Frog costumes. The Star Wars theme. Whistlemania. These could be the sights and sounds of Halloween—but this year, they've taken on new meaning. As federal agents and military troops arrive in their cities across the country, communities have used pop culture references, humor, and irreverence as an act of resilience. They’ve also banded together to form school escorts and other protective measures for their neighbors. This week, we’re exploring how residents of three cities have met this moment. We have three ACLU experts joining us. First up, we have Chandra S. Bhatnagar and Ed Yohnka of the ACLU of Southern California and Illinois. And around the 46-minute mark, Monica Hopkins of the ACLU of DC joins Kamau to discuss deployments in the nation’s capital.

Want to get involved? Here are two actions you can take right now:

action.aclu.org/send-message/tell-congress-no-troops-our-streets

action.aclu.org/send-message/tell-congress-stop-masked-agents

And if you’re still curious about the deployments, there’s a great explainer on YouTube: “Ask an ACLU Expert: President Trump’s Deployment of Federal Forces to Our Communities” with Hina Shamsi.

https://youtu.be/1wQLAqD-KFM?si=LGsW6vlAM_A-1WKo

At Liberty is a production of the ACLU. For the ACLU, our senior executive producer is Sam Riddell, our executive producer is Jessica Herman Weitz, and our intern is Madhvi Khianra. W. Kamau Bell and Melissa Hudson Bell, PhD are executive producers for Who Knows Best Productions. At Liberty is produced and edited by Erica Getto and Myrriah Gossett for Good Get. This episode was recorded at Skyline Studios in Oakland, CA.