As ICE agents dragged Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, down the hallway of a federal courthouse this week, he repeatedly—and politely—asked to see their judicial warrant. Lander had locked arms with an undocumented man he identified as Edgardo, and refused to let go. Eventually, the ICE agents yanked Lander away from the man, shoved him against a wall, and handcuffed him. Lander told them that they didn’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. They arrested him anyway.
当Ice特工拖拉布拉德·兰德（Brad Lander），纽约市审计员和市长的候选人，本周在联邦法院的走廊下，他一再（礼貌地）看到了他们的司法逮捕令。兰德（Lander）用一个无证件的男人锁住了胳膊，他拒绝放手。最终，冰上的特工将兰德·兰德（Lander）拉开，将他推倒在墙上，然后戴上手铐。兰德告诉他们，他们无权逮捕美国公民。他们还是逮捕了他。
The courthouse is only a few blocks away from the one where Donald Trump was convicted last year of 34 felony crimes for falsifying business records. His supporters painted the criminal-justice process as a politically motivated witch hunt. But none of them seems to mind now that masked ICE agents are lurking behind corners in the halls of justice to snatch up undocumented migrants who show up for their hearings. This was not the first time Lander had accompanied someone to the courthouse, and it wouldn’t be his last.
法院大楼距离唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）去年被定罪的34次重罪罪行仅几个街区，以伪造商业记录。他的支持者将刑事司法程序描绘成是出于政治动机的狩猎。但是，现在似乎都没有介意，因为蒙面的冰原特工潜伏在司法大厅的角落后面，以抢走出现听证会的无证移民。这不是Lander第一次陪同某人到法院，这并不是他的最后一次。
Read: America’s most destructive habit
阅读：美国最具破坏性的习惯
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Lander had been “arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” The whole thing is on video, so anyone can see that there was no assault. Lander is about as mild-mannered a politician as they come. Matt Welch, a libertarian blogger and no fan of Lander, wrote on X that the only things Lander had ever assaulted were “Coney Island hot dogs and school-zone speed limits.” He’s the kind of old-fashioned elected official who doesn’t much exist anymore, the kind you see at public-library events or can call when your kid’s day care is shut down and know he’ll actually do something about it. A different kind of politician would have milked the attention for all it was worth. But if Brad Lander were a different kind of politician, he might be first and not third in the polls. “I did not come today expecting to be arrested,” he told reporters after being released. “But I really think I failed today, because my goal was really to get Edgardo out of the building.”
国土安全部声称，兰德（Lander）“因攻击执法和阻碍联邦官员而被捕”。整个事情都在视频上，因此任何人都可以看到没有攻击。兰德（Lander）的到来时，兰德（Lander）的政治家差不多。自由主义者博客作者马特·韦尔奇（Matt Welch）在X上写道，兰德（Lander）唯一遭受的攻击是“康尼岛热狗和学校区域速度限制”。他是那种老式的当选官员，不再存在，您在公共图书馆活动中看到的那种或者是在关闭孩子的日托并知道他实际上会为此做些事情时可以打电话。另一种政治家会为所有值得的关注挤满了关注。但是，如果布拉德·兰德（Brad Lander）是另一种政治家，那么他可能是民意调查中的第一和第三。他在获释后告诉记者：“我今天没有预计会被捕。”“但是我真的认为我今天失败了，因为我的目标确实是把埃加多带出建筑物。”
People who are used to living in a democracy tend to find it unsettling when elected officials are arrested, or thrown to the ground and handcuffed for asking questions at press conferences. They don’t like to see elected officials indicted for trying to intervene in the arrest of other elected officials. And they find it traumatizing when, as has been happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere, they see law-abiding neighbors and co-workers they’ve known for years grabbed and deported.
