Boba tea in the "war zone": Trump's lies about Chicago

Trump calls Chicago a “war-zone.”

He claims he’s sending in the National Guard to protect ICE agents.

The same ICE agents that had a confrontation with protesters in Chicago’s Lincoln Square.

So, today I walked through Lincoln Square—a mere 72 hours after "violent confrontations" had occurred with ICE—I expected barricades, broken windows, maybe graffiti scrawled in anger….

Trump calls Chicago neighborhoods like Lincoln
 Square "war zones." I call them delightful.

But I NEVER could have imagined what I saw:

Children darted through the park playing tag, while nearby, their parents chatted.

A woman in her fifties strolled past with two impossibly fluffy shiatzu puppies.

A young professional scrolled through her phone.

 A couple wandered hand-in-hand down the street, enjoying a pleasantly warm autumn evening.

I sat down on a bench beneath some trees, sipping my boba tea, and marveled at what a beautiful and peaceful scene this was.

And I learned that this “confrontation,” was, at most, a couple dozen peaceful protesters upset that ICE agents were apparently targeting parents as they picked up their children from school. These were ICE agents, armored in tactical gear, that, witnesses say, threw a resident to the ground, handcuffed her, and flung her into an unmarked van with New Jersey license plates. That woman, a US resident, and one unidentified male were retained, but not charged.

There was no “war.” No “hellhole.” These weren’t, as Trump and his team want us to believe, “domestic terrorists.”

It was a small group of concerned citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.

So, when you hear Trump’s proclamations of “domestic terrorist” attacks, his descriptions of communities as “war-ravaged,” or “hellholes,” stop and think.

My cut: who do you believe, someone who’s never been there?

Or someone who was there today, sipping his boba tea?