this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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The arrest of a US army veteran who protested against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has raised alarms among legal experts and fellow veterans familiar with his service in Afghanistan.

Bajun Mavalwalla II – a former army sergeant who survived a roadside bomb blast on a special operations mission in Afghanistan – was charged in July with “conspiracy to impede or injure officers” after joining a demonstration against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in Spokane, Washington.

Legal experts say the case marks an escalation in the administration’s attacks on first amendment rights. Afghanistan war veterans who know him say the case against Mavalwalla appears unjust.

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[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 138 points 1 week ago (4 children)

That's going to get thrown right the fuck out of court, not even the fascist judges will bother with that shit.

But he'll be stuck in the jail system until that point, which is the real intent.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 81 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You can beat the case, you can't beat the ride

Doesn't even matter if charges are filed, a couple days in jail fucking sucks. And it doesn't just discourage the person in jail. It's a message to every other potential protestor: "this could be you".

But they can't lockup everyone, their strategy only works if it gets protestors reduced to the amount they could imprison.

If they get the opposite reaction and more protestors, it backfires on them.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It doesn't backfire if their goal is to find an excuse to kill a bunch of protesters.

[–] lost@lemmy.wtf 12 points 1 week ago

I fear they are waiting for their Reichstag fire. On the other hand, IMHO the only way to deal with this is to get all Canadian with the White House...

[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

US population outnumbers the military 342 to 1 (maybe 200 to 1 if not counting elderly and children), and the current administration keeps proving time and time again the military means fuck all to them. This is where Trump and his fucksticks are failing spectacularly. Previous dictators have bribed the shit out of their militaries to generate favor and compliance. Trump insults them, places them in dumbass situations, finds ways to screw them from pay, etc. The ICE funding was a way to create a private army of devotees. But a large portion of them are gravy seals, chucklefucks who think top score on COD will help them in actual battles. They got ran out of towns by bag toting grannies for fucks sake. At least, I tell myself this at night to sleep without living in constant fear of full out slavery and dogmatic oppression. And yes, I do realize that the civilian population has a large amount of support for him, but many of them will hipefully change their minds if it finally affects them.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

EVEN JUST A FEW HOURS SUCKS. I know from experience.

Fuck the police. ACAB.

The whole time I was just worried about if I was gonna be deported, then I remembered my mother is a citizen so I also have derivative citizenship. But still, it triggered me so much, I was constantly ruminating/thinking about the alternate timelines where I got deported. Still think about it from time to time, heck, with the current ICE nazification, it can still happen right now. Police sirens scared the shit out of me, I could be just chilling playing a horror game, and then the siren blares through the neighborhood and I my heartrate goes even above being faced with monsters in a game (because the monsters in real life (aka: cops) are much scarier), I essentially go into fight or flight mode.

Like I had so many traumatic events throught my life, this unlawful arrest was the final nail in the coffin, I feel like I have permanent brian damage.

Parents have betrayed me, my brother has betrayed me, my country of birth betrayed me, now I'm in a different country and still dealing with authoritarian bullshit, like these corrupt pigs. Never felt like I have a safe place anywhere in this world, this world is hostile.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 45 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah but did you read the person's name?

[–] SneakyLeif@piefed.social 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How dare their parents name them that?! Now they have no option but to become a terrorist /s

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

He had so many chances in his life to change his name to Johnny Patriot, too.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago

And all his biometric and other data will be part of Palantir for use down the road when they start to claim “biomarkers that signal traitorous citizens” or some shit to round people up

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Don't count on it. They got the indictment which means enough jurors thought it more likely than not that he did it. Remember the charge is “conspiracy to impede or injure officers.” To prove this all they need is a social media post between protestors before the fact saying that they were going to block the drive way. That would, I suspect, constitute impeding the officers. This is a really stupid arrest, but unless some jurors just flat out refuse to convict, this guy could spend real time in jail.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A reminder that Grand Juries indict 99.99999% of the time. To the point where the multiple grand Juries that refused to indict the guy that threw the sandwich at ICE officers was actually newsworthy.

They aren't there to determine whether it is likely someone did something, just whether the charges are even minimally plausible.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

They also generally only hear what the prosecution wants them to hear. If you only hear one side of the story, then it's easy to err on that side.

