The Test Case

**Ira Glass** (0:00)
Hey there, Life Partners, Ira here with just a quick message for the show to say that we have added a new perk for all of our Life Partners. And by Life Partners, of course, I mean you. And this new perk is I've been writing a weekly email newsletter where I talk a little bit about what's happening backstage here at the show. But also, the biggest part of the newsletter is that I recommend things. TV shows that I think you might like, movies. We'll see what else happens as I write more of these. And basically, I just wrote up a few to see what it would be like, and they turned out to be really fun. I've really enjoyed writing them. I've found some stuff that I think most of our Life Partners seem not to have already seen or known about. So I hope you try it. To get yours, go to thisamericanlifepartners.substack.com.
Yeah, we're doing this in Substack. And basically, it's like any Substack thing, you type in your email address that you want us to send the email newsletter to. We're not going to put your name on a list or sell it to anybody. This is just so we can send you the newsletter, pure and simple. Again, go to thisamericanlifepartners.substack.com.
And I just really hope you like it. That's another thing we can send you. Okay, here's today's show.
From WBEZ Chicago, This American Life, Ira Glass.

**Kash Patel** (1:17)
Yes, we need the police to come out to Perryland Detention Center.

**Lynette Sharp** (1:20)
I don't know what's going on outside. They just told me to call.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:23)
Okay, you don't know what's going on?

**Ira Glass** (1:25)
No, sir.

**Ed Kent** (1:27)
I think they're doing fireworks.

**Ira Glass** (1:29)
There's a 911 call on the 4th of July a year ago, around 11 p.m., Alvarado, Texas, about an hour outside of Dallas. The woman calling works at the Perryland Detention Center. She's at the front desk there. And she's calling because a bunch of people have suddenly shown up outside wearing black, seven masks, lined up on the other side of this long barbed wire fence. They're setting off fireworks. It's really loud.
This facility is a detention center for ICE, full of people being held on immigration charges. Somebody in the crowd outside has a megaphone, starts calling out to the detainees inside. Esperanza, Hope, you are not forgotten.
More fireworks go up.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:08)
Oh, somebody's trying to get in.

**Lynette Sharp** (2:09)
Can you hear me up and send somebody?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:11)
Yes, ma'am. Someone's trying to get in.

**Lynette Sharp** (2:13)
They outside walking the perimeter.

**Ed Kent** (2:15)
I don't know, sir.

**Ira Glass** (2:17)
Okay. All right. We got them in route. Okay.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:18)
Call us back if anything changes. My control.

**Ira Glass** (2:21)
Okay. Bye-bye. A police officer rushes out to the facility, Lieutenant Thomas Gross from the Alvarado PD. As soon as he switches on his siren, the dash cam activates in his car, and his body cam turns on. He turns into the Puria Line parking lot, and in the car headlights, you can see somebody has sprayed fuck ice on a guard shack. Then as he pulls up, he sees somebody running in front of his car.
He jumps out of the car, drawing his gun in one hand, walkie talkie in the other. And this next thing happens almost immediately, just six seconds after he gets out of the car.
I'm hit, he yells. He's shot in the upper shoulder by his neck. He fires back three times.
The shooter runs off and hides in a field. Sunfire field, actually. They're all around the detention center. Then cops of all sorts arrive. Local police, sheriff's office, Texas Rangers, and they start arresting people. Some are on the streets, walking nonchalantly away, as if they just happen to be here, they are not involved. They have backpacks, which the cops try to search.

**Brian Bufard** (3:35)
Take out the goddamn backpacks. Coming, Sam.

**Kash Patel** (3:38)
If you move, you will be shot. Do you understand me?

**Ann Speckard** (3:41)
I am taking off your backpack.

**Ira Glass** (3:43)
Everybody's on edge because an officer's been shot. The police officer, it turned out, he was not badly hurt. The bullet entered his shoulder, came out his back, just below his neck. He was released from the hospital later that night. The guy who shot the cop disappeared into the sunflower field. He had there for a whole day. Eventually, some friends snuck him out.
They were all caught.
What happened that night on the 4th of July, one year ago, it all ended up in court. It became this major trial, where two very different stories were told. The defendants say this was a protest gone wrong. Nobody was supposed to get shot. In other words, this was like tons of other anti-ice protests that had been happening all over the country outside of its facilities, where people gather and make noise to communicate with the detainees. But the FBI Director, Kash Patel, had a different view. Here he is talking to Fox News host Larry Kudlow.