Today's News (2020/7/24): Fascism and Police Violence edition
The big news may be the Feds suing to overturn Seattle's ban on tear gas. They want to bring the same shit there that they brought to Portland, and that includes massive burning clouds of chemical weapons in our streets, because fuck this, fuck them, fuck everything.
If you supported Trump you're a goddamn traitor and I hope you die gasping for breath on a gurney wheeled outside an overflowing medical centre.
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Philadelphia's Top Prosecutor Is Prepared to Arrest Federal Agents
After Trump said he would send agents to more cities, Philly’s district attorney lays out how he might criminally charge federal officers.
By Brentin Mock
July 22, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-22/philly-d-a-threatens-to-arrest-federal-agents
After numerous reports and lawsuits in Portland regarding un-badged and un-uniformed federal officers arresting, beating, and detaining people in unmarked vehicles, the Trump administration’s response is that they’re going to do it even more, and in more cities. Saying that his federal agents are doing a “fantastic job,” Trump has suggested that he will also deploy agents in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Milwaukee to do the same.
In one of those cities, the city prosecutor has already preemptively warned Trump’s police forces what he will do if they bring the same tactics to Philadelphia:
“My dad volunteered and served in World War II to fight fascism, like most of my uncles, so we would not have an American president brutalizing and kidnapping Americans for exercising their constitutional rights and trying to make America a better place, which is what patriots do,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner in a statement. “Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office.”
Trump claims the federal intervention is needed due to excessive violence, particularly around federal statues and monuments. But legal experts have said the reported federal actions in Portland far exceed legal boundaries.
“[T]he use of a secret federal paramilitary force in Portland (and soon Chicago and likely other cities) is every bit the abuse of power that it appears to be,” legal scholar Elizabeth Goitein, of the Brennan Center for Justice, wrote on Twitter, noting that Trump’s claim of protecting federal property is pure pretext for his intent to have federal agents do the work of local police.
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Feds Gas Moms Forming Human Shield In Front Of Portland Protesters
Christina Marfice
July 20, 2020, 6:34 AM
Federal agents in Portland continue to escalate violence, this time by tear gassing moms who were trying to protect protesters
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/feds-gas-moms-forming-human-133407035.html
As protests in Portland, Oregon near their two month mark, people are still turning out on a daily basis to call for police reform and defunding and an end to brutality against and murder of Black people at the hands of the police. Over the weekend, a group of local moms started attending protests to form a human shield between protesters and federal agents, who have been dispatched to Oregon to help end the protests. The moms linked arms and stood in front of protesters, chanting things like, “feds stay clear, the moms are here,” and “leave our kids alone.”
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Like in Portland, federal agents were in Seattle
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the presence of federal cops - that was news to the mayor and governor.
by Lilly Fowler
July 21, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/07/portland-federal-agents-were-seattle
Federal agents were stationed in Seattle earlier this month, as they have been in Portland, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed.
But city and state officials and the Seattle Police Department say they had no knowledge that federal law enforcement was in Seattle for Independence Day, with a mission to protect U.S. monuments and buildings.
In an email, Customs and Border Protection said the agency deployed agents to the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle in anticipation of the July 4 holiday - the same weekend a driver hit two protesters on Interstate 5, including Summer Taylor who died soon after the hit and run.
Approximately 50 personnel were deployed among Seattle, Portland and Washington D.C., said Jason Givens, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. Givens said the agents were sent in support of the Federal Protective Service, a police arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that regularly protects federal facilities. They did not make any arrests.
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The Lead Federal Agency Responding to Protesters in Portland Employs Thousands of Private Contractors
Congress needs to shine a light on the use of private security firms, including ‘Blackwater’ legacy companies, in Trump’s response to ongoing civil rights protests
Bill Conroy
Jul 22, 2020
https://medium.com/@wkc6428/the-lead-federal-agency-responding-to-protesters-in-portland-employs-thousands-of-private-db137349f8b0
The Trump administration’s deployment of federal law enforcers in Portland, Oregon, as part of a supposed effort to protect government property has prompted at least two lawsuits alleging that their show of force has resulted in abuses of authority and the unnecessary use of violence against peaceful protesters, journalists and observers.
What has not been reported widely in the media, however, is the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unit that is coordinating the “crowd control” effort - an agency called the Federal Protective Service (FPS) - is composed largely of contract security personnel. Those contractors are being furnished to FPS by major private-sector security companies like Blackwater corporate descendant Triple Canopy as well as dozens of other private security firms.
In fact, FPS spends more than $1 billion a year on these contract security guards who are authorized to conduct crowd control at federal properties, such as those in Portland. And, based on available photographic and document evidence, it appears those private contractors are now part of the federal force arrayed in Portland and are likely to be part of the federal response President Trump has promised to stand up in multiple other cities, including Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and other urban centers led by Democratic mayors across the country.
