Within a few minutes I saw headlines about Judge Hannah Dugan’s arrest. It looked like classic fascism, so everyone was quick to share the news and their outrage. How dare Trump send his goons after a judge who disagrees with his deportation agenda?!
Well, it might not be what it seems.
If we look past the headlines and to the affidavit we will find she allegedly instructed the arresting agents to wait in her office and let the subject of the arrest use some non-public way to escape. So it is possible she broke the law. We won’t actually know until we can see some proof (or not) either way.
It’s not the first time I saw something like this recently. News of DHL stopping service with The United States internationally is another that comes to mind. It’s only temporary and does not apply to business-to-business shipments, which make up the bulk of them. The story was probably a bit over-amplified.
It’s important we are diligent, but it’s also vital we save our energy.
It’s already draining enough to read how Trump has broken his 8th law every day, so we should save our energy from the stories that don’t present clear evidence with minimal impact to the alleged victim. Remember, we are only a few weeks into a multi-year commitment.
If none of that is convincing, the new Attorney General Pam Bondi came out to say:
“I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not, and we are sending a very strong message today: If you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are, if you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”
It’s not surprising she was quick to comment, this administration wants to instill that their political overreach is legitimate. But if the testimony is true, and the judge did aid in the escape of a fugitive, then it’s a good story for them to tell, since people don’t read past the headlines. “Radical leftist judge helps illegal alien fugitive escape.” There will be little mention of how he was caught minutes after. And if the judge didn’t help, they will never retract their statements. Trump and co. will insist she did it and point to the affidavit as “evidence”. Either way they “win” with their base.
So the cycle would be something like: we react and make noise, the AG riles us up even more, and we make even more noise. This amplifies the reach, so it’s much more likely the story will become notable for most Americans, since it will dominate news cycles and social media, but the worst part is:
We did all of the work for them.
It goes without saying that we want to make their lives harder, not easier, especially when it comes to their propaganda. At this point we have all the evidence in the world against this administration (not to mention time remaining with them). We can afford to be a little more selective. We don’t want to become apathetic towards the issues we are all facing and we especially don’t want to be the Boys Who Called Wolf.