The Partial Observer by Teresa Winchester

To Etsy: Remove Alligator Alcatraz Items from Marketplace

Etsy is an online e-commerce company, founded 20 years ago. It is something like a virtual county fair, with sellers having “storefronts” through which they market their wares. It originally offered largely handmade and vintage items or craft supplies. In 2013, Etsy began allowing mass-produced merchandise to be sold.

Alarmingly, a number of Etsy’s mass-produced offerings consist of Alligator Alcatraz merchandise. Baseball caps, T-shirts, sweatshirts and more depict alligators, often wearing ICE caps, in varying degrees of grotesqueness. These items bear dictums such as: “It’s not a prison. It’s a wildlife encounter with life sentences.” “National Institute of Crocodilian Enforcement.” “Welcome to Alligator Alcatraz. Population: Undocumented.”

Comments at the site confirm buyer satisfaction: “Ordered this for my husband and he loves it! Great quality. We will be repeat customers for sure!” wrote one buyer. “I opened my box and this hat was soooo cute! Way better than I thought it was going to be. Love it!” wrote another.

Most objectionable are the items reading “Make America Safe Again.” This false caution perpetuates the myth that President Donald Trump and his followers have been mouthing ad nauseam—that human beings in the United States without papers are violent criminals. Factual studies, however, counter this contention. (Please see below.)