There are some 13,000 security guards nationwide employed by FPS via contracts with private security firms, a figure that can be expanded through existing and future contracts. Via contracts with FPS, more than 50 private security firms provide guards - referred to as protective security officers (PSOs) - to the agency in the Washington, D.C., area alone.
Among the responsibilities of these contract guards is to assist federal law enforcers with crowd control at federal properties as needed.
“The most difficult tasks PSOs are called upon to perform include standing for prolonged periods of time and interacting with large volumes of people,” states a past interagency agreement involving FPS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. “Other demanding, but less frequent, tasks include responding to medical emergencies, performing CPR, and performing crowd control [such as is occurring in Portland in recent weeks].”
There is a major problem, however, with using these FPS contract guards - who are supposed to be limited to patrolling and securing federal facilities and grounds - in long-running “civil disturbances” like those unfolding now in Portland, and elsewhere around the country. The FPS has a long history of failing to properly vet and adequately monitor and ensure that these guards have proper training and certifications, including proper firearms training.
That lack of training can pose a great risk to the safety of protesters and the law enforcers they work with alike should a situation become heated.
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I am Rev Nat
twitter.com/revnatscider
23 July 2020
https://twitter.com/revnatscider/status/1286408699641135104
[THREAD]
There’s a lot of “Ted can’t handle his tear gas” comments on this website today. And while I’m no Ted supporter (my daughter regularly reminds me to reduce volume on my “Fuck Ted Wheeler” chants), I’m not making fun of his inability to handle chemical weapons. 1/
[NEXT]
I am calling out his inability to learn from his actions, take responsibility for his decisions, and make the necessary and tough changes that the situation calls for. 2/
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
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Portland officials demand feds remove courthouse fence in bike lane
Updated 6:42 PM; Today 6:42 PM
Protests on July 22
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/portland-officials-demand-feds-remove-courthouse-fence-in-bike-lane.html
The Portland Bureau of Transportation demanded the federal government on Thursday to remove a reinforced fence in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, because the fence was placed in a bike lane without permits.
The city attorney’s office is weighing fines and legal action if the structure is not removed, said Chris Warner, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, in a letter to Roy Atwood, Region 10 administrator with the U.S. General Services Administration, Thursday.
The fence in front of the courthouse became the flashpoint of the 56th night of protests Wednesday when federal officers tear-gassed demonstrators and fired pepper balls at them. Mayor Ted Wheeler was in the crowd when use of force began.
The U.S. Attorney for Oregon said on Twitter that it had build the fence for the stated purpose of protecting the building and de-escalating tensions - a claim met with ridicule by protesters.
The city attorney sent the federal government a cease and desist order Wednesday.
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Jason Campbell
twitter.com/JasonSCampbell
23 July 2020
https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1286459132581732352
Stephen Miller is calling Democratic mayors and governors secessionists
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
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Right Wing Watch
twitter.com/RightWingWatch
24 July 2020
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1286663934725042186
Radical conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles tells Trump to take the billions of bullets that Obama supposedly stockpiled and put them "to good use" against protesters.
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WATCH: Seattle mayor calls for peace as federal agents descend on city
Nation Jul 24, 2020 3:17 PM EDT
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-seattle-mayor-calls-for-peace-as-federal-agents-descend-on-city
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan was beseeching residents on Friday who planned to protest over the weekend to remain peaceful and not “take the bait” from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Durkan spoke at a news conference after Trump announced he’s sending federal agents to multiple cities to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law and order” mantle.
Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the “radical left,” which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even though criminal justice experts say it defies easy explanation.
“It is frightening that you would use federal agents for political purposes. We know the president, by his own words, has stated he is doing that. He is purposely targeting cities run by Democrats,” Durkan said. “Please don’t take the bait. Don’t buy into it. Be peaceful.”
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Two Trump Judges Broke Ethics Rules to Stop Up to 1 Million Floridians From Voting in November
Senate Democrats are demanding to know why.
By Mark Joseph Stern
July 22, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/11th-circuit-florida-fines-fees-judicial-ethics.html
A crowd of people lines up at a table where a woman with a clipboard is sitting.
People gather inside the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office to register to vote on Jan. 8, 2019, in Orlando, Florida. Phelan M. Ebenhack for The Washington Post via Getty Images
A breach of judicial ethics may have prevented up to 1 million Floridians from voting in November. On July 1, a federal appeals court lifted an order that had blocked Florida from imposing a poll tax on people convicted of felonies. The U.S. Supreme Court then declined to step in. If two judges appointed by President Donald Trump had complied with the judicial Code of Conduct, Florida’s discriminatory and unworkable poll tax might well have remained blocked through Election Day. And Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are now demanding that these judges explain their justification for flouting their ethical duties.
The two judges in question, Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck, have served on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since late 2019. Trump elevated them to the 11th Circuit from the Florida Supreme Court, where each had served for less than a year. During their brief time on the state court, the justices heard a case about a constitutional amendment passed in 2018 that restored voting rights to Floridians who had been convicted of a felony. The amendment granted suffrage to individuals who have completed “all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” Florida Republicans then dramatically limited who could benefit by requiring ex-felons to pay all court-imposed fines and fees before regaining their right to vote. Their scheme essentially imposed a poll tax-or, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor later put it, a “voter paywall.”
