Shouldn’t it be a crime to impersonate people like that?
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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I'm pretty sure it is. I don't know the details of where the line is, if just putting on the jacket is technically a crime, but I know that wearing a jacket like that turns certain types of impersonation charges into a slam-dunk felony.
Just putting on the jacket, could be seen the same way as a party costume, or a movie prop.
Wearing it with the express intent of instilling fear in people, could be seen as terrorism.
Wearing it to a mall and shouting "ICE is here!" so people run in fear, would be instant impersonation and terrorism.
...or it used to be.
Yeah. I have a feeling that more and more, what's legal is going to depend on which team you're on.
It is. The question is whether anyone would enforce it.
unfortunately, "is such-and-such a crime?" is an overly simplistic way of looking at it
a) is there a law that forbids it?
b) are there law enforcement agents who are willing to enforce that law, by arresting people who break it? (or writing citations / court summonses)
c) is the rest of the criminal legal system (prosecutors, judges, etc) willing to pursue charges against those people?
the answer to A, in this case, is very clearly yes - from 18 U.S. Code § 912:
Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
and that basically doesn't matter. if some right-wing chud wants to cosplay as an ICE agent for the purpose of terrorizing immigrants, the FBI is not going to lift a finger about it, and the US Attorneys (federal prosecutors) working for the Trump-controlled DOJ certainly wouldn't bring charges if they did get arrested.
Thanks mate. I was forgetting the broader details of the situation that the USA is in and that they would be absolutely fine with this.
They're part of federal law enforcement, so I would imagine it would be like impersonating a cop
Any feedback on the idea of ordering several and them canceling the order after shipping? If enough people do this enough times, it might make the enterprise unprofitable.