The Toddler in the Backseat
Federal immigration agents in California arrested a U.S. citizen and drove away with the man's car — with his toddler still in the backseat — over the protests of a crowd that had gathered, and only after the crowd's intervention did agents permit the family to take the child.
#civilian harm #state violence
Armed federal immigration agents in California stopped a vehicle, arrested its driver — a U.S. citizen — and prepared to drive off with the man’s car, in keeping with a routine in which a vehicle is left disabled in the road or impounded after a stop. Inside that vehicle, in a child seat, was the man’s toddler. A crowd of bystanders that had assembled at the scene refused to allow the agents to leave with the child still in the car. After the crowd’s intervention, the agents agreed to wait for the family to arrive and collect the toddler.
That the toddler was eventually retrieved is an outcome that depended on the crowd. The default trajectory — the procedural plan the agents began to execute before they were stopped — would have separated the child from any adult relative for at least the duration of the agents’ transport of the vehicle. The question of what protocol governs the disposition of children present at federal arrests is one the article suggests has no public answer; the operational answer, on this day, was the bystanders.