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Trump, Portland and the republic’s rotten head
America’s problems are not caused by the President alone. But the decay in our culture starts from the top down.
by Knute Berger
July 24, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/07/trump-portland-and-republics-rotten-head
They say a fish rots from the head down. If you don’t smell overripe mackerel in this country right now, get yourself checked for COVID-19.
The chief rotting head is that of our president, Donald Trump. He is no ordinary bad president; we’ve had those before. Trump is a pathological one of a kind.
An informed diagnosis recently came down from Mary L. Trump, Ph.D., his niece, whose bestselling memoir, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” offers insights into Uncle Donald’s madness. As a trained psychotherapist, she dismisses facile terms like “malignant narcissist.” While the term may have some explanatory power, Mary Trump writes, there are other complicating factors behind the psychology of the world's most dangerous man.
In her examination of the Trump's family-of-origin dynamics, she lays out her belief that Donald was trouble from the beginning. He bullied his siblings repeatedly and cruelly. He could not read social cues. His parents could never control him and eventually sent him off to a military academy at age 13, with hopes that rigid hierarchies and tougher souls could straighten him out. According to Mary, Donald’s father, Fred Trump Sr., was strict, but he tolerated and even encouraged his son’s sociopathic behavior - it suited the family business. Fred Sr. did, Mary writes, what “sociopaths do: they co-opt others and use them toward their own ends - ruthlessly.” If Donald has a limited palette of emotional and human understanding, his dad is to blame.
But parental neglect or sociopathy is hardly unique to the Trumps. Although she believes Fred Sr., her grandpa, was a high functioning sociopath, the all-around family dysfunction doesn’t really answer the question of what is wrong with Donald. The family has long been concerned, appalled and even bullied by his behavior. His ascendancy both in the family business and to the White House has horrified them all, Mary writes. She also believes her grandpa and Donald fueled the decline of her own father, Fred Jr., into alcoholism and early death.
The book reads a bit like the biography of a serial killer as written by the late Ann Rule, who wrote about Ted Bundy and others. In her books, she systematically laid out the steps that encouraged a family monster. Sure, the Trumps in Mary’s telling were screwed up, but many folks have lousy families and turn out just fine. A rare few produce individuals with Bundy-like self-absorption; a gleeful joy at the suffering of others; an intense fixation on one’s own fantasies; and desires that betray an utter lack of empathy for others. Fred Sr., Mary tells us at one point, wanted his sons to be “killers.” As America’s pandemic body count heads toward 150,000, the president shrugs: “It is what it is.”
Pathology on this scale, clear in earliest childhood, indicates that Trump, family behavior aside, was born with something missing. Trump's madness is of a different sort, but it shares disturbing parallels with actual killers: He thrives on disruption, the creation of false realities, the assertion of his will and cruelty for its own sake.
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Portland Federal Agents Accused of War Crimes for Destroying Medical Supplies
By Khaleda Rahman
7/23/20
https://www.newsweek.com/portland-federal-agents-destroying-medical-supplies-1519945
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Portland PD have been doing this too. It's become a common tactic with police.]
Federal authorities have been accused of violating the Geneva Convention after apparently destroying medical equipment during protests in Portland.
Reporter Sergio Olmos shared a video on Twitter Tuesday night showing medical supplies and protective gear covered in an orange liquid.
"It appears that federal officers, during dispersal, pepper sprayed the medical supplies in the tents," Olmos wrote.
The video prompted Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, to tweet that it was "Fubar"-a military acronym for "f***ed up beyond all recognition."
"This is Fubar. The Geneva Convention states that destroying medical equipment is a war crime violation. Yet, here we are in Portland," Feigl-Ding wrote.
In another tweet, he added: "Attacking medical units violates half a dozen conventions and international statutes, not only Geneva Convention but also International Criminal Court statutes. But hey, Chad Wolf, Bill Barr, and Trump say it's okay!"
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Trump's new postmaster general could corrupt a key institution ahead of Election Day
We can't let Trump get away with his attacks on the Postal Service - and our electoral system.
July 19, 2020, 4:38 AM PDT
By Donald K. Sherman, deputy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-2020-usps-appointment-could-corrupt-key-institution-ahead-ncna1234125
Cronyism in high government positions has been a trademark of the Trump administration, but the selection of Republican mega-donor and Trump ally Louis DeJoy to lead the U.S. Postal Service threatens to corrupt one of America's most trusted institutions at a key moment.
In normal times, the selection of a postmaster general of the United States is unlikely to generate significant attention from the public. However, these are not normal times. Without increased and sustained scrutiny of DeJoy's leadership of the Postal Service, our democracy could face dire consequences.
