that getting an indictment is not a high bar.)

Note, too, that Baraka was charged with a misdemeanor, and those charges were dropped. I expect that will figure into any legal defense as well.

I think that McIver’s assessment of what is going on here is “a brazen attempt at political intimidation.”

I continue to wonder as to what legal rights members of Congress have in terms of inspecting ICE facilities. I also wonder as to why ICE isn’t simply letting the inspections take place. If conditions are acceptable, then there is no story, and it would make ICE look like they were just doing their jobs, and that Democrats are being emotional. Instead, we get U.S. Representatives facing criminal charges and/or being denied entry.

I am not a big fan of “show us if you have nothing to hide,” but that strikes me as a fully reasonable position about these facilities, especially given some of the reports that have come about about conditions.

Moreover, there is a broad patterns developing here wherein the Trump administration asserts the power to do whatever it wants regarding immigration because “the people voted for it.” And this pattern very much includes the deployment of force well disproportionate to the circumstances, whether it is the indicting of Representative McIver or the deployment of Marines in Los Angeles.

There is a lot of “do as we say, or else” going on here that is unhealthy and I fear is getting worse.