You would think that one of the accepted rules of living in a society built on law and order, is that you should always obey orders from police, and certainly never run from them. But on Friday night's edition of CNN's NewsNight, host Abby Phillip made the absurd and dangerous claim that fearing ICE agents in Minneapolis justifies a suspect running away from them.
Mimicking much of the liberal media, the opening segment of the show focused on the father of a five year old boy in Minneapolis who ran from ICE agents, resulting in both the man and his son being taken into custody, after authorities say, the boy's mother refused to take the child.
PHILLIP: ...Why would you run when you encounter ICE? Well, because in Minneapolis, what we've seen is that even American citizens who are minding their own business walking down the street, you don't get to walk away from an ICE encounter. They might detain you for hours or even days. That has also happened.
So that, I think, seems to be a legitimate fear on the part of any person.. in Minnesota right now, but particularly if you are brown, if you are Hispanic, if you are Somali, that.. you're whether you have papers or not, whether you have status or not, whether you have a pending asylum claim or not, you might get detained. And that's exactly what happened to this family.
Phillip conveniently left out that, as pointed out in the story link above, the father in this family, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, is an Ecuadorean citizen who was in the United States illegally and was released into the country by the Biden administration. She also failed to mention the list of arrests made by ICE in Minnesota, released last week by DHS, which includes murderers, drug traffickers, and an illegal alien with 24 convictions.
Phillip wasn't finished defending those who run from ICE, as she debated GOP Strategist Lance Trover.
PHILLIP: Running from law enforcement may not be okay, but it's also a reaction that people have to knowing that if they have an interaction with ICE, whether or not they are legal, whether they are a citizen, they might have their freedom stripped from them. That's a real thing. Do you acknowledge that that is happening?
TROVER: I acknowledge that it happens every day in this country when somebody who has committed a crime or doesn't runs from the police, what are they going to do? Yes, you're going to be in trouble. That's how our system operates...Why are we making an exception for illegal immigrants?
Darn good question. And just for good measure, panelist Xochitl Hinojosa ended the segment by weighing in, supporting Phillip's position.
HINOJOSA: It is because ICE has eroded trust and the trust of the American people. And I will say, the vast majority of law enforcement have done so much to build that trust. And I would say if this are a regular day, if this were a few years ago, yes, I agree, running from law enforcement isn't great. We live in different times, ICE is acting out of control, and that's why people are running.
Shame on Phillip and Hinojosa. There are few things more irresponsible than sending a message that it's okay to run from police. It should be common sense that escalating a situation involving law enforcement can only make the situation worse, not better. But common sense and the liberal media don't seem to be a fit these days.