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has attacked democratic institutions and undermined independent agencies. Now, as millions of voters are relying on the Postal Service to support our elections during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump is politicizing another once-nonpartisan government agency. Having a political ally with ethical and competence questions like DeJoy lead the agency potentially puts November's election at risk.
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Trump’s Portland crackdown is controversial. The man spearheading it might be doing so illegally.
By Aaron Blake
July 22, 2020 at 9:38 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/22/trumps-actions-portland-are-controversial-man-spearheading-them-might-be-doing-so-illegally/
In Wednesday’s Washington Post, Nick Miroff and Matt Zapotosky dig into the Trump administration’s highly controversial - and in some cases legally questionable - use of the Department of Homeland Security to quell demonstrations in places like Portland, Ore.:
In Portland, Washington and other U.S. cities shaken by protests in recent months, the Trump administration has leaned on the considerable authority and assets of the Department of Homeland Security - an agency formed to prevent another Sept. 11, 2001, attack - to spearhead the federal response.
Images of militarized Border Patrol agents clubbing protesters and stuffing them into unmarked vehicles have alarmed civil liberties advocates and administration critics, and the displays of government power echo tactics long associated with authoritarian rule.
Legal analysts say that while the department has broad authority to enforce federal laws, officers’ actions - especially in Portland, Ore. - seemed to be pushing the boundaries and pulling DHS into a domestic policing role.
Tom Ridge, who served as the first Homeland Security secretary under George W. Bush, said Tuesday that DHS “was not established to be the president’s personal militia,” and added, “It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to a unilateral, uninvited intervention into one of my cities.” Former DHS official Paul Rosenzweig called the operation, which has come to be known as Operation Legend, “lawful but awful.”
What’s also problematic here - and perhaps even illegal - is the man calling the shots. This controversial effort is being spearheaded not by a duly confirmed DHS secretary, but by acting secretary Chad Wolf, whose long-running service in that role runs afoul of the law, according to experts.
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Judge denies Oregon push to limit US agents during arrests
By GILLIAN FLACCUS and SARA CLINE
24 July 2020
https://apnews.com/847341576e44e4d9e717128db08faad4
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A U.S. judge on Friday denied Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents’ actions when they arrest people during chaotic protests that have roiled Portland and pitted local officials against the Trump administration.
Federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump to tamp down the unrest have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent. Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state attorney general sued to allege that some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman said the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the lawsuit was a “highly unusual one with a particular set of rules.”
Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents not for injuries that had already happened but to prevent injuries by federal officers in the future. That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not prove it had standing in the case, Mosman wrote.
Legal experts who reviewed the case before the decision warned that he could reject it on those grounds. A lawsuit from a person accusing federal agents of violating their rights to free speech or against unconstitutional search and seizure would have a much higher chance of success, Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell University, said ahead of the ruling.
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Omari Salisbury
twitter.com/Omarisal
24 July 2020
https://twitter.com/Omarisal/status/1286854301353009152
#BreakingNews - The United States is suing the City of Seattle in Federal Court to remove the tear gas ban.
[LINKS TO FILING:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7002908-19719207776.html
]
----- 17 -----
RS Reports: Progressive City, Brutal Police
The paradox of Portland, Oregon, shows why the fight to change police culture takes more than liberal values and good intentions
By Tim Dickinson
19 July 2020
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/portand-oregon-police-brutality-history-1027677/
Forty-eight hours later, the only mark of the “riot” at the Portland Police union headquarters is a small hole in one of the gold-tinted windows, plugged with putty.
The police killing of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis on May 25th unleashed a torrent of anger against police departments across the nation. But in this Pacific Northwest city, with a shameful history of racism and police killings of black residents, the reaction has been intense and sustained. Protesters have marched by the thousands across bridges. They have toppled statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington - who enslaved more than 700 humans between them. And they have marched on police strongholds every night since the end of May. With no remorse or sense of irony, the Portland Police Bureau has met this last group of demonstrators denouncing police brutality with yet more brutality.
In the national imagination, Portland reigns as a lampoonable bastion of progressivism, naked bike rides, and handlebar mustaches. But there is nothing Portlandia about the PPB. Police here routinely embrace the violent crowd-control tactics that President Trump commanded to clear Lafayette Park - indiscriminately attacking protesters with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and other “less lethal” munitions. The bureau has been hit with two temporary restraining orders from federal judges: one rebuking the PPB for likely violations of protesters’ rights to free speech and against excessive force; the other ordering the PPB to stop arresting journalists and legal observers for documenting police clashes with protesters.
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Shawn Levy
23 July 2020
https://www.facebook.com/shawn.levy/posts/10105342670342607
I posted about Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler being gassed last night, and I've removed that post in order to share one with more context.
Ted Wheeler has been a significant part of the problem here in the past few months and years: at once an empty suit and an indifferent manager of a police bureau that has aggravated almost every potentially incendiary event it has policed and thousands of incidents it has responded to.
