The Vilification Of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

MAGA Wiggles Out of Culture War Jams By Obliterating Their Targets' Character

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador last month despite never facing an immigration judge or being convicted of any crime

At the peak of the Black Lives Matter era, there was a phrase that was tossed around every time another young black man was extrajudicially murdered by a police officer or paranoid member of the public. I heard it almost as commonly as “Happy Birthday” or “Good Evening.”

“He was no angel.”

It was applied when someone pointed out that Trayvon Martin wore a hoodie, or that Michael Brown stole cigars, or that Laquan McDonald tried to slash tires, or that Breonna Taylor dated a drug dealer. Even George Floyd, whose 2020 murder was broadcast to the world and triggered a global outrage that nearly toppled the institution of law enforcement in some places, was given a caveat; he did drugs.

The phrase was meant to dismiss or diminish the victim, as if there was a ranking system in which a man or woman whose life was snuffed away without due process was worthy of empathy. Class A is for those who are “angels,” Class B is for those who have committed minor infractions, Class C is for those who have been convicted criminals, and so on.

The “He’s No Angel” dynamic taught me something. For most Americans, the concept of equal rights is as brittle as the paper on which the Constitution was written nearly a quarter of a millennium ago. Personal judgements of a person’s character matter way more in terms of how far Americans will go to defend someone’s civil rights than they should in a free society. Donald Trump and his MAGA movement took advantage ot that dynamic, and they’re trying to do it again.