#local-defense-forces

#local-defense-forces

The warrior and guardian are not competing philosophies between which a department must choose. They are complementary capacities every officer needs - and every agency must develop, sustain, and honor equally.

Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation, Hegseth said in the prayer service. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.

It's my responsibility to protect them, and so I've been patrolling the city streets following armed, masked thugs trying to kidnap my neighbors. On July 10, Caravello was present at the site, and, according to witnesses, he was arrested directly after he attempted to dislodge a tear gas canister from underneath a protester's wheelchair.

In a February 19 memo sent to civilians across the DoD, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth wrote that he expects "every supervisor to encourage their civilian employees to volunteer. Leadership must continue to promote this detail program and educate their civilian employees on its importance."

If you are choking and are alone, try to get yourself into a high-traffic area, such as a hallway in a building or outside your house. If you pass out, you're way more likely to be found as opposed to being in a room in a building or your house. Call 911 even though you can't speak. Someone will be sent to your location by dispatch.

Yesenia Campos was only a few months into volunteering with the network when she was detained by ICE on Oct. 30 while observing agents in San Jose. Campos said she was collecting contact information for people being detained so their families could be notified when an agent ordered her to step back. When she did not move quickly enough, she said, the agent detained her. Other volunteers were present and documented the encounter.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Academy winter training session begins Feb. 24. This hands-on program teaches community members essential disaster preparedness skills, including fire safety, first aid, search and rescue and emergency response tactics. The CERT Academy includes three in-person evening sessions, one online evening session and one final in-person daytime skills exercise. All in-person sessions will be held at the Campbell Community Center, 1 W. Campbell Ave. To register, visit https://bit.ly/4tsjWNX

The U.S.'s political landscape - and our daily lives - are increasingly shaped by repression and violence, amplified by a media cycle designed to keep us fearful in the present, uncertain about the future, and depleted. Exhaustion is not a side effect of this system. It is one of its core tools. Last year, I wrote that Donald Trump's attacks were designed to exhaust us. Over the past year, I've watched communities build movements and adapt their organizing under this reality.

Western governments, the U.S. under Donald Trump leading the pack, are caught in the grip of an anti-immigration fervor, enforcing cruel and degrading laws that violate human rights and undermine public safety. This entire approach toward immigrants is not only immoral but also rests on false economic claims, argues Daniel Mendiola, assistant professor of history and migration studies at Vassar College, in the interview that follows.

"Freedom from fear" was the fourth of four freedoms defining democracy President Franklin D. Roosevelt framed in his rally cry to fight fascist conquest from without. It is openly debated whether America is now fighting a fascist takeover from within. It may be debated, but only because the would-be dictators of the world will always disguise their plays for power in the mock forms of democratic legality-by declaring a fake emergency, attacking political rivals through trumped-up legal charges or holding rigged elections.

"Are you okay?" These were Alex Pretti's last words, said to a woman after ICE agents had tackled and pepper-sprayed her. Videos from bystanders show Pretti holding up a phone, attempting to document what was happening before he himself was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground, and killed by those officers. He lost his life not for committing violence, but for documenting it, and stepping in to protect someone facing it.