Amid continued concerns about a federal crackdown in Portland, Oregon, President Trump announced Wednesday that the effort is going to continue, saying hundreds of “very skilled” federal officers are being sent to Chicago “immediately” as the next target.
In Portland, the crackdown is nominally meant to curb protests by what Trump labeled “anarchists.” Chicago is a very different situation, though Trump tried to draw a parallel and suggested Chicago protesters are violating “multiple federal laws.”
That’s Wednesday’s justification, but just a day prior, Trump had suggested that the big problem was the large number of shootings in Chicago and high crime. A bigger case could be made there, with 2,151 people shot in Chicago in 2019.
Concerns about the legality of these federal crackdowns is likely to continue, and doubly so with the inconsistent narrative in Chicago. President Trump’s efforts to make this about political protesters, and pledge to target cities run by “liberal Democrats,” will only make this more rancorous.
Beyond Chicago, a number of other major cities are likely to be next. Earlier this week, Trump singled out Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Oakland as possible targets. On Wednesday, there were reports Kansas City was on the list, and Trump also suggested Albuquerque, New Mexico was high on his list.
So the agents sent to Portland were not trained in riot control, but I’m sure they were highly trained. Will these agents deployed to Chicago be similarly highly trained, but not in the relevant mission again? Cause it seems the Portland tactics were more likely to cause fear and chaos than be effective at restoring order…
Portland’s failure to quickly bring some of those goons up in front of judges wearing orange coveralls and leg irons may well mean that Chicago or Philly have to give them a more … Mogadishu-like … welcome.
I am assuming you are referring to the federal invaders…
This is just another election ploy by a panicking, incompetent loser. Trump is grasping at straws and literally anything that can save his doomed presidency from being obliterated during the coming election. The man is a total failure and he has single-handedly dragged the “Office of the President” of the United States into the sewer by his depraved, mentally deranged actions over the last three years. The man is a “clear and present danger”. Time to go and give us a new start. We need it.
Agree with what you say except the part about Trump dragging the office into the sewer. That office has been a sewer my entire life, Trump has just carried on the tradition with much less dignity.
I agree with both of you. And we have not had a decent president who has inspired nation since JFK. Some historians have even argued that every president since FDR have been nothing more than thugs in suits. However, having lived through the JFK years as a young teen, I will always see him as our finest president…
I was only 8 when JFK was shot. But I do remember the genuine remorse the country showed afterward.
“Surge” is military terminology, with American citizens in the crosshairs, which seems to be exactly the message he intends to send. So much for all that talk Trump makes on some topics about deferring to state and local officials. I guess like all his principles, inconsistency is the only coherent trend. Actually, given how terrible his principles usually are maybe we should be celebrating any inconsistency we find.
What else is consistent..militancy.
Trump facing “pro-democracy demonstrators” at home is now employing the militairy…………
it has long been observed that US liberals r the most fascist freedom hating, justice hating people in the USA—especially fascist , Obama, sanders…observed by marxists, Sennet and Lasch and the Parsonian, Slater….in 1974 Richard Sennet described the obsession w JFK’s money and sex life as “mobilized narcissism, passivity, ideological senility”….amerikans described as self loathing inner directed narcissists in the 1970’s—far more narcissistic, passive and nihilistic today per Twenge, Campbell, Konrath, Geijalva, etc….as Sennett observed 5 decades ago, amerikans prefer to obsess about 1 disgraced leader after another rather than addressing social forces…indeed Gorer observed that FDR was treated like a traitor, except by immigrants (1947) and again in the 1960’s JFK was also treated like a traitor…nothing changes in amerika….except that the empire is now near collapse…now the fascists r infected w trump derangement syndrome—trump not being fascist and racist enough for the ruling class US liberals
Yeah, nice bullshit screed. Have another drink. Or are you on crack? You’re stupid rant is all over the place, dude.
You say “it has long been observed that US liberals r the most fascist freedom hating, justice hating people in the USA”
Observed by who exactly? Certainly not by me.
This is the direct result of 28 years of non-stop bipartisan police state growth. After Clinton, Bush and Obama, neoliberal fascism has finally metastasized and spread to the heart, lungs and brains of the American Empire with a presidency of an American Pinochet. Washington’s model of Third World dictatorship has finally come home to roost. This is what you get when you vote for war-mongering lesser evils, a Helter Skelter ride straight to hell in a hand basket.