# Angus King — "a national police force to do the bidding of a corrupt and lawless administration" > [!quote] "It's becoming more and more clear that the stated basis for this gross violation of our rights—that they are ridding our communities of 'the worst of the worst'—is a lie, and the real purpose is to establish a national police force to do the bidding of a corrupt and lawless administration." > — Angus King, written statement, August 13, 2026 ## Context On August 10, 2026, [[ICE]] published a notice that it would spend **up to $20 million** on gloves delivering an incapacitating electric charge; the award was subsequently reported at **$16.7 million**, through what King described as a no-bid contract. WIRED reported the manufacturer's own use warnings the same week: not longer than 15 seconds, one pair per person, arms and legs only, and never on the elderly, children, pregnant women, or people with severe disabilities — and never as punishment, to stop someone talking back, or to torture. Senator [[Angus King]] (I-ME) issued the statement on August 13. Its middle passage is the one most often quoted alongside the closing line: > [!quote] Angus King, August 13, 2026 > "I never thought I would see the day when masked and armed men in unmarked cars would be roaming the streets and neighborhoods of America, acting in utter disregard of the legal constraints that are basic to our freedoms." He closed: "It is past time for Congress to do its duty and, for once, put country ahead of party." ## Why This Matters The claim is not that enforcement is too harsh. It is that the **stated justification is pretextual** and that the object of the buildup is a standing general-purpose federal police force — a claim about institutional design rather than about policy severity. That is what gives the statement more analytic weight than most congressional condemnations, and it is why the vault holds it as a receipt. King's position sharpens it further. He caucuses with Democrats but carries no party's whip obligation, which makes the statement harder to file as partisan noise. In the same statement he notes that two partisan funding bills directed **$75 billion** to ICE and **forward-funded the agency into 2029**, which he frames as deliberately designed to make congressional oversight impractical — the appropriations mechanism as an oversight-avoidance device. > [!info] Sourcing > Verified verbatim against the **primary source**: the statement as published by King's Senate office on August 13, 2026. Heather Cox Richardson quotes the same passage in her letter of the same date; her rendering matches the original. ## See Also - [[Angus King]] - [[ICE]] - [[Department of Homeland Security]] - [[US Immigration Timeline]] - [[Congressional Oversight]]