习惯于生活在民主国家的人往往会发现当选官员被捕，或被扔到地上并戴上手铐在新闻发布会上提出问题时，人们会感到不安。他们不希望看到当选官员试图干预其他当选官员的逮捕。他们发现，就像在洛杉矶和其他地方发生的那样，他们看到了守法的邻居和同事多年来被抢劫和驱逐出境。
The question now is what Americans are going to do about it.
现在的问题是美国人将如何处理。
Los Angeles has offered one model of response. Although Trump campaigned on finding and deporting undocumented criminals, in order to hit aggressive quotas, ICE has changed its tactics and started barging into workplaces. Citizens have reported being detained simply because they look Hispanic. Residents of one Latino neighborhood recorded ICE officers driving in an armored vehicle. Many residents felt that the raids were an invasion by the president’s personal storm troopers, and marched into the streets in response.
洛杉矶提供了一种响应模式。尽管特朗普竞选寻找和驱逐无证件的罪犯，但为了达到积极的配额，ICE改变了其战术，并开始闯入工作场所。公民报告说，仅仅是因为他们看起来是西班牙裔，因此被拘留。一个拉丁裔社区的居民记录了驾驶装甲车的冰官。许多居民认为突袭是总统个人突击队士兵的入侵，并回到街头。
The first groups of protesters were organized by unions, but soon, other Angelenos—of many ages and backgrounds—joined them. Most of the protesters were peaceful, chanting and marching and performing mariachi around federal buildings in downtown L.A. But others were not. They defaced buildings with graffiti and summoned Waymos, the driverless taxis, in order to set them on fire.
第一批抗议者是由工会组织的，但是很快，其他许多年龄和背景的安吉伦斯（Angelenos）加入了他们。大多数抗议者都是和平，诵经，游行，并在洛杉矶市中心的联邦建筑物周围进行墨西哥流浪汉，但其他人则没有。他们用涂鸦和召唤Waymos（无人驾驶出租车）污损建筑物，以使它们着火。
Read: I am running out of ways to explain how bad this is (again)
阅读：我已经用完了解释这有多糟糕的方法（再次）
The right seized on a chance to reinforce the narrative that California is in the grip of dangerous radical-left activists, categorizing the protests as “violent riots.” Trump overrode Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, to deploy the National Guard, and sent in Marines to protect ICE officers. Of course, that meant only that more Angelenos came out to protest. There were arrests and rubber-coated bullets and clouds of tear gas.
右派抓住了有机会加强叙事的叙述，即加利福尼亚处于危险的左翼激进主义者的控制中，将抗议活动归类为“暴力暴动”。特朗普击败加利福尼亚州州长加文·纽瑟姆（Gavin Newsom）部署国民警卫队，并派出海军陆战队来保护冰官。当然，这意味着更多的安吉伦诺斯出来抗议。有逮捕和橡胶涂层的子弹和催泪瓦斯云。
I would have thought that the reaction to the protests from anyone outside the MAGAverse would have been pretty uniform. Democrats have been warning Americans for years about Trump’s descent into authoritarianism. Now it is happening—the deportations, the arrests, the president’s face on banners across government buildings, the tank parade. “Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom said. And yet, so many Democratic leaders, public intellectuals, and members of the media seemed distinctly uneasy about the protests. Yes, they seem to say, ICE has been acting illegally, but what about the Waymos?
我本以为，杂志以外的任何人的抗议反应将是非常统一的。多年来，民主党人一直在警告美国人关于特朗普陷入威权主义的人。现在正在发生 - 驱逐出境，逮捕，总统在政府大楼，坦克游行的横幅上的脸。Newsom说：“民主正在我们眼前受到攻击。”然而，如此众多的民主党领导人，公共知识分子和媒体成员似乎对抗议活动显然感到不安。是的，他们似乎说，冰一直在非法行事，但是Waymos呢？
In The Washington Post, David Ignatius fretted about protesters waving Mexican flags and wondered if the “activists” were actually working for Trump. Democratic leaders were “worried the confrontation elevates a losing issue for the party,” The New York Times reported. Politico raised a more cynical question: “Which Party Should Be More Worried About the Politics of the LA Protests?”