Portland police have repeatedly created safe havens for Alt-right protest in a very liberal city (several members of the force have been outed as flat-out fascist sympathizers...and barely punished). They have, for decades, applied excessive and often lethal force in dealing with citizens of color, the homeless, and people experiencing mental difficulties. They have responded to the current series of protests by being both overbearing and ineffective -- a neat trick. And Ted Wheeler has oversight over them...and oversight is a word that has two meanings, doesn't it, and Wheeler's oversight has very much been of the 'I didn't notice that' variety.
[ALL STORIES CONTINUE AT THEIR LINKS - I'M CALLING IT OUT HERE BECAUSE YOU SHOULD GO READ IT.]
Also posted to ソ-ラ-バ-ド-のおん;
comments at Dreamwidth. Please comment there.
If you supported Trump you're a goddamn traitor and I hope you die gasping for breath on a gurney wheeled outside an overflowing medical centre.
- Philadelphia's Top Prosecutor Is Prepared to Arrest Federal Agents
- Feds Gas Moms Forming Human Shield In Front Of Portland Protesters
- Like in Portland, federal agents were in Seattle: U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the presence of federal cops - that was news to the mayor and governor.
- The Lead Federal Agency Responding to Protesters in Portland Employs Thousands of Private Contractors
- I’m not making fun of Ted Wheeler's inability to handle chemical weapons.
- Portland officials demand feds remove courthouse fence in bike lane
- Stephen Miller is calling Democratic mayors and governors secessionists
- Radical conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles tells Trump to use live fire on protesters: "put the hollow point bullets to good use and get out there put down this communist revolution"
- WATCH: Seattle mayor calls for peace as federal agents descend on city
- Two Trump Judges Broke Ethics Rules to Stop Up to 1 Million Floridians From Voting in November
- Trump, Portland and the republic’s rotten head
- Portland Federal Agents Accused of War Crimes for Destroying Medical Supplies
- Trump's new postmaster general could corrupt a key institution ahead of Election Day
- Trump’s Portland crackdown is controversial. The man spearheading it might be doing so illegally.
- Judge denies Oregon push to limit US agents during arrests
- The United States is suing the City of Seattle in Federal Court to remove the tear gas ban.
- PORTLAND: RS Reports: Progressive City, Brutal Police
- PORTLAND: Ted Wheeler has been a significant part of the problem here
----- 1 -----
Philadelphia's Top Prosecutor Is Prepared to Arrest Federal Agents
After Trump said he would send agents to more cities, Philly’s district attorney lays out how he might criminally charge federal officers.
By Brentin Mock
July 22, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-22/philly-d-a-threatens-to-arrest-federal-agents
After numerous reports and lawsuits in Portland regarding un-badged and un-uniformed federal officers arresting, beating, and detaining people in unmarked vehicles, the Trump administration’s response is that they’re going to do it even more, and in more cities. Saying that his federal agents are doing a “fantastic job,” Trump has suggested that he will also deploy agents in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Milwaukee to do the same.
In one of those cities, the city prosecutor has already preemptively warned Trump’s police forces what he will do if they bring the same tactics to Philadelphia:
“My dad volunteered and served in World War II to fight fascism, like most of my uncles, so we would not have an American president brutalizing and kidnapping Americans for exercising their constitutional rights and trying to make America a better place, which is what patriots do,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner in a statement. “Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office.”
Trump claims the federal intervention is needed due to excessive violence, particularly around federal statues and monuments. But legal experts have said the reported federal actions in Portland far exceed legal boundaries.
“[T]he use of a secret federal paramilitary force in Portland (and soon Chicago and likely other cities) is every bit the abuse of power that it appears to be,” legal scholar Elizabeth Goitein, of the Brennan Center for Justice, wrote on Twitter, noting that Trump’s claim of protecting federal property is pure pretext for his intent to have federal agents do the work of local police.
----- 2 -----
Feds Gas Moms Forming Human Shield In Front Of Portland Protesters
Christina Marfice
July 20, 2020, 6:34 AM
Federal agents in Portland continue to escalate violence, this time by tear gassing moms who were trying to protect protesters
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/feds-gas-moms-forming-human-133407035.html
As protests in Portland, Oregon near their two month mark, people are still turning out on a daily basis to call for police reform and defunding and an end to brutality against and murder of Black people at the hands of the police. Over the weekend, a group of local moms started attending protests to form a human shield between protesters and federal agents, who have been dispatched to Oregon to help end the protests. The moms linked arms and stood in front of protesters, chanting things like, “feds stay clear, the moms are here,” and “leave our kids alone.”
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Like in Portland, federal agents were in Seattle
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the presence of federal cops - that was news to the mayor and governor.
by Lilly Fowler
July 21, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/07/portland-federal-agents-were-seattle
Federal agents were stationed in Seattle earlier this month, as they have been in Portland, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed.
But city and state officials and the Seattle Police Department say they had no knowledge that federal law enforcement was in Seattle for Independence Day, with a mission to protect U.S. monuments and buildings.
