Except for Zorro and Batman, people who put on masks to hide their identity when going to work are rarely up to any good.

And as Americans learned decades ago when Ku Klux Klanners covered themselves from head to toe, the bigger the mask, the greater the evil hiding behind it. Which brings us full circle to "Operation Metro Surge."

OMS is the muy macho PR slogan for the Republican Party's militaristic invasions of Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and other American cities they hate. Deploying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other bastions of authoritarian power, thousands of massively armed federal belligerents in full assault gear have been rampaging through peaceful neighborhoods in violent and murderous mass sweeps.

This is an un-American attack by America's own government on America's founding ideals of liberty and openness. The defining symbol of this government repression is that its forces are all hiding behind full-face masks.

Of course, if I were doing some of the stuff ICE commandos are doing, I'd want to cover my face, too. But, like the Klan, masking up the oppressors is not merely about cloaking their personal shame — it's an added ploy by the perpetrators to terrify anyone who might dare to stand up to them.