JEFFREY ST. CLAIR>

+ The fatal flaw in Donald Trump’s scheme to whitewash American history of its most depraved and embarrassing episodes is that his administration is committing new acts of barbarity and stupidity in real-time on an almost hourly basis. Consider the last week in Chicago and Portland.

+ The initial story from ICE was that 30-year-old Marimar Martinez was part of a “convoy” of cars in the Brighton Park neighborhood of southwest Chicago, which was trailing ICE vehicles for half an hour, ramming them with their cars and trying to force them off the road. 

At one point, a DHS official later claimed, Martinez aimed an automatic weapon at the ICE agents, who, fearing for their lives, responded by shooting Martinez repeatedly.

But once again, the government’s story unraveled once the body cam footage was released. Videos from ICE cameras, as well as Martinez’s own Facebook livestream, show Martinez following the ICE vehicles, while frequently honking her horn. 

Contrary to the allegations made by DHS, at no point does the video show Martinez, a US citizen with no criminal record, turn her car toward the ICE vehicles. Instead, the footage captures the ICE agent swerving his white Chevy Tahoe into Martinez’s Nissan SUV, forcing her to a stop. 

There’s no evidence that Martinez pointed a weapon at the ICE agent. Rather, the ICE agent can be heard on the recording almost begging Martinez to give him a reason to shoot her: “Do something, bitch!” he says as he exits his car and seconds later unloads a volley of shots at Martinez, hitting her seven times.

This is the latest episode of ultra-violence in Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz, where ICE agents have killed and brutalized Chicago residents for reasons that later turned out to be bogus.

Three weeks ago, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez was shot by an ICE agent after dropping his daughter off at pre-school in Franklin Park, a suburb west of Chicago. ICE originally said that Villegas-Gonzalez was shot after he tried to run over an ICE agent, who DHS claimed had been severely wounded. But the video of the incident recorded the voice of the officer grazed by Villegas-Gonzalez’s car saying his injury was “nothing major.” Another video showed that Villegas-Gonzalez was driving away from the ICE officers, not toward them. DHS tried to smear Villegas-Gonzalez as a dangerous criminal with a “history of reckless driving.” But a new report by NBC News Chicago shows that he had never been convicted or even charged with a crime.

Marimar Martinez works at a local school. She has no criminal record and is highly regarded by her colleagues, employers and neighbors. After being shot, she managed to drive her SUV to a nearby oil service station. She parked the Nissan, now perforated with bullet holes, in the lot and staggered into the office, where the manager of the shop tried to stanch the flow of blood with those ubiquitous blue towels common at gas stations.

On a recording of his call to 911, the manager can be heard saying, “Send somebody quick because this lady is bleeding profusely. I mean, it was instant puddles.”

When the paramedics arrived and began to treat her wounds, a bullet fell out of her arm and onto the floor of the office. 

The FBI and ICE trailed the ambulance to the hospital, where Martinez was arrested before she’d even been fully treated by ER doctors. A few days later, Martinez was charged with felony assault on a federal law enforcement official. 

But at her arraignment, Federal Judge Heather McShain denied the government’s demand that Martinez be held without bail, ruling that her lack of criminal history and ties to the community persuaded her to release Martinez pending trial, a pretty stern rebuke to the government’s inflated theory of the case.

+ ICE agents handcuffed and detained Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes inside a hospital emergency room this week, after she had demanded they share a warrant for a man they detained inside the hospital, who was reportedly injured during a chase. She was later released. Fuentes: “I went over to the hospital and I simply asked the ICE agents if they had a signed judicial warrant for the individual that they were trying to detain inside of the emergency room. No one was harassing the ICE agents. In fact, the only person harassed in that situation was me. I was handcuffed and shoved twice up against the wall for simply exercising my right to advocate for my constituents.”

+ David J. Bier: ”You can’t enjoy a cup of coffee in Chicago without armed federal agents storming out and tackling you. This used to be a free country. We will become one again. Don’t give up hope, and don’t let them trick you into thinking this is normal.”