In an email, Customs and Border Protection said the agency deployed agents to the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle in anticipation of the July 4 holiday - the same weekend a driver hit two protesters on Interstate 5, including Summer Taylor who died soon after the hit and run.
Approximately 50 personnel were deployed among Seattle, Portland and Washington D.C., said Jason Givens, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. Givens said the agents were sent in support of the Federal Protective Service, a police arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that regularly protects federal facilities. They did not make any arrests.
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The Lead Federal Agency Responding to Protesters in Portland Employs Thousands of Private Contractors
Congress needs to shine a light on the use of private security firms, including ‘Blackwater’ legacy companies, in Trump’s response to ongoing civil rights protests
Bill Conroy
Jul 22, 2020
https://medium.com/@wkc6428/the-lead-federal-agency-responding-to-protesters-in-portland-employs-thousands-of-private-db137349f8b0
The Trump administration’s deployment of federal law enforcers in Portland, Oregon, as part of a supposed effort to protect government property has prompted at least two lawsuits alleging that their show of force has resulted in abuses of authority and the unnecessary use of violence against peaceful protesters, journalists and observers.
What has not been reported widely in the media, however, is the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unit that is coordinating the “crowd control” effort - an agency called the Federal Protective Service (FPS) - is composed largely of contract security personnel. Those contractors are being furnished to FPS by major private-sector security companies like Blackwater corporate descendant Triple Canopy as well as dozens of other private security firms.
In fact, FPS spends more than $1 billion a year on these contract security guards who are authorized to conduct crowd control at federal properties, such as those in Portland. And, based on available photographic and document evidence, it appears those private contractors are now part of the federal force arrayed in Portland and are likely to be part of the federal response President Trump has promised to stand up in multiple other cities, including Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and other urban centers led by Democratic mayors across the country.
There are some 13,000 security guards nationwide employed by FPS via contracts with private security firms, a figure that can be expanded through existing and future contracts. Via contracts with FPS, more than 50 private security firms provide guards - referred to as protective security officers (PSOs) - to the agency in the Washington, D.C., area alone.
Among the responsibilities of these contract guards is to assist federal law enforcers with crowd control at federal properties as needed.
“The most difficult tasks PSOs are called upon to perform include standing for prolonged periods of time and interacting with large volumes of people,” states a past interagency agreement involving FPS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. “Other demanding, but less frequent, tasks include responding to medical emergencies, performing CPR, and performing crowd control [such as is occurring in Portland in recent weeks].”
There is a major problem, however, with using these FPS contract guards - who are supposed to be limited to patrolling and securing federal facilities and grounds - in long-running “civil disturbances” like those unfolding now in Portland, and elsewhere around the country. The FPS has a long history of failing to properly vet and adequately monitor and ensure that these guards have proper training and certifications, including proper firearms training.
That lack of training can pose a great risk to the safety of protesters and the law enforcers they work with alike should a situation become heated.
----- 5 -----
I am Rev Nat
twitter.com/revnatscider
23 July 2020
https://twitter.com/revnatscider/status/1286408699641135104
[THREAD]
There’s a lot of “Ted can’t handle his tear gas” comments on this website today. And while I’m no Ted supporter (my daughter regularly reminds me to reduce volume on my “Fuck Ted Wheeler” chants), I’m not making fun of his inability to handle chemical weapons. 1/
[NEXT]
I am calling out his inability to learn from his actions, take responsibility for his decisions, and make the necessary and tough changes that the situation calls for. 2/
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 6 -----
Portland officials demand feds remove courthouse fence in bike lane
Updated 6:42 PM; Today 6:42 PM
Protests on July 22
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/portland-officials-demand-feds-remove-courthouse-fence-in-bike-lane.html
The Portland Bureau of Transportation demanded the federal government on Thursday to remove a reinforced fence in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, because the fence was placed in a bike lane without permits.
The city attorney’s office is weighing fines and legal action if the structure is not removed, said Chris Warner, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, in a letter to Roy Atwood, Region 10 administrator with the U.S. General Services Administration, Thursday.
The fence in front of the courthouse became the flashpoint of the 56th night of protests Wednesday when federal officers tear-gassed demonstrators and fired pepper balls at them. Mayor Ted Wheeler was in the crowd when use of force began.
The U.S. Attorney for Oregon said on Twitter that it had build the fence for the stated purpose of protecting the building and de-escalating tensions - a claim met with ridicule by protesters.
The city attorney sent the federal government a cease and desist order Wednesday.
----- 7 -----
Jason Campbell
twitter.com/JasonSCampbell
23 July 2020
https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1286459132581732352
Stephen Miller is calling Democratic mayors and governors secessionists
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
----- 8 -----
Right Wing Watch
twitter.com/RightWingWatch
24 July 2020
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1286663934725042186
Radical conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles tells Trump to take the billions of bullets that Obama supposedly stockpiled and put them "to good use" against protesters.
