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Nobody Is Protected
Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States | Reece Jones
1 post | 1 read | 4 to read
An urgent look at the US Border Patrol from its xenophobic founding to its current role in racist policing and the ongoing assault on the Fourth Amendment. Late one July night in 2020 in Portland, Oregon, armed men, identified only by the word POLICE stitched onto their uniforms, began snatching people off the street and placing them in unmarked vans. The people targeted were legally protesting as part of a nationwide Black Lives Matter movement. More arrests soon followed. These actions were not done by a group of right-wing terrorists, or the FBI or CIA. They were common practice maneuvers conducted by the US Border Patrol. The fact that the Border Patrol was operating so far from what we think of as the border might seem like a surprising revelation. The Border Patrol can legally operate anywhere in the United States, but it has additional powers to stop and interrogate people without a warrant in a zone within one hundred miles of land borders and coastlines, an area including nine of the ten largest cities in the United States and two thirds of the population, and an area the American Civil Liberties Union has come to call the Constitution Free Zone, as a result. Nobody is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States is the untold story of how the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution has been curtailed in service of the policing of our borders. It shines a light on this often secretive but powerful police force; how its agents are arrested for committing crimes five times more often than regular police officers, how its culture of racism and violence has proliferated over the last few decades, and how its power, oftentimes, goes unchecked. Borders expert Reece Jones tells the history of the Border Patrol that has defined its culture and authority: mapping its Wild West beginnings, starting with a small cohort one hundred years ago, to its militarized force today, revealing the shocking true stories and characters behind its most dangerous policies. With Border Patrol agents now using their powers to arrest peaceful protestors and demonstrators, the truth behind their influence and history has never been more urgent.
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Not living near a border or coastline, I haven‘t had much interaction with the Border Patrol, so I didn‘t know what a scary police force they had become. A series of legal rulings has given them a wider jurisdiction and less oversight than other policing forces in the US. Jones covers the history of the BP, the Supreme Court rulings in the 1970s that gave them such a wide mandate, and where they stand today.

DogMomIrene Oh I definitely need to read this one! Thanks for reviewing so well. 2y
Cinfhen Great review 2y
squirrelbrain Sounds great - stacked! 2y
See All 11 Comments
Megabooks @DogMomIrene you‘re welcome! I hope you enjoy it! 2y
Megabooks @Cinfhen thanks! 😘 2y
Megabooks @squirrelbrain I hope you enjoy it! 💜 2y
vivastory I read something wild about a year ago that because marijuana is still not federally legalized there are certain states where law enforcement will wait for them to make a money pick up,& then will seize it & there's literally no legal recourse. It was crazy 2y
vivastory I just googled it to try to find a link & I see there has been an update in the story. Border Patrol weren't the ones involved, but it def fits the pattern of reckless law enforcement:
https://missouriindependent.com/2022/04/14/company-missouri-marijuana-kansas-fed....
2y
Megabooks @vivastory yes, in the book the author explains that while the BP touts itself as an anti-terrorism organization, the majority of their arrests are at interior checkpoints for possession level amounts of marijuana. It is so troubling for the jurisdictions where the checkpoints lie that they are mostly thrown out or fined. 🙄🙄 they shared celebrities that have been caught with small amounts as well. (Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, Fiona Apple) ⬇️ (edited) 2y
Megabooks @vivastory to show what they do is mainly nuisance work. When they do catch an often profiled undocumented person the situation is escalated way beyond what it needs to be. Latino people often get called into secondary even if they go often enough to know officers by name. 💯 BS!!! 2y
Bookwomble I've recently read a couple of books about policing, and they note that oppressive policing method used to control populations outside the mainstream are normalised and gradually imported to the centre. The first modern police force was developed in England using methods imported from colonial settings in India and Ireland. Sounds like the same process with the Border Patrol. 2y
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