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submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Summary

Trump reportedly held up a digitally altered image of the hand of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported by the Trump administration, in an attempt to prove Garcia is a gang member.

Trump can be seen holding a printed-out photo... demonstrating that "MS-13" is tattooed across his knuckles.

"This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back," Trump posted. However, many have pointed out that the image appears photoshopped.

"MS-13 looks like it was typed on the photo." "Needing to have a photo doctored... is definitely something a psychopath would do."

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[-] Pavidus@lemmy.world 248 points 3 months ago

Alright, I'll take the bait. Let's all assume he has an MS-13 tattoo. What does this change? The dude still gets his constitutional rights, and his day in court. On US soil.

[-] jacksilver@lemmy.world 136 points 3 months ago

This is what they always do, get you arguing about something that doesn't matter. Just eats up time and energy about nothing.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago

The goal is to use fear, hatred, bigotry etc as a means to normalize authoritarianism and the destruction of rights, in exchange for non-existent "security" and "protection".

See terrorism and pedophilia.

[-] MBech@feddit.dk 22 points 3 months ago

I think this whole Garcia deportation is part of that. It wasn't supposed to in the beginning, but they're cooking with what they have.

Instead of talking about how fucking insane it is to deporting people to a death camp without any due process. We're now talking about how insane it is to deport someone who wasn't "supposed" to be deported to a death camp, and then refuse to do the bare minimum to get him back.

They've made sure we ignore the hundreds of people getting removed with no sign of evidence against their crimes.

[-] theangryseal@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

You just made my stomach hurt. Thanks. I’m glad you pointed this out to me and I wish I had been smart enough to see it for myself.

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[-] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 31 points 3 months ago

And on top of all that, even if somehow you could justify foregoing due process, the dude STILL can't legally be sent to El Salvador because of his withholding of removal to that country which I'm pretty sure is what the"administrative error" was that the white house admitted lol.

[-] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 87 points 3 months ago

It kind of looks like annotation to imply that the symbols actually on his hand mean MS-13, but I'd easily believe Trump is dumb enough to think he has "M S 1 3" printed in Arial font on his fingers.

If it is an annotation...show us those court records, you fascist son of a bitch.

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 59 points 3 months ago

It's so obvious that the letters and numbers are there to show what the tattooed symbols represent. I feel like I'm in bizarro world that people don't understand that and think they've found some smoking gun.

It doesn't change the need for due process, but come on people.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 25 points 3 months ago

Trump's own words indicated that he thought the MS13 tattoos were on the knuckles, which is where the Arial font characters are. So either Trump doesn't know what a knuckle is, or he was speaking imprecisely, or he's a fucking moron, or all of the above.

In any case, as someone pointed out above, it's unlikely MS13 would be working with acronyms in English for their tattoos, especially acronyms in English that only 50% work because Marijuana Smiley Cross Skull says MSCS, not MS13.

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 months ago

"Knuckle tattoo" is the common term for tattoos on the back of the fingers like that.

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[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago

It looks like people believe the M S 1 3 annotations are what they are saying is on his hand. We're in some dire straits.

The annotations are bullshit tho

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The annotations are bullshit tho

How so? Marijuana, Smile are pretty clear, the cross you can see in place of 1 on other MS13 tattoos (using image search of MS13 tattoos).

The only one I'm not sure of is the skull, but the available image is a bit blurry. Maybe the 2 eye holes plus the nose hole?

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[-] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 72 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

At this point, the guy could be a rabid neonazi pedophile for all I care: he should still not have been deported without a trial. People are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. Do your fucking job.

[-] spicehoarder@lemm.ee 18 points 3 months ago

Why would a cop get deported?

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[-] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 72 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's nice to see Trump can learn and grow. It wasn't that long ago when he would have just scribbled it with a sharpie. Anyway, it must really annoy Trump that thanks to Senator Van Hollen's visit, where he proved he could do what Trump admitted that he himself could not, we now have unadulterated photos of Garcia's hand without the shitty photoshop.

[-] troglodytis@lemmy.world 53 points 3 months ago

So umm.... What's the problem? Return. Prove it in a court of law. Due process for all. It doesn't matter who the person is or what they've done. What matters is how the government acts.

[-] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

The problem is that they are trying to do away with due process. They want to be able to throw anyone they want into a gulag in another country where they will disappear forever. They start with immigrants, claiming that they are gang members and terrorists. They are refusing to prove it because they want to set the precedent that they do not need to prove their claims. They start with alleged foreign gang members, then will come "homegrowns," as Trump has called them.

If we don't make them prove their claims now in a court of law, it'll be that much harder to do it later, and they know it.

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[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 45 points 3 months ago

Ok, so what happened here is that police added letters to the photo explaining what each symbol means. Some idiots on twitter thought those added letters are the claimed MS-13 tattoo. It's not clear if Trump also thought that those letters were actually tattooed, probably yes.

[-] borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 months ago

Bruh. So they went from M to S to 1 to 3? Instead of A to B to C … to 1 to 2 to 3?

No. Don’t try to muddy the waters and spread more supposition as fact. Trump has already been proven to alter images to fit his own internal incorrect narrative, just look at that hurricane path incident from his last term. All evidence and common sense points to someone digitally editing this picture in order to fabricate support for this man’s illegal deportation.

