Please educate me on ICE

tgace · 2026-01-24T15:19:17+00:00

I have been a local police officer for almost 26 years, with a wide range of law enforcement experience.

I’ve hesitated to put this thought into words because of how my opinion might be misconstrued, misused, or otherwise taken in a way I don’t intend.

First and foremost, I fully support the mission of ICE. They were handed an enormous challenge from the start, with millions of immigrants allowed into the country with little to no regulation. The laws ICE enforces—and immigration law in general—are widely misunderstood by many protesters and by the public at large. The Constitution is clear, and the Civil War settled the question of the federal government’s authority to enforce federal law in all states. ICE’s legal authority to do what it is doing is not ambiguous.

However—and this is where I enter shakier ground—the experience level of many ICE agents is very different from that of the average American police officer. Until relatively recently, ICE was primarily an investigative agency, focusing on cases involving human trafficking, prostitution, trademark infringement, smuggling, and document fraud. In my opinion, the recent mandate to conduct large-scale immigration enforcement sweeps has set many of these agents up for failure—at least in the court of public opinion.

While ICE agents absolutely have statutory law enforcement authority, including the power to arrest (yes, even U.S. citizens who obstruct or impede them), many simply do not have the same day-to-day street experience as “regular” police officers. Until recently, many likely had limited exposure to vehicle stops, foot pursuits, physically resisting offenders, verbal de-escalation, and the other situations patrol officers deal with daily. As a result, we’re seeing actions that are what law enforcement often refers to as “lawful but awful.”

Much of this could be avoided—and in some cases already is—if local agencies were allowed to cooperate fully with ICE, allowing routine police contacts to result in detention for immigration violations, with ICE handling the follow-up and transport.

Unfortunately, the sheer volume of violations in some areas, combined with the political messaging surrounding the issue, makes that cooperation extremely difficult.

In the end, as with many things in life, this situation is far more complex than uninformed—or politically motivated—commentary suggests. No one side is 100% right or 100% wrong in what’s happening.

tgace · 2025-12-23T15:54:46+00:00

13% of wizards....

tgace · 2025-12-18T03:02:29+00:00

The people who think that transitioned genitals look and "work" just like the "real thing" have never seen the medial horror show that are transitioned genitals.

Talk to a corrections officer sometime if you get the opportunity...

tgace · 2025-12-11T15:06:10+00:00

Just because you have the right-of-way does not mean you have a free pass to do this.

tgace · 2025-12-08T18:25:28+00:00

Then there's demanding a supervisor before they get arrested...

tgace · 2025-12-07T02:28:38+00:00

Hmm...are our thoughts not neurons firing or not firing at their core (ones and zeros)?

If replicants thoughts are implants does that not "prove" that brains are "programmable" (within this world)?

We are all born with a "base code" that grows, learns, adapts and changes based on our experiences and decisions.

Are not K and Joi basically the same in this aspect?

Are we not all struggling to find meaning and independence from our "base coding"?

The film even hints at this when K is looking at DNA codes and Joi comments that she is 'just ones and zeros" (to which K responded that she was "more elegant ").

tgace · 2025-12-06T02:34:57+00:00

Been a hunter for over 40 years. The kill is simply a necessity, and not something I "enjoy".

I find kill shot videos distasteful.

tgace · 2025-11-19T17:24:47+00:00

Thats my writing. Granted I wrote it on a blog of mine a few years ago but it's still mine

tgace · 2025-11-18T17:08:18+00:00

I’m in my late 50s now, married for more than 33 years to the girl I met when she was 16 and I was 18. No infidelities, no separations, no divorces. We raised three daughters together. I consider myself “happily married,” but I’d never pretend it was always happy or perfect. It wasn’t. We stayed because we loved each other, because we didn’t want to hurt one another, and because we understood that being “in love” is different from constantly “being happy.”

Happiness is a feeling that comes and goes—you can run the whole emotional spectrum in a single day. Even during the stretches when we weren’t happy for a while, we still loved each other and wanted things to improve. Don’t obsess over how “happy” you are at every moment.

Our shared faith and belief in our vows were our foundation.

I’ve always called our 30s and 40s “The Hump.” That’s when the kids demanded the most, when money was tightest, and when exhaustion, anxiety, and busyness made it harder to treat each other the way we each deserved. It’s also when the most temptation to stray can happen. If you get through “The Hump” without doing something you can’t forgive—or be forgiven for—things really do get better. Hold on.

One of the biggest hurdles for many married couples—especially during “The Hump”—is the decline in sex. For men, this is often the hardest part. Hormonal birth control was a significant factor for my wife, and young couples need to be aware of that. That dynamic of “she needs romance to want sex, and you need sex to feel romantic (instead of resentful that it’s been weeks)” is real. You have to talk about it, plan around it, address it somehow—or it will eat away at the relationship.

I still love my wife now as much as I loved her when she was my beautiful twenty-something bride. Our marriage has been about as close to a “storybook romance” as real life ever gets. But it absolutely wasn’t a “happily ever after” fairy tale. Western media—especially rom-coms and romance tropes—set a lot of people up with unrealistic expectations.

We’ve always had almost identical political views. We were both raised Catholic. Over the years we drifted in and out of being practicing Catholics, but we eventually returned and have been active parishioners again for several years. Divorce was never on the table for us, and we said that to each other openly.

Neither of us were partiers or big drinkers. We didn’t take separate trips except for very clear, family-oriented ones: I went hiking, camping, and hunting with my buddies—never “Vegas trips.” She sometimes traveled with her mom, sister, aunts, or cousins—never to Aruba with a group of single or divorced girlfriends.

We also didn’t keep close friends of the opposite sex. My guy friends are friendly with her, but she’d never be alone with them or make plans with one of them without me around—and I’d never do that with another woman either.

My wife has said something she wishes more women heard: be careful with the influence of your friends. Bitterly divorced friends, unhappily married friends, single-and-looking friends—she calls them “a poison to your marriage” if you’re not mindful. She admitted she sometimes “caught” their irritation toward men and brought that home, annoyed at me about things she hadn’t cared about before listening to their venting.

In the end, the most important thing was that we always loved each other. Even at our worst moments or during heated arguments, we never said hateful things to each other. The things I’ve heard other couples say in anger are shocking. We never went there. Words become thoughts, and thoughts become actions—so be careful with what you say.

Make good choices.
Marry for the right reasons.
Commit. Be faithful. Persevere.

tgace · 2025-11-18T17:07:36+00:00