By David Futrelle
After many days of silence on the subject, national publications are finally covering the chilling events in Portland, where federal agents have descended on the city and started plucking protesters off the street seemingly at random.
Some links:
‘It was like being preyed upon’: Federal officers in unmarked vans detain Portland protesters (WaPo)
Feds Vowed to Quell Unrest in Portland. Local Leaders Are Telling Them to Leave. (NYT)
Trump Sent Cops to Portland and They’re ‘Kidnapping People Off The Streets’ (Vice)
Trump Unleashes His Secret Police in Portland (The Nation)
Federal agents arrest Portland protesters in unmarked cars (NPR)
Federal agents invade Portland, citing Trump’s executive order protecting statues (Mother Jones)
For more on what’s going on in Portland, with videos, see my post from yesterday.
Please feel free to add any more stories you come across in the comments.
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Yeah. I’ve been reading the news today, and I noticed there’s a lot more articles about it, but very little new information. The big question is why it took most of the major national news sources three days to notice.
Another question: why Portland? I mean, I have a pretty good idea why it was on the list of possible targets, but shortly before he started moving the FedCops in on the 11th, Trump was making noise about sending them to Seattle, due to the existence of CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest).
…Also, I’m reading some occasional jokes in the news article comments along the lines of “I misread that as ‘Federal Police invade Poland’.”
@Snowberry:
Because this is a trial balloon for their billionaire corporate owners as much as it is for Trump, I expect. They wanted to see if Trump could get away with it and if it could be done quietly by not giving it any MSM airtime. Now they know that the answer, at least to the latter, is “no”, so they’ve let the media organizations they own off the choker to cover it so they can later claim to have been against it all along.
@Snowberry
Probably because it’s a decent size blue city. He probably didn’t go after Seattle because the CHOP already is getting a fair bit of press so this would have been reported on faster in Seattle and there would have consequently been a greater negative reaction. In Portland it took longer for the media to report on it.
Yeah, I’d hope the Federal Police don’t do that.
Combined with Trump packing the Pentagon with people that are loyal to him, it sure does seem like he’s thinking about throwing a military coup.
Chris Hayes started his show with Portland coverage tonight.
Forced disappearances are the first step of late-stage fascism. As incredible as this sounds, paramilitary groups are actually kidnapping citizens and taking them to who knows where. Combine this with ICE teaching reactionaries and “militias” how to detain “illegal immigrants” and you essentially get the building blocks for genocide.
These people need to be persecuted for human rights violations and it must happen ASAP, before he escalates some more.
Thing #3,147,652 That Terrifies Me: Targeted arrests by federal officers or sympathetic police agencies on or shortly prior to election day to prevent voters in swing states from voting.
The majority of incarcerated people are eligible to vote in the US. In practice, very few actually vote, often because they are not given access to ballots. It would be simple to arrest protesters and hold them in jail until election day, stick them with false felony charges if necessary, with the intent of dropping the charges as soon as the polls close.
By the time anyone realizes what was happening and gets mad about it, Orange Fuhrer is in for another four years.
Trump has verbally threatened to use US military force against civilians in US cities (in DC, he literally did). Election interference is not something he is above.
Well, I mentioned earlier that the cases and controversies clause prevents someone from bringing a lawsuit unless they’ve suffered a “legal injury”.
I believed that neither Oregon nor the city of Portland could claim such an injury, but someone who knows more US law than I ever will has announced their intention to file a lawsuit against the federal government, naming specific agencies as defendants.
That person is Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.
I honestly have no idea what injury the State of Oregon will claim, but they’re clearly claiming more than simply incidental injury to Oregon or Portland property (such as damage to a tree or bench from a fired tear gas canister). The suit is intended to stop the use of not only tear gas, but also federal arrest powers.
I really don’t know how they’re going to argue that, but I will be reading Rosenblum’s complaint eagerly and thoroughly as soon as it is filed with the courts – likely Monday.
Stay tuned for more ways in which I might be wrong!
I sounded off to my Senators and Rep on this. My Congresswoman was born in a WWII internment camp, so I’d really like to see her for once get up and bring some fire to the House floor about what it’s like when the government decides arbitrarily that you’re an enemy of the state and whisks you away. If Gym Jordan can do it while lying through his teeth, she could do it while telling the truth.