在《华盛顿邮报》中，戴维·伊格纳修斯（David Ignatius）担心抗议者挥舞墨西哥国旗，并想知道“激进主义者”是否真的在为特朗普工作。纽约时报报道，民主党领导人“担心对抗会增加该党的失败问题。”Politico提出了一个更愤世嫉俗的问题：“哪个政党应该更担心洛杉矶抗议活动的政治？”
Many Democrats denounced vandalism while supporting the right to protest. But the Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was harsh in his criticism of the protesters, lamenting that the random acts of violence and property damage by a few bad actors would cause Democrats to lose the “moral high ground.”
许多民主党人在支持抗议权的同时谴责故意破坏。但是，宾夕法尼亚州的民主党参议员约翰·费特曼（John Fetterman）对抗议者的批评感到苛刻，他为少数坏演员遭受的暴力和财产损害的随机行为感到遗憾，这会导致民主党人失去“道德高昂的立场”。
There is a time for politicians to fine-tune a message for maximum appeal. But this is a case of actual public outrage against the trampling of inalienable rights. This is not a fight for the moral high ground; this is a fight against authoritarianism.
政客们有时间来微调信息以获得最大的上诉。但这是对践踏不可剥夺权利的实际愤怒的一种情况。这不是为道德高空而战。这是与威权主义的斗争。
Democrats made themselves hoarse warning against the threat to democracy Trump’s second term would present. They invoked autocracy and even fascism to stir the public to keep Trump out of office. Obviously, it didn’t work. But that threat is no longer abstract. It’s now very real. And for all the speeches imploring Americans to save democracy at the polls, the Democratic establishment seems remarkably tepid about supporting Americans defending democracy in the streets.
民主党人对特朗普对民主的第二任期的威胁发出嘶哑的警告。他们援引专制政治甚至法西斯主义，激发公众使特朗普脱离办公室。显然，它无效。但是这种威胁不再是抽象的。现在非常真实。而且，尽管所有恳请美国人在民意测验中拯救民主的演讲，但民主机构似乎对支持美国人在街上捍卫民主的人非常温和。
Yes, Democrats would have an easier time in the court of public opinion if no protester ever picked up a can of spray paint. And certainly, setting cars on fire is not good. I myself would love to have a nice, quiet summer. But I want to save our democracy more. We can’t afford to get distracted for even a moment by the excesses of a few protesters, which are vanishingly small compared with the excesses of the president of the United States.
是的，如果没有抗议者拿起一罐喷漆，民主党人将在公众舆论法院度过更轻松的时光。当然，让汽车着火不好。我本人很想度过一个愉快，安静的夏天。但是我想更多地拯救我们的民主。我们甚至无法分心少数示威者，与美国总统的过度相比，这些抗议者的过剩很小。
Defending liberty is a messy business: You might remember all that tea tossed into Boston Harbor. The phrase “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” was once considered for the Great Seal of the United States. (Thomas Jefferson adopted it for his own seal at Monticello.) And yet, although the civil-rights movement is remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil disobedience, the movement included riots and armed activist groups. Violent protests, such as the Oakland riots of 1967, were a significant part of anti-draft and anti–Vietnam War movements. Their violence did not invalidate the causes those earlier movements sought to advance, any more than the property damage caused by a few activists today invalidates the claims of the great majority of peaceful protesters. Historically, protest movements are seen as “civil” only in retrospect.
