West Chicago, Illinois—as distinct from the West Side of Chicago—is a sleepy little village of 25,000 in the western suburbs where Mayor Daniel Bovey with the grace of a rhinoceros and the wisdom of a donkey just leapt into the leftist anti-ICE movement with both feet, which are now covered in excrement.
The community conflagration began over a Gary Elementary School teacher’s Facebook post last week that said, “Go ICE.” That’s it. But for leftists, publicly supporting law enforcement’s efforts to enforce our laws is a bridge too far. To them government employees are not permitted to support publicly the enforcement of laws created by the government. We really do live in the Upside Down.
So, leftist activists began their sordid work of hurling obscenities and seeking the teacher’s termination. According to Fox News one social media post read, “Imagine working as a teacher in an elementary school in West Chicago where the Latino community is highly populated and promoting ICE, sick AF.”
Another called the teacher who is now on leave a “fucking piece of shit.”
Here’s how the “non-partisan” Bovey responded to the teacher’s Facebook post:
https://twitter.com/i/status/2016116038828446057
It was extremely hurtful to and offensive to many people in our community. … Of course, [teachers] can … have political opinions and express political opinions in appropriate ways. What makes this different is this: … The school where this happened, we have multiple students who have lost their mom or dad in the last few months in these ICE raids. We have students who go home fearful every night wondering if their mom or dad is going to be there. We have kids having panic attacks at school. Our kids watch the news. They see people who are shot and killed, people who punched or kicked, and tear-gas sprayed. This is the reality they’re living in right now. And so, then they’re wondering is this what’s happening to my parent who’s been taken away.
Why did Bovey choose to say that multiple students have “lost their parents”? Why didn’t he say, “we have multiple students whose parents broke our immigration laws and were sent back to their home countries”?
Parents who chose to break our immigration laws and are deported have a right to take their children with them or arrange for their children to follow them. Children may be temporarily separated from their parents, but they have not “lost” their parents unless their parents choose not to bring them to their home countries.
We all know why Bovey chose to frame his story the way he did. He was socially constructing a heart-strings yanking “narrative” designed to make ICE look bad and illegal aliens look sympathetic. To heck with principle and rationality.
Bovey claimed to be deeply concerned about the feelings of children, so why isn’t he suggesting that their families not allow children to watch news reports of people being shot, killed, punched, and kicked?
And maybe he could suggest to parents and other family members in that community that they explain to their children how wrong it is to interfere with or obstruct law enforcement operations.
Maybe district schools could offer civics lessons on citizenship, fairness, justice, the universality of border laws, and the expansiveness of our laws regarding legal immigration.
Maybe they could help children understand illegal immigration by analogy: Ask them how they would “feel” if strangers broke into their homes, slept in their beds, and ate their food without permission.
Why didn’t benevolent Bovey mention the ICE agents who are doing the important, good, and dangerous work of enforcing our laws and are being doxed, screamed at, spit on, sworn at, had projectiles thrown at them, had fingers bitten off, and had cars driven at them and dragged them.
Maybe next time Bovey pontificates on the First Amendment rights of teachers, he could share with all of the nation exactly what those “appropriate ways” of expressing political opinions are.
Biased Bovey bloviated about the feelings of children of illegal aliens and the “offensiveness” of supporting ICE:
To have a teacher who is a person that they trust, that is the one who takes care of them when they can’t be with their mom or dad, to have that person cavalierly cheer on these events as if it’s a football game and say, “Go Ice,” is extremely hurtful and extremely offensive. And it’s wrong. … As I said to this person [the teacher], what you did was not right.
Note the absolutist rhetoric. Bovey proclaims from his high horse that posting “Go Ice,” is wrong—absolutely, positively, objectively, transcendentally wrong. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Why didn’t Bovey mention how the wives and children of ICE agents feel when they see on the news that armed protesters are organizing illegal obstructionist activities that put at risk ICE agents who are trying to enforce laws that Congress passed?
Then in rhetoric dripping with condescension, Bovey explained that he from his godlike throne reassured the teacher that his offensive post doesn’t need to “define” him:
As I said to this person [the teacher], this is not right what you did, but it doesn’t need to define you as a person. And I believe that. I believe that we should give people second chances whenever we can. But at the same time, actions have consequences.
Wow. You would think this teacher had posted something like “FUCK ICE”—you know like leftists do every day in blue communities across the country as they fight to keep lawbreakers in the United States.
Take heart, Teacher, all you need do to avail yourself of that generous second chance, to ensure you’re not defined by your offensive five-letter post is abandon your beliefs and adopt the position of Bovey. Just do it: Say 2 + 2= 5.
Bovey continued digging himself deeper in the anti-government sludge:
Many of us have been bothered how ICE has disregarded due process. Many of us have been bothered how ICE has dehumanized people. So, let’s not turn and do the same thing. Let’s not dehumanize this person by our comments, and let’s not short-circuit the due process which is merited.
That is rich. Bovey just spent three minutes harshly condemning this teacher’s brief comment, declaring it “extremely hurtful,” “extremely offensive,” and “wrong.” And now, after getting his two cents in, now after expressing his judgment, he tells everyone else not to short-circuit the merited process due the teacher.
Well, I’d like to express my judgment that Bovey’s statements are hurtful, offensive, wrong, and biased. They prejudice the merited process of determining whether this teacher should be disciplined for publicly expressing his support for the enforcement of our laws and the men who are tasked with that difficult job—a job made much more difficult by the words and actions of leftists agitators and people like Bovey.
Bovey continued spouting leftist drivel:
I understand the outrage many feel about this. I understand seeing injustices in our own community and wanting to respond to that, make sure the kids are at the center.
What is Bovey’s proof that ICE has disregarded due process? What is his proof that ICE has dehumanized people?
What does he mean by “dehumanize”? If every day on the way to his office, West Chicagoans spit at Bovey, swore at him, barred him from walking into his office, drove a car at him, and bit off small parts of his body, would he consider those actions “dehumanizing”?
Presumably, Bovey wants all children smack dab at the center of discussions of injustice, including children of ICE agents. Presumably, Bovey wants children whose sisters have been raped and murdered by illegal aliens to be at the center of discussions of injustice. And presumably, Bovey wants children in families who are here legally, struggling to make ends meet, and are bearing the societal costs of illegal immigration in the center of discussions of injustice. If so, he should say it.
Non-partisan, respecter-of-due-process Mayor Bovey announced that he is keeping his child home from school on Monday “to show solidarity with our immigrant community that has just been through so much,” and “to help them understand that we as a community want to support them and to be protecting their children.”
What exactly does he mean? Is he committed to protecting illegal immigrants from detainment and deportation? Does supporting children require opposition to law enforcement? So many questions for the non-partisan Bovey.
I hope West Chicagoans remember everything Bovey just said when they have the first opportunity to dump him. I know I will.