WASHNGTON — President Trump’s Homeland Security chief, Kristi Noem, has ordered that her deportation agents in ICE and related agencies be equipped with body cams. The order was taken as further evidence of Noem’s incompetence. She has been in charge of Trump’s Operation Merto Surge in Minneapolis, where thousands of citizens have used their own cameras to document excessive force, brutality even, by Homeland Security agents. The competence question: Why weren’t Noem’s agents equipped with body cams 11 weeks ago when Metro Surge began? Body cams have been standard issue for years in local policing. The lapse became critical for Noem only after her propagandists realized they didn’t have footage to devise counter-messaging to the powerful evidence from citizen cameras of agent misdeeds in the streets.
Noem. Calls have been growing for her impeachment if she doesn’t step down as Trump’s secretary of the cabinet-level Homeland Security agency. She was put in the job by Trump 13 months agon despite no experience in border issues or law enforcement. She had been a long-term Trump supporter. She was governor of South Dakota, the 47th least populous state in the country.
Verbatim
Noem, explaining why she was so late with body cams? “The problem was having the resources to get them on every agent and every officer that’s out there. And then having the resources to do the analyses and the storage of those videos and who can help us really utilize them.” Her explanation has been seen as a lame for send 3,500 agents into Minneapolis mostly without being issued body cams. This appears related to the rush to hire inexperienced agents for Operation, Metro Surge with $50,000 sign-ip bonuses, not screening them carefully, and. putting them through inadequate crash training.
Mutual distancing
Aware that her role as Homeland Security secretary may be on thin ice, Noem has distanced herself from her bdy cam lapse from being blamed on him. Deferring blame away from Trump and currying favor, Noem said that body cam decisions were hers and hers alone — not Trump’s. And in not-too-subtle subtle scape-goating, Trump has made the point that body cam policy was Noem’s, not his.
Noem: Messed up? Or great?
Asked whether his confidence in Noem has been shaken Trump has said “No” and praised her as “great” There are doubts, however, about the truth. Last week Trump spent two hours in closed meeting with Noem and her paramour. Corey Lewandowski, reportedly in part to hash out deepening and disruptive personnel feuds at Homemeland Security. This set off power struggles. Noem had hired Lewandowski in September as a “special government employee,” effectively serving as her chief of staff. There are limits on how many weeks a “special government employee” can serve. Lewandowski has been posting only partial hours in order to stretch out his eligibility.