Also, RIP Rep. John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian. Your voices will be missed. 🙁
@Definitely not Steve
Not four years. If Trump is re-elected, legitimately or not, there will not be another election. We’ll basically get the Empire Day speech from Revenge of the Sith, complete with “So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.”
What a mess. Best of luck to USian Mammotheers. ‘Scuse me while I have a nervous breakdown about the state of the world.
Vanity Fair:The Trump Administration Is Deploying “Secret Police” Against Protesters in Portland
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/trump-administration-deploying-secret-police-against-protesters-in-portland
Forbes: Trump-Ordered Federal Agents Are Reportedly Pulling Protesters Into Unmarked Vehicles, Drawing Outrage
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/07/17/trump-ordered-federal-agents-are-reportedly-pulling-protesters-into-unmarked-vehicles-drawing-outrage/
Not exactly ‘national’ but detailed legal info:
Lawfare Blog: What the Heck Are Federal Law Enforcement Officers Doing in Portland?
https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-heck-are-federal-law-enforcement-officers-doing-portland?
Coming soon to a city near you: DHS Under Boss: We’re Taking This National
@Allandrel
I suspect they’ll keep elections and just rig the shit out of them. Fascist leaders love getting re-elected. It’s an excuse to throw a party, celebrating how great you are. What’s not to love?
The FAA issued a no-fly zone over Portland for a month. It might be worth keeping an eye on their temporary flight restrictions list for others marked as DHS-related.
@Crip Dyke
Hopefully the Attorney General’s suit gets through and has an effect before it’s too late.
@Definitely Not Steve
That definitely sounds like something Trump would do. A possible course of action then is for voters in swing states to try to stay under the radar as much as possible in order to avoid the possibility of arrest. It won’t eliminate it entirely, but it would possible make it less likely one will be arrested.
@Lukas Xavier
Yes, dictators do love a rigged election. I’d guess Trump would take a page from Putin, and that’s what he does.
Putin’s other trick is to evade term limits by putting proxies in power. The third Trump term might be Ivanka.
@Amtep
More likely he’d try to put Don Jr. in. Misogynists wouldn’t a woman president.
Threads by Seth Abramson:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1284152749689634819.html
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1284177036861419520.html
There’s a name for what he’s describing: the Schutzstaffel.
Worse: for anyone in the United States who is at especial risk (of color, Jewish, openly left, labor organizer, LGBTQIA+, etc.) it’s already too late to get the hell out, due to COVID-19.
Your only chance, as far as I can tell, is to go on the offensive and nip this in the bud before it can go any further. I increasingly doubt that waiting until November and voting for Biden will not be too little, too late. Which means two options: turn the Floyd protests into something 100x bigger still (how about a nationwide general strike?), or else go for a decapitating blow — seize Washington, completely and thoroughly.
The ODOJ filing is linked in this article:
https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-police-portland-doj-lawsuit/
They’re going with 1st, 4th and 5th Amendment violations. The feds have also been added to the ACLU’s lawsuit against PPB, and I’m hoping will be added to the tear gas RO.
Also – hi. I live in Oregon. I am not happy. I’m not in Portland, but back in non-pandemic days I spent a lot of time there. I have friends and family in Portland who are pissed and/or frightened. I have lots of thoughts but it’s a bit hard to write them out. It is scary and anxiety makes me ramble.
Also also – OPB has had good coverage of this BS.
Between this and the disturbing news of Ruth Bader Ginsbergs cancer coming back, I’m a little bit anxious about the direction the united states is heading right now.
I’d advise anyone involved in antifascism to have an escape plan. Mexico, Canada, whatever. Just figure out how to get out, if things get really really bad. Because history holds horror stories about the long term outcomes of kind of scenes we’re seeing, and with the potential for another ultraconservative on the bench if Justice Bader-Ginsberg loses her fight, the checks and balances are in danger too;.
Curiously enough, I have reached the same conclusion.
I’ve made it to Portland and expect to be at the downtown protests tonight. Anyone else in Portland planning on showing up and going all John Lewis on fascism’s ass?
@Crip Dyke
Good luck. I’m on the opposite coast so I can’t be there in person, but wishing the best for you and any other protestors.