When Enforcement Keeps Failing, Look at Training, Not Just Intent

ICE isn’t just “messy,” it’s often meant to be scary

ICE has dominated headlines for days. Public raids, aggressive tactics, cities describing fear and disruption, and encounters that escalate instead of calm. Some people frame this as bad judgment or poor professionalism. That explanation is incomplete. Some of what we are seeing is absolutely intentional.

This is not just about ICE. It applies to policing in the United States more broadly, and it has for a long time. When enforcement repeatedly escalates situations instead of de-escalating them, the standard response is predictable: the officers were not trained well enough. That is partly true, but it avoids a deeper and more uncomfortable question.

The real question: not only “how much training,” but “what is policing for?”

The real issue is not only how much training law enforcement receives. It is what they are trained to do, and even more import…