捍卫自由是一项混乱的生意：您可能还记得所有茶扔进波士顿港口。“对暴君的叛乱是对上帝的服从”一词曾经被认为是美国的巨大印章。（托马斯·杰斐逊（Thomas Jefferson）在蒙蒂塞洛（Monticello）采用了自己的印章。）然而，尽管对小马丁·路德·金（Martin Luther King Jr.暴力抗议活动，例如1967年的奥克兰骚乱，是反选秀和反越南战争运动的重要组成部分。他们的暴力并没有使那些试图晋升的运动的原因无效，这比今天几个激进分子造成的财产损害使大多数和平抗议者的主张无效。从历史上看，抗议运动仅在回顾中被视为“民事”。
For a party that you’d think would be fighting with everything they’re worth, Democrats seem remarkably focused on preserving the status quo. Even after the loss of the presidency and both houses of Congress, Democrats won’t shake anything up. Despite her popularity, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been kept out of any committee-leadership position. David Hogg, the young anti-gun activist, was ousted from his position as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee after he announced his plan to back primary challengers against older Democratic incumbents in hopes of breathing new life into the party.
对于您认为将与他们所拥有的一切作斗争的聚会，民主党似乎非常专注于保持现状。即使在总统任期和国会的两院之后，民主党人也不会动摇任何事情。尽管她很受欢迎，但代表Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez仍未拒绝任何委员会领导地位。年轻的反枪手激进主义者戴维·霍格（David Hogg）宣布将主要挑战者反对对年龄较大的民主党现任者的计划，以期希望将新的生命呼吸到该党之后，因此被罢免了民主党全国委员会的副主席。
Earlier this week, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had directed ICE to focus on what he sees as enemy territory: Democratic-leaning cities that have “turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.” New York and L.A. are both sanctuary cities—they have passed laws pledging to limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. We shouldn’t be surprised to see more citizens of these cities stepping up to protect their neighbors and their communities.
本周早些时候，特朗普宣布真相社会，他指示ICE专注于自己认为的敌人领土：民主党倾向的城市，这些城市“曾经将田园诗般的城镇变成了第三世界反乌托邦的场景”。纽约和洛杉矶都是庇护城市 - 他们通过法律，承诺限制与联邦移民当局合作的法律。看到更多城市的公民加紧保护他们的邻居及其社区，我们应该不会感到惊讶。
That is exactly what Lander was attempting to do when he was arrested. “This is part of what authoritarians do,” Lander told Democracy Now following his release. “Our challenge is to find a way to stand up for the rule of law, for due process, for people’s rights, and to do it in a way that is nonviolent and insistent, demands it, but also doesn’t help them escalate conflict.”
这正是Lander被捕时试图做的事情。“这是专制主义者所做的事情的一部分，”兰德在释放后告诉民主国家。“我们的挑战是找到一种方法来捍卫法治，正当程序，人民的权利，并以一种非暴力和坚持的方式来做这件事，要求它，但也没有帮助他们升级冲突。”
Lander’s clarity in this moment makes him a rarity, even in the highest levels of the Democratic Party. Last Saturday, when an estimated 5 million Americans protested the Trump administration and New Yorkers marched up Fifth Avenue, two of New York’s most powerful elected officials, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the minority leaders of the House and the Senate, were in the Hamptons, dining on bavette and chilled English pea soup to celebrate the marriage of the megadonor Alex Soros to Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s longtime aide. Meanwhile, Lander was out in the streets, side by side with his constituents.
在这一刻，兰德的清晰度使他变得很少见，即使在民主党的最高水平也是如此。上周六，当估计有500万美国人抗议特朗普政府和纽约人前往第五大街，纽约最有权势的两名当选官员哈基姆·杰弗里斯（Hakeem Jeffries）和众议院和参议院的少数派领袖查克·舒默（Hakeem Jeffries）和查克·舒默（Chuck Schumer助手。同时，Lander与他的选民并肩作战。
A few days later, leaving the courthouse, he assured New Yorkers that he was fine, his only lasting damage a button torn from his shirt as a result of ICE’s rough treatment. But, he warned, “the rule of law is not fine, and our constitutional democracy is not fine.”
几天后，他离开法院，向纽约人保证，他很好，这是他唯一的持久伤害，因为冰的磨碎，他的衬衫撕裂了一个纽扣。但是，他警告说：“法治不好，我们的宪法民主也不好。”