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Regular juries asses whether the charges are "proven beyond a reasonable doubt." Grand juries have a different standard of, "more likely than not." The prosecutors in this case convinced enough of the grand jury that he 'more likely than not commuted the crime. Not sure how you meant "minimally plausible" but those are the standards the courts use.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

The standard for a grand jury is probable cause, not more likely than not. Civil court is preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not), and criminal is beyond a reasonable doubt.

[–] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 78 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Good! Protesting is NOT Protected by the Constitution!

-People who Say School Shooters ARE Protected by the Constitution!

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

-People who Say School Shooters ARE Protected by the Constitution!

(may not apply if shooter is thought to be trans)

[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Or Antifa, or the Leeeeeeffffvt. (Seriously, saying your against Anti Fascism = ? Anyone? Beuler? Anyone? Right, you're pro Fascism. Don't deny it while proving it's what you are by opposition.)

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You know, it sure is weird how much planning for the J6 terrorism was done right out in the open and those in authority at that time did SWEET FUCKALL to stop the J6 terrorists from doing what they did.

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

Every time I think about the history of federal involvement in left wing organizing vs right wing organizing in this country, my blood pressure rises about 20%.

I mean, fuck. We inspired and then "rehabilitated" the Nazis. We took a shitton of higher ups and just pardoned them and gave them jobs in gov. Shockingly, the gov has been rather opposed to left wing ideas since.

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[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 50 points 1 week ago (2 children)

"Alarm"

.. fuck off the place is on fire

[–] Sculptor9157@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

the place is on fire

Which is typically when you heed an alarm...

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Alarms exist to alert you when the dangers are not immediately obvious, or are somewhere else. The US is on fire both figuratively and literally and people are waiting for the alarms to go off before the even decide to start thinking about maybe doing something.

Emergency alarms famously turn off after five minutes.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

Not months later!

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

Due process was officially over the line. Before that it was alarm but that was the match and hes just been heaping gasoline on it since.

[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 46 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Excuse me, you mean the trump/Epstein files?

[–] AlfredoJohn@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Trumpstein files

[–] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, that is a direct attack on the first amendment and a show of force to the rest of the population not to get in their way.

Republicans are responsible for this horrible economy, the constitution being burned and ignored, and our country losing all democracy.

I will be sure to remind them at every opportunity what they did to us.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Don't forget every single person who voted republican in 24!

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Seriously, those that chose not to vote outnumbered the red voters immensely. I feel more anger towards those that chose apathy and lethargy over those that have been conditioned to fear and stupidity.

Voter turnout in the states that mattered most was high.

Trump still won, probably because they hacked the election.

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[–] fittedsyllabi@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Release the Epstein files!

[–] TuffNutzes@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Looking forward to the day every single one of these jack-booted thugs from the Nazi leaders at the top all the way down to the ICE Gestapo pigs face Justice at our version of the Nuremberg trials.

[–] Birch@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

And who is going to do that? The rest of the world is going to sit idly by as the US marches brown and lgbt+ people into the extermination camps. Hell half of them will use it as justification to build their own camps and invade the other half. All while the world slowly cooks itself.

The rest of the world has their own stuff to deal with. America is going to have to resolve its own problems.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

A depressing thought, if Nazi Germany had only done the Holocaust without the invasions, the powers of the time would have completely ignored it. At most they would have shook their heads disapprovingly.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I’m thinking more like the terror from the French Revolution

[–] hector@lemmy.today 4 points 1 week ago

Do not hold your breath. By all indications these guys are going to consolidate power and make a one-party stay with rigged elections. We have no opposition popular or muscular or ambitious enough to unseat them. After 2028 it is doubtful any opposition could unseat them.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Wasn't that the Jan 6th hearings? No one got pardoned from Nuremburg. Political pardons aren't even a thing in most countries.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago

The Nuremberg Trials barely got down to the level that these guys are at. They sorta gave up after a while.

Though Christopher Lee probably took care of a few of them.

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[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Release the Trump/Epstein files

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 14 points 1 week ago

Dissenters will not be tolerated.

[–] suddenlyme@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

Looks like fascism

[–] devolution@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

So much for the military being able to stand up for the country as opposed to be an individuals lapdogs.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Gotta expect that shit from a draft dodging psychopath

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