----- 9 -----
WATCH: Seattle mayor calls for peace as federal agents descend on city
Nation Jul 24, 2020 3:17 PM EDT
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-seattle-mayor-calls-for-peace-as-federal-agents-descend-on-city
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan was beseeching residents on Friday who planned to protest over the weekend to remain peaceful and not “take the bait” from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Durkan spoke at a news conference after Trump announced he’s sending federal agents to multiple cities to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law and order” mantle.
Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the “radical left,” which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even though criminal justice experts say it defies easy explanation.
“It is frightening that you would use federal agents for political purposes. We know the president, by his own words, has stated he is doing that. He is purposely targeting cities run by Democrats,” Durkan said. “Please don’t take the bait. Don’t buy into it. Be peaceful.”
----- 10 -----
Two Trump Judges Broke Ethics Rules to Stop Up to 1 Million Floridians From Voting in November
Senate Democrats are demanding to know why.
By Mark Joseph Stern
July 22, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/11th-circuit-florida-fines-fees-judicial-ethics.html
A crowd of people lines up at a table where a woman with a clipboard is sitting.
People gather inside the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office to register to vote on Jan. 8, 2019, in Orlando, Florida. Phelan M. Ebenhack for The Washington Post via Getty Images
A breach of judicial ethics may have prevented up to 1 million Floridians from voting in November. On July 1, a federal appeals court lifted an order that had blocked Florida from imposing a poll tax on people convicted of felonies. The U.S. Supreme Court then declined to step in. If two judges appointed by President Donald Trump had complied with the judicial Code of Conduct, Florida’s discriminatory and unworkable poll tax might well have remained blocked through Election Day. And Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are now demanding that these judges explain their justification for flouting their ethical duties.
The two judges in question, Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck, have served on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since late 2019. Trump elevated them to the 11th Circuit from the Florida Supreme Court, where each had served for less than a year. During their brief time on the state court, the justices heard a case about a constitutional amendment passed in 2018 that restored voting rights to Floridians who had been convicted of a felony. The amendment granted suffrage to individuals who have completed “all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” Florida Republicans then dramatically limited who could benefit by requiring ex-felons to pay all court-imposed fines and fees before regaining their right to vote. Their scheme essentially imposed a poll tax-or, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor later put it, a “voter paywall.”
----- 11 -----
Trump, Portland and the republic’s rotten head
America’s problems are not caused by the President alone. But the decay in our culture starts from the top down.
by Knute Berger
July 24, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/07/trump-portland-and-republics-rotten-head
They say a fish rots from the head down. If you don’t smell overripe mackerel in this country right now, get yourself checked for COVID-19.
The chief rotting head is that of our president, Donald Trump. He is no ordinary bad president; we’ve had those before. Trump is a pathological one of a kind.
An informed diagnosis recently came down from Mary L. Trump, Ph.D., his niece, whose bestselling memoir, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” offers insights into Uncle Donald’s madness. As a trained psychotherapist, she dismisses facile terms like “malignant narcissist.” While the term may have some explanatory power, Mary Trump writes, there are other complicating factors behind the psychology of the world's most dangerous man.
In her examination of the Trump's family-of-origin dynamics, she lays out her belief that Donald was trouble from the beginning. He bullied his siblings repeatedly and cruelly. He could not read social cues. His parents could never control him and eventually sent him off to a military academy at age 13, with hopes that rigid hierarchies and tougher souls could straighten him out. According to Mary, Donald’s father, Fred Trump Sr., was strict, but he tolerated and even encouraged his son’s sociopathic behavior - it suited the family business. Fred Sr. did, Mary writes, what “sociopaths do: they co-opt others and use them toward their own ends - ruthlessly.” If Donald has a limited palette of emotional and human understanding, his dad is to blame.
But parental neglect or sociopathy is hardly unique to the Trumps. Although she believes Fred Sr., her grandpa, was a high functioning sociopath, the all-around family dysfunction doesn’t really answer the question of what is wrong with Donald. The family has long been concerned, appalled and even bullied by his behavior. His ascendancy both in the family business and to the White House has horrified them all, Mary writes. She also believes her grandpa and Donald fueled the decline of her own father, Fred Jr., into alcoholism and early death.
The book reads a bit like the biography of a serial killer as written by the late Ann Rule, who wrote about Ted Bundy and others. In her books, she systematically laid out the steps that encouraged a family monster. Sure, the Trumps in Mary’s telling were screwed up, but many folks have lousy families and turn out just fine. A rare few produce individuals with Bundy-like self-absorption; a gleeful joy at the suffering of others; an intense fixation on one’s own fantasies; and desires that betray an utter lack of empathy for others. Fred Sr., Mary tells us at one point, wanted his sons to be “killers.” As America’s pandemic body count heads toward 150,000, the president shrugs: “It is what it is.”