[-] HipHoboHarold@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

I think the point is that we all know they put in the MS13 digitally

The argument isnt against that

We all know it

The argument is that the republicans arent arguing he literally has MS13 tattooed

But that even they know that was added

And thats its just added to help people figure out why the tattoos would represent MS13

Its not that Republicans are saying the edited in part is part of the tattoo

Just that the tattoos that are there represent MS13

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[-] rasakaf679@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 months ago

Marijuana= M smiley = S Cross= 1 Skull = 3

Thats what the printed texts above each knuckle represents. These dumb people claiming it has poor photoshop... Has something loose in their head

[-] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

I'd like some independent decoding of these symbols. He could be celebrating his Master of Science in Computer Science.

(Also, the whole Trump argument is irrelevant because they already admitted he was "deported" in error)

[-] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

Yeah, like the first two are enough of a stretch, but how come a cross is 1 and not c and what does a scull have anything to do with 3?

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[-] 0p3r470r@lemm.ee 38 points 3 months ago

It’s sharpie gate all over again!

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago

As it is just a photo of a hand, it could be anyones hand.

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[-] Uppp@lemm.ee 23 points 3 months ago

How much more do they need to impeach this liar ?

[-] Draegur@lemm.ee 16 points 3 months ago

Look. I wish he could be removed by impeachment. But we need to accept that he's an outlaw.

He is a clear proponent of extrajudicial capital punishment.

Only an overdose of his own medicine will take him down.

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[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 23 points 3 months ago

What insults me more than anything is that he thinks I am so stupid that I would accept that obviously doctored photo as real. I felt the same way when he pitched his hurricane weather map with his Sharpie edit.

Hey, HitlerPig, we aren't all as stupid as you, and the people around you.

[-] Hikuro93@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Even if that's real, which doesn't look like it, what's keeping them from forcing Mr. Garcia onto a chair, hold him down, while they tattoo it?

This administration and their dictator allies have shown to have no constraints, no guardrails, time and time again. Consistently. You can always blindly trust them to bs and lie their way through anything.

You gonna tell me people who tried to stage Mr. Garcia sipping some Margaritas by a hotel pool wouldn't stoop so low as to place fake tattoos on him? Yeah, that's the thing with dishonesty - even if you tell the truth once it's still gonna be called into question. The boy who cried wolf, and all that.

[-] SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 months ago

It's the default font. They didn't even bother to select an appropriate "gang" font.

[-] SarcasticMan@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

So first things first man, if you have gang ink they photograph that shit and validate them. He was arrested in 2019 so, show me his ink and the photos they took of it when they arrested him.

[-] SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee 13 points 3 months ago

It’s more like Microsoft Paint…it doesn’t even look slightly real. That’s if it even is his hand.

[-] StJohnMcCrae@slrpnk.net 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's his hand. You can find other angles of it in the same article. It seems to me that the ms-13 edited onto his digits is meant to be a translation of the symbology of his tattoos:

Marijuana leaf = M

Smiley face = S

Cross = 1

Skull = 3

Is that an accurate representation of what his tattoos mean? I have no idea, I'm not an expert on gang symbology. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. The presence of a gang tattoo is something that could be submitted as evidence in court - which is a right the accused was never afforded.

What I am sure of, is that trump intentionally presented this information in such a vague manner so as to muddy the waters so he can come back later and claim his claims were misrepresented by the "lying, dishonest media" - which is itself dishonest.

It's an inkblot test. His detractors will take the claim at face value, and his supporters will dig in and claim we're stupid for not immediately taking his claims as gospel. He doesn't care if his claims hold up in court. He only cares about the court of public opinion, and right now, he's defining that conversation.

[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 20 points 3 months ago

Why does "Cross = 1, Skull = 3"? I did my best to google it but every result is comments from posts made within the last day.

What I did find was this quote in https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-posts-image-kilmar-abrego-175852020.html :

"The four symbols – “Marijuana,” “Smiley,” “Cross” and “Skull” – have not been found in any law enforcement guidelines or manuals to stand in for MS-13 gang identification."

[-] TurnWest@lemm.ee 7 points 3 months ago

There is nothing supporting it, MS-13 members tend to be pretty unafraid to get just MS-13 tatted on their bodies

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[-] Alenalda@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

They couldn't use AI to doctor the image because everyone would instantly see the 7 fingers and laugh.

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[-] techclothes@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Even if it wasn't. We don't throw people in jail, much less deport them for tattoos. I know some people in thr Trump shitshow who should go to jail for their tattoos if this is what they want to start doing.

[-] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

You mean the US government had someone they considered a terrorist and instead of holding them, they released them?

[-] barnaclebutt@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Also, weren't they already claiming he was part of some Venezuelan gang? MS-13 is an American gang of jailed Latinos.

[-] SSNs4evr@leminal.space 9 points 3 months ago

Trump - "I bet photoshop is one of those computer thingies...I definitely didn't use that."

[-] teamevil@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

I mean at least he didn't use a sharpie this time....

[-] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

Who do I trust?

A lying asswipe who wouldn't know the truth if it slapped him in his orange face?

A man I don't know that has been sent to a foreign nation's prison for no reason?

Easy choice.

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this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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