Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents kidnapped four different community members yesterday—three from a restaurant in Ann Arbor called Sava’s, and another from the parking lot of the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office post on Whittaker Road in Ypsilanti Township.

If you glance through the media coverage of these raids and arrests, it’s hard not to note that the AAPD and the Sheriff’s Department both go on record that they were not only aware of ICE’s intentions, but they also chose to stand quietly on the sidelines:

Ann Arbor Police Chief Jim Baird was made aware by ICE of a targeted enforcement detail at an Ann Arbor restaurant on Wednesday morning, within an hour of the ICE presence there, said Ann Arbor police Detective Lt. Matthew Lige. The department was not asked to participate in the enforcement and did not take part.

ICE made the sheriff’s office aware of a search for a specific subject in the area, but the sheriff’s office had no part in the arrest, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Keith Flores said.

We’re tempted to dedicate a couple lines of prose to indict these cops and deputies for their complicity in acts of community terror, but then we take a deep breath, steady our pens, and recall that the Thin Blue Line means that cops of all denominations—from security guards at the mall all the way up to the heads of national law enforcement agencies—have never, and will never, speak out against the daily brutalities of their fellows.