Benji Hart

THE REVOLUTIONARY COLUMN: Racist police violence is always the common denominator • The TRiiBE ICE violence does not exist within a vacuum. It didn’t come out of nowhere. This is how it feels to be Black and policed in this country.

NEW — Columnist Bella BAHHS is back with a message for everyone joining the resistance in Chicago and beyond.

What some non-Black Chicagoans are now experiencing is what Black folks have faced for generations: policing as a tool to protect power and profit.

thetriibe.com/2025/11/the-...

As Fear Keeps Some Inside Amid ICE Raids, Chicago Dog Walker Offers Free Pet Care "Animals are very important to families. If I can help someone, even if it's just one person, I'm more than willing to do that," said Candice Nelson.

Another example of 'get in where you can get in' and everyone can do something of use... blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/16/a...

UPDATE — Multiple witness videos today show an older white federal agent straddling a young Black man on the ground outside of a Walgreens on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

This is a developing story.

thetriibe.com/2025/10/fede...

Once again: this is also happening in DC. Still.

It feels like we’ve been forgotten, maybe because there aren’t huge confrontations to run photos of. But our neighbors are still being taken every day. Routine traffic stops are now done by 12+ feds alongside local police.

Please talk about us too.

Two women stand amidst a crowd at a protest, raising fists and shouting passionately. Others hold signs, creating an atmosphere of determination and solidarity.

"This is about realizing ICE is a national police force. It is literally a set of people who are armed who are law enforcement and under the directive of the executive branch, meaning the president of the United States."

“Abolish ICE” doesn’t mean rebranding or shifting its powers elsewhere—it means ending the deportation, detention & incarceration machine targeting immigrant communities.

Read @sarahlazare.bsky.social's 2018 piece on the demand’s roots & meaning:

inthesetimes.com/article/abol...

Chicago.

The MAGA monocultural revolution is so thorough that Hegseth made it a priority to honor soldiers who carried out war crimes in 1890.

A protester holds out a sign as a shield as tear gas canisters are launched and pepper balls are fired.

Tear gas fills the street

Protesters hold the line amid tear gas

A protester holds out a sign as a shield as tear gas canisters are launched and pepper balls are fired.

At the Broadview ICE facility, an ICE agent tried to run dozens of protesters over with an SUV as we walked on a public crosswalk.

He kept driving for about a full football field until ICE barraged us with pepper balls.

Editorial: Teachers’ extremist social media posts don’t do their students any good Teachers are getting themselves into trouble on social media. The bigger concern is what’s happening in their classrooms.

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board wrote a hit piece about me. While they didn’t name me they quoted me, made a whole lot of false offensive assumptions about me, my classroom & called me an “extremist”. Response coming after full days of teaching & parenting.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/22/p...

Feds stuff man in SUV during arrest outside of courthouse in Little Village • The TRiiBE Here’s a roundup of federal agent sightings today, Sept. 24.

NEW — Video footage posted to Facebook shows an arrest outside of the Cook County criminal courthouse in Chicago at 2650 S. California Ave.

The video shows federal agents stuffing a person in a vehicle as their feet kick in distress.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/prot...

OPINION: Chicago alders need to pass the Jackson Park Housing Pilot to protect residents from Obama Presidential Center displacement • The TRiiBE This week, the City Council will have the opportunity to move Chicago in the direction of a city that supports its residents and doesn’t turn a blind eye to market forces that terrorize them.

NEW — In this op/ed submission, one Chicago organizer writes:

“This week, the City Council will have the opportunity to move Chicago in the direction of a city that supports its residents and doesn’t turn a blind eye to market forces that terrorize them.”

thetriibe.com/2025/09/opin...

How ICE Raids Are Making It Easier for Civilian Men to Assault Immigrant Women "This phenomenon is only possible because of the outsized power that state agents have always had to abuse and control women and victims' bodies," argues Kylie Cheung.

new from @kylietcheung.bsky.social in @teenvogue.com: recently, men have impersonated plainclothes ICE agents to assault women—only possible, she argues, because state agents commit violence with impunity.

