[This article first appeared at Common Dreams on November -, 2025.]

by Steven J. Harper

It can’t happen here.

I live in a quiet, affluent suburb just north of Chicago. Our house is on a brick street, surrounded by well-maintained homes with manicured lawns.

On Halloween day, leaves from 100-year-old oak and maple trees were turning yellow, amber, red, and orange. Landscapers with lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and rakes had begun annual fall cleanups. The setting resembled a Normal Rockwell painting.

As an attorney, I’m trained to make distinctions. A legal precedent that otherwise seems problematic can become irrelevant if the advocate can persuade the court to distinguish it. “The facts of that case are distinguishable from this one, your Honor” is every litigator’s rhetorical tool.

But that skill is fraught with dangerous traps. Distinctions in the service of selective perception and confirmation bias can facilitate complacency.

It Can’t Happen Here

I’ve followed President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military on America’s streets. I watched the Los Angeles mobilization. The chaos and violence was and is disturbing, to say the least. But California is distinguishable from Chicago. For starters, it’s two thousand miles away.

That can’t happen here.

When Trump sent troops into Washington, D.C., that was distinguishable too. D.C. is a special situation where the federal government has unique powers.

Portland? Again, it’s thousands of miles away.

That can’t happen here. Besides, I had faith that the courts would keep Trump’s troops from running amok.

It Can Happen Here

Before Trump moved his fight to Chicago, he posted ominously: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning … Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

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