Police State
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BTW...If you don't want the Feds in your city, don't allow a Federal Courthouse to be vandalized, painted in graffiti and the windows broken.
Secondly, if you don't want your face broken (literally), do not throw tear gas canisters back at a federal agent.
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The so called Police State had another “uneventful” evening of peaceful protesters building a campfire to stay warm I suppose.
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@Loki said in Police State:
The so called Police State had another “uneventful” evening of peaceful protesters building a campfire to stay warm I suppose.
Heard a Portland cop interviewed on the radio this morning. He was leaving as fast as he could find another job.
He talked about one smaller city in the geographical area, where he had an application in and was hoping to land the job...Less money, much lower stress.
The problem with an exodus from the department, is that the only thing they will have left is old guys waiting on their pension, and will do the minimum to try to keep their jobs, and the young idiots who nobody else wants.
That does not make for a good police force.
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@George-K said in Police State:
Remember the good old days when the governor of a state asked for federal intervention because a farmer "occupied" federal lands?
Good times, eh?
Good intentioned cooperation between state/local government with the federal government; times were indeed better then.
Today, federal forces just barge in despite local/state government’s objection.
No warrant, no probable cause.
Just random people snatched off the streets.
By unidentified armed forces.
Think about it. -
From The Guardian (Excerpted): "The Trump administration has been consulting the former government lawyer who wrote the legal justification for waterboarding on how the president might try to rule by decree.
"John Yoo told the Guardian he has been talking to White House officials about his view that a recent supreme court ruling on immigration would allow Trump to issue executive orders on whether to apply existing federal laws.
“If the court really believes what it just did, then it just handed President Trump a great deal of power, too,” Yoo said.
“The supreme court has said President Obama could [choose not to] enforce immigration laws for about 2 million cases. And why can’t the Trump administration . . . create its own program, in areas [like] inner city policy. I talked to them about cities, because of the disorder.
"Constitutional scholars and human rights activists have also pointed to the deployment of paramilitary federal forces against protesters in Portland as a sign that Trump is ready to use this broad interpretation of presidential powers as a means to suppress basic constitutional rights.
"As an example of what Trump might achieve, Yoo suggested the president could declare a national right to carry firearms openly, in conflict with many state laws.
“He could declare that he would not enforce federal firearms laws,” Yoo wrote, “and that a new ‘Trump permit’ would free any holder of state and local gun-control restrictions.
“Even if Trump knew that his scheme lacked legal authority, he could get away with it for the length of his presidency,” he said.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/20/trump-john-yoo-lawyer-torture-waterboarding
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@Axtremus said in Police State:
@Jolly said in Police State:
You mean the folks peacefully rioting?
No warrant, no probable cause.
Just random people snatched off the streets.
By unidentified armed forces.
Think about it.Didn't need a warrant because they most definitely DID have probable cause.
They weren't just random people, they were each and everyone had been witnessed destroying property, the feds followed them until they were not in the crowd, and then captured them.
They weren't unidentified, every single one of them had an insignia on their uniform.What I am thinking about is how gullible you are, to swallow every lie you get told if it comes from the Left. You are the perfect useful idiot.
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SecDef concerned about Trump’s thugs dressing like soldiers.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/21/esper-federal-agents-military-protests-376381
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There have been conflicting reports about federal agents in camouflage and unmarked vehicles detaining protesters in Portland, Ore., without cause. This comes on the heels of scenes of federal officers, outfitted in blue shirts and tactical vests but no official patches or badges, protecting facilities in Washington, D.C., in June. The events have called into question the role of federal law enforcement and how it intersects with traditional policing.
While many federal law enforcement agencies are investigative in nature and have special agents, not police officers, some do have a more traditional police role. The Secret Service Uniformed Division has been in operation since 1922 and provides traditional law enforcement services around the White House and foreign embassies in the U.S. Its agents conduct operations around the president and other dignitaries, including K-9, explosive ordnance disposal, and counter-assault teams. The Capitol Police is approximately 1,500 police officers strong and functions much like a traditional police department. Many other agencies have uniformed police officers as well, including the FBI, whose police officers protect the agency’s headquarters, FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and its enormous field offices in Washington and New York.
But recent videos of federal agents in Portland detaining suspects has sparked debate, and critics of President Trump and Attorney General William Barr are making analogies to secret military operations and private armies. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said “they are snatching people off the street with no underlying justification.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) referred to federal agents in Portland as “Stormtroopers” in a tweet. Said Juan Chavez, director of the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center: “It’s like stop and frisk meets Guantanamo Bay.” This is nonsense.
The federal building and courthouse in Portland have been under assault by demonstrators for more than two weeks. In addition to the “mere graffiti” that opponents of the federal response have pointed to, there has been substantial damage to windows and doors; protesters have attempted to set fire to the facility; and federal agents attempting to stop the violence have been assaulted while the protestors blind them with laser lights. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has sided with the protesters and told Portland police to back down. Last week he told the acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to send the federal agents away.
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@Larry said in Police State:
. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said “they are snatching people off the street with no underlying justification.”
And the deputy director of the force confirmed it yesterday.
By the way, if all they were doing is beefing up security around federal building I’d have no problems with it.
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Also from the article that Jon cited: "Trump threatened to send additional agents into other major cities, including New York City and Philadelphia, if the "liberal Democrats" in charge don't tamp down on civil unrest."
When you combine this with the Guardian article excerpts I posted yesterday, it forms a disturbing thought picture. Whether the actions contemplated there come to pass, it is, how shall I say, scary but not surprising. But scary.
Edited to Add: From today's CNN headlines: "The strange and frightening images of unidentified military-looking men taking protesters off the streets of Portland, Oregon, and into unmarked vans may be headed to a city near you if that city is, as President Donald Trump declared Monday, run by "liberal Democrats."
This is . . . not a good look for a country that's supposed to be an open society. And it's particularly distressing that the President is openly threatening cities based on the political affiliations of their leaders.
"The teams of masked authorities seen in Portland dressed up for war like special forces apparently belong to the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection Unit . . . they've been dispatched to American streets."
