US army veteran and Purple Heart hero was shoved to the ground by ICE, arrested and thrown in jail for 8 hours without access to a lawyer just for standing and watching them!
William Vermie, a veteran of the Iraq War who sustained injuries in combat, said he was “standing on a sidewalk observing agents arresting two people when he says officers began pushing bystanders back.”
“They were bringing out those two young boys … then the ICE agents were moving down the sidewalk, shoving people and telling them to get off the sidewalk,” Vermie said. “They shoved me when I didn’t move out of the way fast enough.”
They cuffed him almost immediately. “I tried to keep onto my feet and then eventually somebody grabbed one of my legs and then I went over and they all toppled on top of me and got me in cuffs,” said Vermie.
He was taken to the federal gulag at the Whipple building, where he was held for 8 hours and denied his Miranda right to a lawyer.
“They did offer bathroom breaks and water breaks, and I did ask for a band-aid and they gave it to me. But I’d rather have a lawyer than a band-aid when I’m being detained,” said Vermie.
KARE11 reports that “Attorney John Chitwood, who said he was hired by Vermie’s family, said he went to the Whipple Building and waited hours to speak with his client. Chitwood said he was told he could not meet with Vermie because Vermie had not requested him by name — something Vermie wouldn't have known since he did not get in contact with family.”
“I have represented people accused of the most horrific crimes, and I have never encountered the type of stonewalling, deliberate stonewalling and delay, that I experienced in trying to see Will,” Chitwood said.
"He is a combat-wounded Iraq War vet, and if someone who has honorably served their country is treated this way by the federal government, by these ICE agents, then how are they treating other people?" Chitwood said. "It's shameful. It is un-American to the core."
What ICE is doing is indeed beyond shameful and wildly un-American. It is shocking to see the sheer contempt that these ICE goons have for their fellow countrymen, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.
For people who call themselves “patriots,” they sure hate everyone else in this country. It’s almost like this is not about immigration or nationalism but solely about the exercise of power and violence for the sake of it.
