Federal Agents in Chicago Used an Unmarked Van with New Jersey License Plates to Abduct a US Citizen
While on her way to work, Debbie Brockman “was taken to the ground, battered, handcuffed,” her lawyers say.
Updated to include a response from the Motor Vehicle Commission.
On October 10, federal agents attacked Debbie Brockman, a U.S. citizen, on the north side of Chicago while she was on her way to work at Chicago television station, WGN.
“Ms. Brockman was taken to the ground, battered, handcuffed and her pants were pulled down exposing her bare buttocks,” her attorneys with the People’s Law Office said in a statement, as per WGN. “No one should be treated like that in this city, in this country, or anywhere else in the world.”
Video of the abduction shows Brockman pinned to the ground by masked Border Patrol agents, who are handcuffing her. They placed her in an unmarked van with New Jersey license plates. As they drove away from the scene, they appeared to hit another vehicle.
After about seven hours in custody, Brockman was released without charge, according to her attorneys.
On October 11, Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol official Gregory K. Bovino posted a photo of Brockman sitting in a vehicle. The caption states: “Fair and transparent local news stations in Chicago?🤨Apparently not, as this employee of a local television network decided to take the news cycle to a whole new level by throwing an object at Border Patrol Agents conducting lawful duties.
Reporting now shifts to a different narrative; one of assault on a Federal officer ( 18 USC 111), a serious felony.
Don’t become a negative news story. Don’t assault ICE or Border Patrol Agents.”
Brockman denies assaulting anyone and has not been charged with a crime, according to her attorneys.
“Ms. Brockman and her legal team adamantly deny any allegation that she assaulted anyone,” her lawyers said in a statement, as per WGN. “Rather, Ms. Brockman was the one who was violently assaulted by federal agents on her way to work. Ms. Brockman feared for her life multiple times throughout this terrifying experience.”
The Carceral Report reached out to the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and asked via email about the license plates on the unmarked van:
Does NJ provide state license plates to federal agencies?
Does NJ have agreements with DHS, ICE, or CBP to provide them with state license plates?
Does your office have a comment on a car with a NJ license plate being used in an abduction by federal agents?
Can your office track who or what agency this license plate was provided to?
The office replied: ”We don’t have a comment from our office – and would refer you to the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission regarding vehicle registration questions.”
The Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) told The Carceral Report via email that it “is a regulatory agency and cannot respond to or investigate this matter. Please contact local law enforcement with your concerns.”
In response to a records request for any contracts, memorandums, and agreements between MVC and DHS, MVC said, “no documents responsive to this request are made, maintained, recorded, or on file with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.”
Just days before federal agents attacked Brockman, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez multiple times on the southwest side of Chicago.
According to DHS: “Border Patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles. The woman, Marimar Martinez, driving one of the vehicles, was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxxing federal agents.”
Her attorney, Christopher Parente, says body camera footage shows an entirely different story, as per Reuters. According to Parente, Martinez was on her way to donate clothes when she began following a border patrol vehicle. The criminal complaint says Martinez called out, “la migra,” an informal Spanish word for immigration agents, while she tailed the car, according to Reuters.
“I call her sort of a Paul Revere of today,” Parente told Reuters. “She’s trying to tell neighbors, ‘Hey, be careful.’”
According to Parente, body camera footage shows that as Martinez drove alongside a Border Patrol vehicle, an agent had his finger on the trigger of an assault rifle, and told her, “Do something, bitch.” The driver turned into her car, contrary to DHS’s claim that she drove into the officers’ SUV. The agents exited their car and one shot Martinez five times, Parente says.
Martinez drove herself to an auto body shop and called 911. At the time of the shooting, Martinez, who has a license to carry a concealed weapon, had her gun in her purse, according to Parente.
“The gun was never in her hand,” Parente told Reuters.
Martinez has been charged with assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
On Monday, October 20, prosecutors told the court that the vehicle was released to the agent before defense counsel could inspect it, and the agent drove it to his home base in Maine. A prosecutor also said that repairs for the SUV had been approved, but they were unaware if they had been completed, according to ABC News.
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