A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbyshire has appeared in a US government document used to identify members of Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang, despite the man having no connection to the group.
The tattoo is of a clock, and other tattoos listed as evidence of gang membership include mistranslated text and Chicago Bulls fandom tattoos.
Aren’t clock tattoos like such a cliché that tattoo artists role their eyes when you ask for one? Are a bunch of millennials and gen-x deemed gang members because they followed a trend?
Yes. That’s the point. They decide they don’t like someone because of something they posted on social media, or texted, or whatever, then they look for a tattoo that they can pretend means gang membership, and boom, the person who dared to say something against them is sent to the new gulag.
They’re using tattoos because there’s a segment of America all pearl-clutchy about them, who subconsciously think anyone with a tat must be trash and involved in gang stuff. And because some people assume those with tats are trash, it’s easier to vanish them without as much widespread protest. The presence of tats will be used to victim-blame.
It’s similar to how various drugs were targeted to get rid of white liberal hippies who smoked weed and black people by throwing them in jail. Find some trait that a portion of the population you want to lock up shares, make it illegal or, in this case, a “symbol” of “gang membership”, then whisk away the people you intended to target all along.
Up until the early 2000’s Grateful Dead Merch was considered “probable cause,” by US LEOs. They make up whatever shit they want to, and always have.