Arbitrary targeting means anyone could be next
Copiague, L.I.: A man I’ve known for 28 years was taken by ICE last week and is now awaiting deportation, just like is happening in Minneapolis, where Americans are protesting. This was nobody special. He worked, he paid taxes, and I, for one, always assumed he was an American citizen.
Some 25 years ago, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor narcotics charge, and because of that charge, and in spite of his green card status, he was taken into custody in 2024 and held for a year in New Jersey. After a process right out of a Franz Kafka novel, he was put under the supervision of a for-profit private agency and was required to make a monthly trip from his home in Connecticut to an office in the Bronx.
It was there that he was taken into custody again, leaving his winter coat behind. We all thought he had been deported to Canada. He is being held in Texas. I hope that ICE provides him with something like a winter coat, but the cruel, duplicitous and shabby “Night and Fog” treatment he has endured so far makes me distrust that.
It should not matter, but this guy looks Scandinavian.
I wonder if my neighbors who voted Republican knew they were voting for this, just as I wonder if the people of Germany knew, until “and then they came for me” became the way it was. Mitch Kessler
Will a line be drawn?
Kew Gardens: People are being organized and trained by the Democratic Socialists of America to resist ICE operations within New York City. Will our socialist mayor allow for orderly demonstrations, or will he allow the protesters to run amok and replicate what we witnessed in Minneapolis? This will also be a test for the police commissioner, who knows that the maintenance of order and the prevention of injury or property damage is her duty as well. Will she come to the aid of brother and sister law enforcement agents if under duress? Or will she fold like the chiefs in other cities? Phil Serpico
Enforcement breeds ire
Kirkland, Quebec: As a British observer, I’ve noticed something in America that exists nowhere else: a deep, universal reverence for the soldier. On TV, in bars and in restaurants, people of all backgrounds stop to say, “Thank you for your service.” Crucially, the police don’t receive this reverence. While police are often viewed with skepticism or division, the soldier remains a rare unifying hero in American life. This unique status is now in jeopardy. If the administration uses the military for domestic enforcement or to assist ICE, they’re stripping the soldier of this hero status. Once soldiers are ordered to act as domestic enforcers, they’ll be viewed like the police — with suspicion and resentment. America shouldn’t destroy one of the few symbols that still brings all its people together. If you turn the military into a domestic police force, that unique American love for the troops will be lost forever. Russell Turner
Investigate it
Bloomington, Ind.: My fellow Republicans have been holding firm in labeling Renee Good a domestic extremist, asserting that her actions constituted a violent threat motivated by ideological aims. They also continue to maintain that Good was threatening the life of, or posed a serious risk of harm to, the federal agent who ultimately shot her. No one can know precisely what he perceived in the moments leading up to the fatal decision to use lethal force, but the justification for the shooting is ambiguous at best. Much of the American public has now seen footage from multiple bystanders, and that evidence does not definitively settle the question of whether Good posed an imminent threat at the moment she was killed. If we fail to allow a full, independent and transparent investigation, one that is unobstructed and trusted by the public, we risk creating a wound that may take decades to heal. Scott Thompson
This cut’s deep
Bronx: I’m a Puerto Rican disabled Vietnam veteran. My father, brother, ex-wife and nephew have all served in the military. I was called and I went. All of us who served in ‘Nam did it to show the world that the U.S. will show up. I am so hurt by what this country has become: goon squads brutalizing human beings, God’s children — men, women and young kids. Not one American should die for a cause such as Greenland. I can’t believe that the U.S. would go against NATO forces. Also, bombing South America and killing civilians. President Trump is committing crimes against humanity. Stop the madness. Julio Rivera
Prize-fighting
Manhattan: Here’s what Trump is telling the folks in Norway: In order to prove that I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, I’m going to attack another country. Robert Laird
Tyrant tantrum
Woodstock, N.Y.: I thought there was nothing more embarrassingly childish than the Don-roe Doctrine — until Diaper Baby whined to the grownups in an allied country that they didn’t give him the Nobel when he’s done more to put us on the road to World War III since the end of the last one, threatening the peace he claims to be championing, hammering his heels on the floor and holding his breath until he turns blue unless he gets the toys he wants — with his name on it, of course! Seriously, gang, there is such a thing as not being mature enough to lead the free world. Here’s actual evidence staring you in the face, stating it openly: He’s a nearly 80-year-old brat, and he’ll get what he wants or he’ll blow up the Earth. So there! Suzanne Hayes-Kelly
Prostrated PM
Edinburgh, Scotland: There are many questions one would like to ask British Prime Minister Keir Starmer since the start of this ragged administration. In case we forget, we began the whole “We’re different from the Tories” gig with a deliberate decision to keep thousands of children in poverty with the two-child benefit cap while refusing to cap bankers’ bonuses. Then there’s complicity in the Gaza genocide, reneging on promises to address unequal pensions for British women, etc. However, the big question of the moment (following the renewed threats of tariffs if NATO does not acquiesce to the U.S. takeover of Greenland in Trump’s latest Epstein distraction) is how is the whole groveling appeasement thing going, Keir? Amanda Baker
Rogue ruler
Bronx: Our president, proving he is the worst president in my lifetime, now wants to take over Greenland — regardless of the people of Greenland rejecting that when asked if they want to be owned by the U.S., even preferring to be owned by Denmark. It means nothing to the bully who threatens additional tariffs if Denmark does not sell Greenland, and who even threatened to take over Greenland regardless of what NATO countries are there to help defend Denmark. He needs to be stopped. Martin Sandok
Dress obsessed
Brooklyn: Too bad it’s no longer possible to manipulate images with Grok. It would have been fun to create and post pictures of Pete Hegseth in women’s underwear given his obsession with “men in dresses” in the military. Doesn’t he know that Corporal Klinger was a fictional character? Kathy Giaimo
Share the wealth
Manhattan: Nearly 15,000 NYC nurses are on strike because they want safe staffing and quality care for everyone. Hospital executives want the public to believe the nurses want money the hospitals don’t have, but Montefiore is starving Bronx hospitals to pour money into wealthy suburban facilities. Montefiore’s own negotiator said, “This is not about money. We have the money.” But in the Bronx, patients routinely endure inhumane overcrowding, no privacy and hours- and days-long waits on gurneys. Many are warehoused in drafty hallways. Montefiore CEO Philip Ozuah, who earns $17 million a year, has said patients at White Plains Hospital should “each have a private room with a window.” Bronx patients often don’t even get a bed. Instead of fixing dangerous conditions, Montefiore is wasting $26 million a week on temporary “travel nurses” while experienced, dedicated nurses who know their patients and communities are pushed out for demanding safe staffing. Hospital management must negotiate fair contracts now. Laura Daigen-Ayala
Picked a loser
Stratford, Conn.: $10 million a year? For a coach who, for 18 years at another team, won one Super Bowl? Way to go, Giants! Peter Sulzicki
