PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want their presence.
They should start having the local DAs indict the individual officers on state charges (kidnapping, etc.) Doesn’t matter if the charges stick. However, odds are that the local law enforcement at least tacitly supports the Feds so I don’t see it happening.
They didn’t invite you in. They want you to leave. You are supposed to get your people out of there.
This remains a mess. The violence is not helping, as it gives Trump and his goons an excuse to ramp up their own violence. And, really, it is very likely that if the protestors weren’t violent, the goons would come out and tear gas everyone just because they wanted to send them away, not because the protestors are being violent. It would really hammer the point home if they could get people to stop attacking the building for one night…don’t give the feds an excuse and let them come after the peaceful protestors, that will show the world what is really happening.
As for listening to the locals…if Eisenhower did that the schools in the South wouldn’t have been integrated. So, there is a reason to use federal intervention, but it has to be the right reason. If the feds were sitting on the building and stopped at the curb to defend it from violent protesters, that would be fine. They are, of course, not doing that. I think Portland could try arresting the goons who use tear gas, as that’s against the law in Portland now…once they walk into the street and deploy munitions take them into custody for violating state law. That would require the Portland police actually doing their jobs though, and they seem more interested in hurting protestors than upholding the law.
Like I said, it’s a mess…it may require a mass protest beyond even what is happening now, that goes on for several days in a row, that remains peaceful, and that traps the feds in the building until they finally pop like a cork and strike out. That would be my strategy…people will get hurt, but that’s already happening, and showing the true colors of the goon squads really should be the goal now.
Watching disBarr before the House Judiciary committee. I guess I’m radicalized. I was waiting for someone to cane the son of a bitch.
Fed agents/goons in Portland are there under command of DHS? Correct? What about the Bureau of Prisons goons at LaFayette Park? That’s DOJ, right? Those would be disBarr’s boys.
Caning is too good. There’s not enough piano wire to go around.
Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said
How did that bag get there?
Gee, I wonder who put it there for the cops to find.
Aaaand the problem is that those federal officers are walking around unmarked. No badges, no name badges, so as to be identified. Unless you want the local DAs to indict all of them, then how do you get the ones that made unlawful detentions?
This right here. Come on Portlandiers, change it up, don’t play their game make them play yours.
Mass protest?
In a time of economic downturn when almost everybody is hurting, do you think a general strike would help? To be really effective, you would need a very large portion of the working class to join in. I think folks are hurting enough now that it would be difficult to pull off, unless they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We really are very politically polarized right now. It’s not so much people against government as it is right against left.
Unnamed officers are named when they arrest someone. They still have to fill out the reports. There will be a paper trail. Ideally you would have local PD arresting the unmarked Feds in the streets. That is never going to happen though.
This situation just begs for cynicism and suspicion. Specifically, I have to wonder if some of the violent “protesters” are really plants who are either there to incite further violence on the part of the crowd or to justify violence by Barr’s pseudo “brown shirts”, or both.
I have no evidence beyond what we see on TV, but this whole thing smells very fishy and would be a natural situation for classic “ratfuc*ing”.
That’s not happening in Portland, as they’re skipping that bit. Just picking people up and scaring them, then pushing them out the door once they’re sufficiently terrorized.
So no paperwork, no “arrest”, no identification.
It’s the off-duty feds, they run around committing mischief until their buddies “arrest” them and take them back to the hotel for the night.
The next night, they swap places.
Kris Cline, principal deputy director of Federal Protective Service, said an incident commander in Portland and teams from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice discuss what force is needed every night.
“How much expired tear gas do we have left? Do we have enough flash-bangs? I love those.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty late Monday called for a meeting with Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.
Sadly, this is an accurate framing of the situation. Portland occupied by an unwelcome, militarized force, located in a Federal “green zone”.
Indict them all–let FSM sort them out.
Which means they could be Neo-Nazis,Blackwater or any of the many soldiers for hire that Trump loves.
He’s the obnoxious drunk who invited all his Rotarian friends to your party and it’s 2 am and he won’t leave.
The sad part is, I don’t know (honestly) who has the authority to do the blocking. The illegally acting head of DHS has said he answers to no one on this.
Congressmember:
“You are under Oath. Tell us what you know.”