Tag: Trump using American military against American citizens

Trump’s ‘Operation Legend’ was supposed to combat crime. It’s produced one arrest, and some see a political stunt.

Washington Post logoFederal agents began descending in earnest on Kansas City, Mo., this week as part of an operation that will have them working with local detectives to interview suspects and witnesses and sift through evidence in an effort to quell violent crime, U.S. officials said.

The operation, in any other administration, might have been largely seen as inoffensive for a city that has experienced a massive spike in homicides from the prior year. But the timing — just after federal officers in military garb violently cracked down on racial justice demonstrators in Portland, Ore., and President Trump threatened to dispatch U.S. law enforcement to other cities — could hardly be worse.

In no small part because of Trump’s politically charged rhetoric, local activists and officials have come to view with suspicion the more than 200 agents sent to Missouri from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and other federal agencies. Some officials said they were not consulted and do not know the precise plans. After the Trump administration announced Wednesday it would increase the federal presence in Chicago and Albuquerque, local officials there greeted the news icily. Continue reading.

OIG to review “use of force” against protesters in Portland and D.C.

Axios logoJustice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Thursday his office will launch an investigation into federal agents’ “use of force” in Portland and the clearing of peaceful protestors in Lafayette Squarein Washington, D.C., including the use of chemical agents.

Why it matters: Demonstrations in Portland against police use of force have continued in the city for more than 50 days. President Trump has threatened to send federal law enforcement into other cities run by Democrats.

The big picture: House Democrats asked the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the response of federal law enforcement personnel to ongoing protests in cities across the U.S. Continue reading.

Amid a tense meeting with protesters, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler tear-gassed by federal agents

Washington Post logoPORTLAND, Ore. — Mayor Ted Wheeler choked on tear gas late Wednesday as he stood outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, where federal agents set off explosives and fired chemicals into a crowd of hundreds.

The Democratic mayor pressed a hand over his nose and mouth, already covered by a blue surgical mask, as a thick cloud of gas surged toward him. He had strapped on lab goggles to help protect his eyes, but still, the mayor said, his face burned and eyes watered.

“It’s hard to breathe — it’s a little harder to breathe than I thought,” Wheeler told The Washington Post while a man with a leaf blower turned the nozzle on the mayor to clear away any gas still hanging in the air. “This is abhorrent. This is beneath us. Continue reading.

To Battle a Militarized Foe, Portland Protesters Use Umbrellas, Pool Noodles and Fire

New York Times logoWith no clear leaders or blueprints, demonstrators have scrounged for items from home and largely embraced a strategy of spontaneous consensus.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Shields were made of pool noodles, umbrellas and sleds. The body armor was pieced together with bicycle helmets and football pads. The weapons included water bottles and cigarette lighters.

Facing federal forces who came to Portland to subdue them, many of the city’s protesters have taken to the streets this week with items scrounged from home. Then they have assembled at the federal courthouse each night with sometimes starkly different visions of how to put their tools to use.

In 55 consecutive nights of protest in Portland, no two have been alike. The protests began on May 29, after the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. They have continued ever since, night after night, and they show no signs of letting up. Continue reading.

Oregon AG Presses For Immediate Restraining Order Against Federal Officers

As a lawsuit demanding an end to the highly controversial tactics plays out, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a motion for a temporary restraining order Monday. If a federal judge agrees, federal authorities could be immediately hamstrung in enforcing a directive that President Trump has indicated he may expand to other cities.

“The Attorney General of Oregon now asks the federal courts to answer whether the United States Constitution permits federal law enforcement to snatch people in the middle of the night without identifying themselves or explaining the legal basis for their actions,” the motion reads. “She submits that the answer is no …”

The request is the latest step in a battle between state and federal powers that has escalated since early July when federal law enforcement officers began taking an active role in policing protests for racial justice that have played out nightly for weeks. Continue reading.

‘It’s not good for our democracy’: Calls grow for federal officers to shed camouflage

Washington Post logoAs authorities crack down on protests in Portland, Ore., military leaders, lawmakers and former government officials have intensified calls for federal officers to shed the camouflage and return to wearing uniforms that clearly identify them as law enforcement.

The mobilization of federal agents in military-style camouflage in recent days, and their use of unmarked vans to make arrests, has deepened confusion about which force is doing what.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, said the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies should not allow their officers to wear camouflage. Continue reading.

Even Republicans are warning Trump’s DHS is turning into ‘the president’s personal militia’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump gave Democrats yet another reason to oppose his reelection when he bragged about using federal law enforcement officers against George Floyd protesters in Portland, Oregon and threatened to do the same thing in Chicago and other major cities with Democratic mayors. But some Republicans have been speaking out as well, and liberal Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent discusses their objections in his column this week.

“Under fire for dispatching federal law enforcement into cities in defiance of local leaders, in part to create TV imagery that sends an authoritarian thrill up President Trump’s leg, top officials are offering several new defenses,” Sargent writes. “All are profoundly weak, which is why senior members of previous Republican administrations are now condemning what’s happening.”

One of those Republicans is Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. Chertoff, Sargent notes, has described Trump’s use of DHS officers as “very problematic” and “very unsettling.” Continue reading.

Trump announces he’s sending federal agents to Chicago

The Hill logoPresident Trump said Wednesday his administration is sending federal law enforcement officers into Chicago and Albuquerque, expanding his controversial crackdown on what he claims is an unchecked surge of violence in Democratic-run cities.

“Today I am announcing a surge of federal law enforcement into American communities plagued by violent crime,” Trump said in remarks from the East Room of the White House.

He added he had “no choice but to get involved.” Continue reading.

Trump wants to be king. Did John Yoo just hand him the crown?

Washington Post logoPresidents rely on John Yoo for legal advice at their peril. Ask George W. Bush, who used Yoo’s memos from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel as justification for his program of “enhanced interrogation.” The memos were later repudiated by Bush’s own Justice Department.

Now another president is poised to seize on Yoo’s work as justification for . . . well, God knows what. President Trump, who likes the lawyers who tell him what he can do, not the ones who instruct him what he can’t, has seized on Yoo’s contorted argument that the Trump administration’s loss at the Supreme Court in the “dreamers” immigration case is actually a win — albeit a misguided one — for presidential power. Yoo, now teaching law at Berkeley, can find presidential power anywhere, for anything. But this argument is a stretch even for Yoo.

Yoo’s argument, in National Review, goes like this: President Barack Obama lacked the legal authority to implement, by executive fiat, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to protect from deportation dreamers brought to the United States as children. The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., joined by the liberal justices, found that while Trump had the authority to revoke DACA, he hadn’t gone through the proper administrative procedures to do so lawfully. Continue reading.

Trump is threatening to send federal agents to various cities. The mayors are fighting back

Across the United States, protests have showed no signs of stopping following the Memorial Day police killing of George Floyd. In response, the Trump administration deployed federal forces in cities like Portland, Oregon, where they reportedly snatched protesters off the streets. Now, the mayors of several major cities have penned a letter condemning the “para-military type forces”.

It’s clear that President Trump is eager to quell protests as the election approaches. Over the past few days, reports of masked agents in Portland have grown. One protester, Mark Pettibone, told Oregon Public Broadcasting about his detainment, stating, “I am basically tossed into the van. And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn’t see and they held my hands over my head.”

The problems in Portland stem not only from the government utilizing snatch-and-grab tactics but also from the fact that, as Business Insider reported, there is no discernible chain of command. Federal agents are out in unmarked vehicles and nobody knows who they are or what agencies they’re working with. Continue reading.