Why The Feds Get Away With Lies

The shooting by ICE today was claimed to be a response to "domestic terrorism." Animal activists know the drill.

Moments ago, a federal ICE agent shot and killed an unarmed woman who was driving her car away from him. While there is some dispute as to whether the agent was in any danger, it is clear that at least two of the three shots fired occurred when the agent was on the side of the car—and completely safe from being injured. This did not stop high level officials at the Department of Homeland Security from claiming that the shooting was in response to “domestic terrorism.” This clearly false claim met mockery on social media. But many Americans, who watch only media outlets that parrot the administration’s lies, will never see the actual video of what happened.

But there’s a deeper question about this incident. Why do the feds so often get away with lies? One would think that, in a nation supposedly ruled by laws, not men, cover-ups of violence would lead to accountability and change. Yet that has rarely been the case for acts of official violence. That was true of the atrocities committed by Andrew Jackson against Native Americans in the 1800s. It was true of the violence against labor activists in the early 1900s. It was true of the killings of Civil Rights Activists in the 1950s and 60s. And it’s still true of numerous acts of state violence today, from the bombings of drug boats to the thousands of victims in Gaza.

Even, occasionally, when someone is held accountable for state violence, it’s almost always a low level officer, like Derek Chauvin, the killer of George Floyd. The government does not just lie about violence. It mostly gets away with its lies.

Why? The animal rights movement has much to say about this question. For centuries, animals have been the largest victims of state violence. But the histories of America are completely devoid of their story. Even the acts of violence are so nightmarish that they are hard to believe—for example, the mass roasting of animals alive in factory farms—the government seems immune to transparency, much less accountability. And this mass deception works against animals in the same way it works against other victims of violence. What are its mechanics?

The first is the use of euphemisms to mask violence. The killing of the Minnesota woman today was not a killing, but “defensive shots” by an officer who “saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.” Similarly, when animals face unspeakable cruelty, it is simply “depopulation” or “animal experimentation.”

The second mechanism is normalization. The ICE agents swarming an unarmed woman, who had committed no crime, cannot be considered anything but normal. And so the violent and chaotic encounter, triggered by masked men with guns, is a “targeted operation” where an officer was simply using his “training.” Similarly, when vivisectors do things so vile it’s hard to believe, such as confine animals in cages for their entire lives, they say they are simply “following the rules” and undertaking “standard practice for the industry.”

The most dangerous mechanism, however, is the doctrine of necessary evil. “It was necessary to kill them for the greater good!” And this last mechanism is dangerous because it does not just whitewash the violence. It turns the allegation of violence back against the victims, and those who might defend them. The administration’s response to the ICE shooting, for example, blamed the shooting on the “constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians” and stated that ICE officers are “facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.” Similarly, when we point out abuses against animals, funded by our own tax dollars, the government’s go-to line is based on the doctrine of necessary evil. “The public has to eat,” they say. Or “we don’t want to hurt these dogs, but medical science needs this.” The result of this invocation is not a genuine debate about what evils are necessary, however, but rather the silencing of people who face real violence.

It is not all bad news, however. The good news is that the public is, increasingly, disbelieving the government’s lies. Perhaps even more important, they are acting to hold the government accountable. This is why actions such as the planned rescue at Ridglan are so important. It’s not enough to simply know the truth, when our government lies. We must defend the truth, and those innocent beings who are being victimized by the lies.