FROM OCCUPY DEMOCRATS:
ICE agents are adding peaceful protestors — legally filming their violent actions — to a federal “domestic terrorist database.”
In what should chill every American to the bone, an ICE agent in Maine was caught on video doing the unthinkable: threatening a woman with placement in a “domestic terrorist database” for the crime of recording federal agents in public.
Yes — recording, an action that is a First Amendment right.
The video, posted by freelance reporter Nathan Bernard of the Maine Morning Star, shows an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement approaching a woman calmly filming their activity. She correctly notes that it’s not illegal to record law enforcement.
That’s when things turn dystopian. “Why are you taking my information down?” she asks.
“Because we have a nice little database,” the agent replies. “And now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”
Let that sink in.
The woman, who is a Passamaquoddy Native American, wasn’t interfering. Wasn’t threatening. Wasn’t protesting. She was holding up a phone. And for that, an armed federal agent casually suggested she’d be branded a terrorist.
Journalists and legal experts erupted.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald called it exactly what it is: a disgrace. Armed, masked federal agents roaming American streets, threatening citizens with secret databases for exercising constitutional rights. That’s not law enforcement — that’s intimidation.
And it’s not an accident.
The incident aligns perfectly with a leaked joint memo from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, first reported by Ken Klippenstein, which quietly expanded the definition of “domestic violent extremists” to include people who “leverage First Amendment–protected activity.” Including — you guessed it — recording law enforcement.
Former MSNBC reporter and Breaking Points host Krystal Ball summed it up with three perfect words: “This is insane.”
Meanwhile, the data tells an even darker story. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, real partisan political violence in America has surged — driven overwhelmingly by right-wing extremists and election deniers, not immigration protesters with smartphones.
Yet instead of targeting the actual threat, Trump’s government is building databases, blurring definitions, and pointing the terrorism label at citizens who dare to watch the watchers.
This isn’t about safety.
It’s about fear.
It’s about control.
And it’s about how fast a democracy can slide — when filming the government makes you the suspect.
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