Perspective on the Florida detention center

I’m sharing this write up from AltNPS. I agree with it. The MAGA claiming that alligators are a “defense” at “Alligator Alcatraz,” the nickname for the proposed detention site in the Everglades, is pure dystopian bravado and dark propaganda, not actual security logic. Here’s why it’s nonsense: - Alligators aren’t guard dogs. They’re wild animals, not trained to patrol a perimeter or follow commands. - Most gators avoid humans. They’ll usually flee unless threatened or conditioned to expect food. - The claim isn’t based on any real security strategy, it’s a scare tactic rooted in psychological warfare and meant to intimidate and dehumanize, not protect anyone. - It’s completely unpredictable and unreliable. You can’t control wildlife like a fence or a patrol, relying on alligators as security is absurd. - Worst of all, this approach undermines any legal or ethical foundation. It relies on cruelty and fear, not order or justice. - It violates international human rights standards. Designing a detention system that includes threats from nature, whether intentionally or passively, is considered cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international law. - Any serious detention facility is supposed to prioritize due process, humane treatment, and oversight. Leaning on wildlife as a deterrent strips away even the illusion of legality or justice, revealing the site’s true purpose: punishment through fear. - It even puts staff and nearby communities at risk. Wild predators don’t discriminate. Using them as a deterrent turns the entire area into a zone of hazard. So where does this kind of rhetoric come from? It echoes the brutal logic of the Soviet gulags, forced labor camps where the environment itself became part of the prison. Built in remote, frozen regions like Siberia or the Arctic, gulags weaponized extreme cold, isolation, and wilderness to crush any hope of escape. Prisoners who fled often died of exposure, starvation, or exhaustion before ever reaching safety. The idea wasn’t just to imprison, it was to break people down by using the natural world as a barrier, a threat, and a weapon. Framing the Everglades’ alligators as “security” is cut from the same cloth. This isn’t about law and order, it’s cruelty masquerading as deterrence, and history has already shown us exactly where that road leads.