Just in case you missed it, Mr. Trump's secret police - no one knows which department these people call home - U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group, Customs and Border Protection’s BORTAC (Border Patrol Tactical Unit), Homeland Security, or Department of Justice agents - have been out in force, without identity, driving unmarked civilian vehicles, arresting Black Lives Matter protesters off the streets of Portland Oregon. This has been going on for weeks, up to and including last night, when they arrested the peaceful protester in the Tweet below.
By way of historical comparison, these are the actions of the infamous Nazi SS. But back then they wore SS insignia. Today they wear no insignia on their camouflage uniforms.
Where was the person arrested in the Tweet (below) taken, Mr. Trump? To your concentration camp? Are the gas chambers your next step?
And, to the federal agents who obviously illegally "arrested" that American citizen, did you, too, swear to: "...support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..."? If so, just exactly, when will you demonstrate courage enough to stop being an instrument of illegal authoritarianism and stop being a member of the Neo-US-SS?
Here's the story...Authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters. These Trump/Barr tactics designed to eliminate any accountability are absolutely unacceptable in America, and must end. pic.twitter.com/PE4YfZ9Vqd— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) July 16, 2020
Secret Federal Police Deployed by Trump Snatch Protesters Off Portland Streets, Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, truthout.org, 17 July 2020.
"Oregon’s Democratic governor and other state lawmakers are demanding that President Donald Trump immediately remove all federal law enforcement officials from the streets of Portland after alarming video footage posted online late Thursday showed unidentified officers dressed in combat fatigues arresting Black Lives Matter protesters without explanation and throwing them into unmarked vehicles."
“This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement. “The president is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”
“Trump is looking for a confrontation in Oregon in the hopes of winning political points in Ohio or Iowa.”
"Brown said she told Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to “remove all federal officers from our streets” but he refused, claiming that Portland “has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob.”
"Wolf’s response, said Brown, shows “he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes. He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way.”
“This, coming from the same President who used tear gas to clear out peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C. to engineer a photo opportunity,” she added.
"Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Thursday that “federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14.”
“Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off,” OPB reported.
"In response to one such video, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tweeted that “authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters.”
“These Trump/Barr tactics designed to eliminate any accountability are absolutely unacceptable in America, and must end,” Merkley added.
During protests over the weekend, a federal agent shot a 26-year-old peaceful demonstrator in the head with a munition, fracturing his skull.
“Federal forces shot an unarmed protester in the face,” Merkley tweeted Thursday. “These shadowy forces have been escalating, not preventing, violence. If Wolf is coming here to inflame the situation so Donald Trump can look like a tough guy, he should turn around and leave our city now.”
In response to the incident, Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined Oregon Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici in demanding an full investigation and accountability for the officer who fired the munition.
“In recent weeks, the federal government has deployed to Portland a number of DOJ and DHS officers,” the lawmakers wrote. “This politically driven federal response is intolerable.”
*The (Nazi) SS, the Schutzstaffel, was the organization most responsible for the genocidal killing of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust. Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor. After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the NSDAP were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organizations. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946. Please go here for more...Oregon Public Broadcasting confirms tweets today that federal officers in camouflage but no agency identification or badges, driving unmarked non-government rental cars, are grabbing protestors off streets in Portland and not talking w local authoritieshttps://t.co/sfY9TUkbDI— David Burbach (@dburbach) July 17, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment