When armed Black Panther–affiliated groups appeared at recent anti-ICE protests, much of the media fixated on optics: uniforms, firearms, symbolism. But the real story isn’t the presence of Panthers — it’s the conditions that make communities feel safer beside armed civilians than beneath federal authority. History is clear on this point: when the state loses legitimacy through unchecked force, people do not retreat. They organize. The question we should be asking isn’t who showed up, but why they felt they had to.