Yes. Certainly there are ICE agents who simply do not care and will gun you down in the street regardless, but this has always been the case. But that’s not the only person you’ll interact with while protesting. By asserting the rights you actually have, you’re more likely to convince the marginal ICE agent, who is still lying to themselves about protecting the constitution, or the police officer who is pretending they’re keeping the peace, or the passer-by who recognizes their rights are contingent on them being held by everyone. And if you end up in front of a judge, which a lot of people are still ending up in front of judges, then protesting in concert with those rights is much more likely to get you off without a booking.
Rights have always been, to some extent, a shared fiction, so the nihilistic impulse to abandon faith in your rights only serves those who intend to infringe them.
Yes. Certainly there are ICE agents who simply do not care and will gun you down in the street regardless, but this has always been the case. But that’s not the only person you’ll interact with while protesting. By asserting the rights you actually have, you’re more likely to convince the marginal ICE agent, who is still lying to themselves about protecting the constitution, or the police officer who is pretending they’re keeping the peace, or the passer-by who recognizes their rights are contingent on them being held by everyone. And if you end up in front of a judge, which a lot of people are still ending up in front of judges, then protesting in concert with those rights is much more likely to get you off without a booking.
Rights have always been, to some extent, a shared fiction, so the nihilistic impulse to abandon faith in your rights only serves those who intend to infringe them.