Facing mounting lawsuits and complaints from Oregonian officials for the federal crackdown on Portland, Oregon, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acting secretary Chad Wolf has issued a memo in which he suggests that this sort of action is “going to be the norm.”
In Portland, Federal law enforcement was deployed without permission from any state or local officials, nominally to protect federal buildings in the area. In practice, those agents are walking around unidentified in camouflage firing tear gas at protesters and extra-judicially capturing suspects off the streets.
Wolf warned in his memo that the agents involved are not specifically trained in curbing mass demonstrations, and suggested the agents will need more training and equipment in the future if that’s what they’re going to be expected to do.
Wolf defended the use of DHS agents in Portland by arguing that the protesters are “anarchists” and that defending the federal buildings required their use. Other DHS officials argued the agents had just enough training to be deployed, and most don’t seem to want to address the idea that this is the new norm.
Could the Antifa folks be Republicans? They’re doing more to get Trump reelected than Trump is.
There were definitely right-wingers committing arson and other property destruction in order to make the BLM movement look unlawful and justify a crackdown. You could almost think that these shock troops are being sent to provoke a violent response from protestors, which would allow Trump and Acting Head Wolf to come down on Portland like a ton of bricks.
Exactly! All those folks on the streets of Portland look as if they were recruited from Young Republicans at Oregon and Oregon State plus a few local members of the DAR and Daughters of the Confederacy.
Lets hope that the courts stop this quickly and allow the local police to de-escalate the situation.
The function of courts is not to “deescalate”-it is to administer justice.Who will pay for the destruction in Portland-either the criminals, or the public
Glad to see you care more about “destruction” and property than a police force which routinely gets away with murder, and the deployment of federal police/troops with little to no identifying markings to areas where local and state gov’t are actively telling the DHS they don’t want these mystery troops.
“Extrajudicial”?-nonsense! Federal agents ARE authorized to make arrests, charge people with crimes, and bring them before Federal magistrates.
These federal agents aren’t “charging people with crimes, and bringing them before federal magistrates.” They’re kidnapping people off the streets, interrogating them, releasing them before the deadlines to charge them with crimes and bring them before judges, and concealing their identities to make it difficult to hold them accountable for their own crimes.
So you’re good with these nameless federal troops being sent in to nab people off the street into unmarked rental vans? How would you feel if this had happened under the last administration? Remember ‘Jade Helm’ and FEMA camps and all the made-up garbage the right wing threw at Obama? It’s actually happening now, under Trump, but the right wing is fine with it, apparently. They and you care more about graffiti and public statues than citizens and their civil rights.
“no new wars”