I grew up around police officers. As a kid, my dad would take me riding along with him. It wasn't just time he got to spend with his son; it was a part of my education, and it's an education that, I feel, pulled back a veil most people never get to see through.
One thing that these ride-alongs taught me was that the aforementioned veil is pretty, but it isn't that substantial. There are awful parts of our society that you are privileged never to have to see or deal with because a thin blue line stands between you and potential harm or even societal destruction. Some of the things I witnessed in my youth would bother a lot of people, not just because it was shocking to see, but because of how proximal it is. You're never too far away from the thing you're being protected from.
But law enforcement isn't always what you see on the show Cops. It's usually not as dramatic as what you witness on procedurals on television. Oftentimes, being a law enforcement official consists of doing tedious upkeep. Making sure traffic laws are being obeyed, dealing with drunks, transients, and sadly, dealing with people on the worst day of their lives.
It's the tedious parts of law enforcement that often elicit the most anger from people. It's easy to say "that guy, drugged out of his mind and becoming violent, needed to be stopped," but it's a lot harder to see a police officer pull over a mother of three for disobeying traffic laws or being forced to arrest and detain people while they're crying and claiming they're innocent.
It's not pretty, but oftentimes, procedures aren't just required; they're necessary.
I was scrolling through X when I noticed Reason's Nick Gillespie responding to two border patrol agents questioning a Hispanic woman about where she's from, saying that he used to be proud of America and that this was "f***ed up beyond belief," he wrote concerning this video:
I used to be proud of being an American. This is fucked up beyond belief. pic.twitter.com/3c5gThw3Cv
— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) October 28, 2025
I disagree. This is just law enforcement agents whose primary concern is securing our border from illegal aliens doing their job. Again, this doesn't look pretty, but it's necessary in order to keep our laws and our society functioning in the way that it's supposed to.
That said, I would caution people not to take this entire video as the whole incident. It's only ten seconds long, and near the end, a professional lens pops up in the right-hand corner, bringing the incident's context into question.
From the info gathered by The Mirror, the incident took place in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, with two individuals being detained:
“At 9:30 a.m. yesterday, ICE agents descended on random civilians at a Walmart parking lot in Cicero,” the post read. “These shoppers were barraged with questions, and at least two individuals were detained in this morning's operation that made multiple stops. This raid was not focused on specific targets. It was not focused on locating individuals with a criminal background.”
“This is textbook racial profiling, happening daily in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. This woman was deemed a citizen and not detained,” the post continued.
The woman was not detained, just asked questions during a raid.
I would add that the only reason these raids are occurring is because previous administrations were so lax on border security that they let in a myriad of criminals, more than a few of whom were violent, or drug offenders, sex offenders, and more. If border security had been more of a priority for these administrations, then this wouldn't have had to happen.
But it does have to happen. The issue got out of control. American citizens were murdered, some of them children.
It is absolutely hard to watch law enforcement have to do their jobs sometimes, but it does have to happen. If criminals realize they can take an inch, they will take a mile, and even if society's rules begin to fray at the edges slightly, ripping will soon follow.
