this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Honestly, I would fall into this trap.

The federal agent genuinely sounds like she is a person having car trouble, this trap would work on me because I guess I too am a fundamentally decent person.

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[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 147 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

As we all know, the worst of the worst tends to stop to help stranded motorists. It's a well-documented criminal trait.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 35 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I may be from a hive of scum and villainy (southsiiiiide!), but also I have jumper cables, so back up while I take care of this.

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[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 10 points 2 months ago

A common use of spare battery is torture. There's a clear correlation /s

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[–] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 78 points 2 months ago (4 children)

What the fuck are you doing America?

[–] phx@lemmy.world 80 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Punishing people for any form of kindness so that they are wary of helping anyone else in the future....

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's how you wear down the population, to dissuade people from engaging in resistance. This is also the point of the violent ICE raids: breaking the social fabric to better control people.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 6 points 2 months ago

Sadly, it was worked perfectly for a whole generation.

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

No good deed goes unpunished

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 14 points 2 months ago

Teaching individualism /s

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[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 60 points 2 months ago

Cartel tactics

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 54 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

So here's the new way to help stranded motorists in the US: hold them at gun point, handcuff them to a tree, then fix their car.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Don't even need handcuffs, just need a thin tree or a pole.

Have them wrap one leg around the tree/pole and sit down on it, I remember reading that it would be nigh impossible for them to get up from that position without help

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Tried it at as a child, got out easily

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[–] itsathursday@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I mean… you could pull yourself up with upper body strength surely

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[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't understand how this works. Like crosslegged and the tree is only between one of your legs, not the other? Like behind the knee?

Edit: I've looked this up and found this weird video showing it

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c95iKhNmeSY

I'm guessing you can just lift yourself if you have the upper body strength, but it's interesting and a bit counterintuitive

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 49 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Where the fuck is the suspicion, nevermind "reasonable suspicion" behind the use of this tactic? Is helping someone with a broken car a crime, an antifa gang symbol or something to that effect?

There isn't even the pretense of crime fighting in this clip, just a bait trap to kidnap normal, caring people.

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 30 points 2 months ago

Helping someone is communist /s

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 18 points 2 months ago

Isn’t Oklahoma passing a law that makes it illegal to help an illegal Immigrant in any way? If these laws pass, then the agent can say they were posing as an illegal immigrant, making the helper immediately guilty of a crime.

[–] tourist@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I think their "rationale" is to snag the cartoon characters they've invented in their minds.

They expect an opportunist criminal to crime them.

This only makes sense if you believe there are literally millions of criminals in a town of 50 thousand residents.

I expect them to shoo away helpful people indefinitely

(Or, more likely, just arrest a random passerby and call it a success)

[–] Dry_Monk@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is honestly pretty smart on the part of the fascists. A big portion of what is so effective about the resistance is that it's founded on strong community action. Neighbors helping neighbors, because it's the right thing to do.

Posing as a neighbor in need makes that act feel riskier. It changes the calculus, just a little, in favor of not helping your neighbor. They achieve their near term goal of getting their victim, but there's an even more valuable (to them) effect of weakening community ties overall.

Time to double down on looking out for your neighbors.

EDIT: Looking out for them so you can help. In case that wasn't clear.

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 43 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I... this reminds me of a time that a good samaritan actually helped me when I was in trouble. He had a Hispanic accent and fucked off before the cops came, but him stopping to help might have saved my life.

I of course had no way of knowing his legal status, but it doesn't matter to me. That's the kind of person you want in your country.

This kind of "trap" is antichrist behavior. As in against the Bible and against the words of Christ.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (24 children)

I keep hearing people speculating that, when the American regime changes, these DHS and CBP agents will be put on trial.

But I think we all know that's never going to happen. Best we can do is name, shame, and socially ostracize them.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yep, if history is any guide, Democrats, if they ever get back in power, will want to look forward, not back. They've done that with Nixon, Reagan, the GFC, torture, Trump's whole ass coup, ...

It just means that the exact same characters will just try again.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Democrat president year: "We must set aside our differences and be united."

Republican president year: "The evil Democrats who plan to kill us all and take away our guns need to be executed."

Democrat president year: "oh what a doozy! We may have lost a lot of people in the Enslavement Camps, but now we must come together and be united."

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Ford set the tone by pardoning Nixon.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's not going to be a regime change. It's just going to collapse like Haiti.

[–] greyscale@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 months ago (9 children)

The American Century of Humiliation is underway.

Only question is do we consider its start Trump II (2120), Trump I (2116), Reagan (2080) or Nixon (2069).

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 8 points 2 months ago

Stop waiting to be saved. It should be on sight at this point. The civil war is here and the rightoids are winning.

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[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 34 points 2 months ago

Hey, isn't this what gangs and other criminals do the rob or kidnap and murder people? Oh, it's the same picture?

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like the end result of thinking empathy is a sin.

arresting those who are kind enough to help.

and conveniently, those people tend not to be republican.

[–] VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Wouldn't call it the end result, but rather the practice of attempting to make people less empathetic is that of an aggressor looking to divide the people. It has nothing to do with the concept of sin, and everything to do with breaking people apart, making people singular, more manageable targets.

This is a way of convincing people to be less trusting of those around them to prevent them from wanting to organize or cooperate with others out of fear that they may be suddenly arrested by undercover agents.

[–] Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that was Ted Bundy's tactic too.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I am a fan of pilling people at bar trivia:

'Which tactic did Ted Bundy and Immigration Customs Enforcement both use to capture their targets?"

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Imo the fatal flaw in the US system is that DHS doesn't have to have courts with juries for prosecutions. No jury would convict after hearing this was how somebody was caught

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Juries are regular citizens. Regular citizens voted for Trump and don't care about felonies, pedophilia, eating kids, fraud, adultery, etc.

[–] TrollTrollrolllol@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Man shoots his own daughter in an argument about Trump in Texas and the grand jury wont even indict. They are fucking sick in the head.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I read that article too, the number of texas shootings that aren't prosecuted paired with like the uvalde school shooting response just shows how little texas residents care for their neighbors and how unseriously they treat deadly violence. I'm not sure Minnesota has the same problem.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 2 months ago

The real goal is to turn nice people into assholes like them.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

War on Decency

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago

Well if a declining world super power attacks weaker nations (Venezuela) then why wouldn't it attack it's own, nicer people, rather than meet a challenge? Remember, bullies are cowards underneath. "Look at me and behold my greatness!"...(after beating up the tiniest kid on the playground).

[–] SirMaple__@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago
[–] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Fuck these guys.

It's also a really nice feeling to help someone jump a car, or help push a disabled car off the road. It's this short(ish) and well defined opportunity to do good, without much gray area of "is this the best course of action" or "am I making an impact" you get with longer and more complex activism.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I've known people who got car jacked using the same tactics, DHS are continuing to use criminal tactics to fuck with working class people

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