"To be clear, men wouldn’t be posing as ICE agents and assaulting women if ICE didn’t exist."

We Want Them Back: Protest and State Violence at Broadview ICE Facility Hundreds protested outside Broadview ICE in Illinois, resisting Operation Midway Blitz and denouncing raids, deportations, and state violence.

I was interviewed for this piece in South Side Weekly about the tear gas and pepper ball attacks ICE waged against protesters on Friday.

Raids, Retaliation, and Radical Solidarity in Chicago “History shows us that repression always breeds resistance,” says Chicago organizer Miguel Alvelo Rivera.

As ICE storms Chicagoland, Chicago’s organizers speak. Stacy Davis Gates, Benji Hart, Arti Walker-Peddakotla, Ric Wilson, and others discuss ongoing ICE raids, Trump’s threats to send in the National Guard, and the solidarity we need to survive these times. Audio + transcript:

STATEMENT: Black communities know that every police killing is a tragedy • The TRiiBE Three Chicago organizers on standing together against Trump’s attempts to militarize and divide us.

NEW — “We are alarmed to hear that, weeks into Trump threatening Black and brown communities in Chicago with military invasion and weeks into calls from community leaders across the city opposing these threats, ICE agents have shot and killed a man in the suburbs.”

thetriibe.com/2025/09/stat...

I know everyone is consumed with other news, but this is a big fucking deal: The Trump administration says that IUDs and the Pill are actually abortions.

Here's what USAID told the NYT about the $10m in birth control they plan to destroy.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

Update from outside Broadview ICE facility in Chicagoland—

Even after feds killed a man a few towns away today, a small group remain to finish their 7am-7pm protest.

SRT takes the dwindling numbers as an opportunity to unleash less lethals on a protester with a mobility aid sitting on the ground.

All authoritarian power grabs must be resisted. It's never about "crime," and it's never about how people respond to Trump's aggression. Those are just story points, and the administration makes up story points every day when reality doesn't fit. Remember this.

Tell the truth and shame the devil.

Get ahead of the narrative and get it straight. No one on the ground in Chicago is responsible for the waves of federal agents that are about to descend on our communities to snatch and kidnap people, or for the troops Trump plans to send here. This is an authoritarian power grab— a fascist plot.

Talk about how this is all being staged to set Chicago up for a military occupation. Talk about how they are planning to attack cultural gatherings, picnics, and parades, knowing that people will cling to their neighbors and family members—and that Trump will use those acts of decency as an excuse.

The administration plans to attack public festivities in Chicago around Mexican Independence Day (which may include this weekend's parade in Pilsen or related activities) because they want to attack folks in settings where people will try to protect and hold onto community members.

The Trap of Law and Order Under Fascism “There’s no rule of law that’s going to get us out of where we are,” says Andrea Ritchie.

This week, I talk to @dreanyc123.bsky.social about the role of criminalization in authoritarianism and fascism—and why we need more outlaws, and less confusion about what the law protects and who it targets.

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Venezuelan Migrants, a Black Church, and an Experiment in Solidarity A pastor in Chicago helps build a coalition that aids recent arrivals by asking them what they need.

"What began as a modest effort by a few members of a small congregation to reach out to migrants would evolve into a deep experiment in solidarity — one that would challenge the community to confront its stereotypes of immigrants and change the makeup and the mission of the church for good."

Solidarity -- not only possible, but happening.

This is an outstanding piece. Everyone should check it out.

Venezuelan Migrants, a Black Church, and an Experiment in Solidarity A pastor in Chicago helps build a coalition that aids recent arrivals by asking them what they need.

"What began as a modest effort by a few members of a small congregation to reach out to migrants would evolve into a deep experiment in solidarity..."

our new issue of @hammerandhope.bsky.social is out! today I want to highlight this article by Benji Hart

hammerandhope.org/article/chic...

Love this story about community divides that are healed by asking: What do you need?