Pathology on this scale, clear in earliest childhood, indicates that Trump, family behavior aside, was born with something missing. Trump's madness is of a different sort, but it shares disturbing parallels with actual killers: He thrives on disruption, the creation of false realities, the assertion of his will and cruelty for its own sake.
----- 12 -----
Portland Federal Agents Accused of War Crimes for Destroying Medical Supplies
By Khaleda Rahman
7/23/20
https://www.newsweek.com/portland-federal-agents-destroying-medical-supplies-1519945
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Portland PD have been doing this too. It's become a common tactic with police.]
Federal authorities have been accused of violating the Geneva Convention after apparently destroying medical equipment during protests in Portland.
Reporter Sergio Olmos shared a video on Twitter Tuesday night showing medical supplies and protective gear covered in an orange liquid.
"It appears that federal officers, during dispersal, pepper sprayed the medical supplies in the tents," Olmos wrote.
The video prompted Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, to tweet that it was "Fubar"-a military acronym for "f***ed up beyond all recognition."
"This is Fubar. The Geneva Convention states that destroying medical equipment is a war crime violation. Yet, here we are in Portland," Feigl-Ding wrote.
In another tweet, he added: "Attacking medical units violates half a dozen conventions and international statutes, not only Geneva Convention but also International Criminal Court statutes. But hey, Chad Wolf, Bill Barr, and Trump say it's okay!"
----- 13 -----
Trump's new postmaster general could corrupt a key institution ahead of Election Day
We can't let Trump get away with his attacks on the Postal Service - and our electoral system.
July 19, 2020, 4:38 AM PDT
By Donald K. Sherman, deputy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-2020-usps-appointment-could-corrupt-key-institution-ahead-ncna1234125
Cronyism in high government positions has been a trademark of the Trump administration, but the selection of Republican mega-donor and Trump ally Louis DeJoy to lead the U.S. Postal Service threatens to corrupt one of America's most trusted institutions at a key moment.
In normal times, the selection of a postmaster general of the United States is unlikely to generate significant attention from the public. However, these are not normal times. Without increased and sustained scrutiny of DeJoy's leadership of the Postal Service, our democracy could face dire consequences.
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has attacked democratic institutions and undermined independent agencies. Now, as millions of voters are relying on the Postal Service to support our elections during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump is politicizing another once-nonpartisan government agency. Having a political ally with ethical and competence questions like DeJoy lead the agency potentially puts November's election at risk.
----- 14 -----
Trump’s Portland crackdown is controversial. The man spearheading it might be doing so illegally.
By Aaron Blake
July 22, 2020 at 9:38 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/22/trumps-actions-portland-are-controversial-man-spearheading-them-might-be-doing-so-illegally/
In Wednesday’s Washington Post, Nick Miroff and Matt Zapotosky dig into the Trump administration’s highly controversial - and in some cases legally questionable - use of the Department of Homeland Security to quell demonstrations in places like Portland, Ore.:
In Portland, Washington and other U.S. cities shaken by protests in recent months, the Trump administration has leaned on the considerable authority and assets of the Department of Homeland Security - an agency formed to prevent another Sept. 11, 2001, attack - to spearhead the federal response.
Images of militarized Border Patrol agents clubbing protesters and stuffing them into unmarked vehicles have alarmed civil liberties advocates and administration critics, and the displays of government power echo tactics long associated with authoritarian rule.
Legal analysts say that while the department has broad authority to enforce federal laws, officers’ actions - especially in Portland, Ore. - seemed to be pushing the boundaries and pulling DHS into a domestic policing role.
Tom Ridge, who served as the first Homeland Security secretary under George W. Bush, said Tuesday that DHS “was not established to be the president’s personal militia,” and added, “It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to a unilateral, uninvited intervention into one of my cities.” Former DHS official Paul Rosenzweig called the operation, which has come to be known as Operation Legend, “lawful but awful.”
What’s also problematic here - and perhaps even illegal - is the man calling the shots. This controversial effort is being spearheaded not by a duly confirmed DHS secretary, but by acting secretary Chad Wolf, whose long-running service in that role runs afoul of the law, according to experts.
----- 15 ----
Judge denies Oregon push to limit US agents during arrests
By GILLIAN FLACCUS and SARA CLINE
24 July 2020
https://apnews.com/847341576e44e4d9e717128db08faad4
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A U.S. judge on Friday denied Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents’ actions when they arrest people during chaotic protests that have roiled Portland and pitted local officials against the Trump administration.
Federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump to tamp down the unrest have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent. Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state attorney general sued to allege that some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman said the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the lawsuit was a “highly unusual one with a particular set of rules.”
Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents not for injuries that had already happened but to prevent injuries by federal officers in the future. That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not prove it had standing in the case, Mosman wrote.
Legal experts who reviewed the case before the decision warned that he could reject it on those grounds. A lawsuit from a person accusing federal agents of violating their rights to free speech or against unconstitutional search and seizure would have a much higher chance of success, Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell University, said ahead of the ruling.
----- 16 -----
Omari Salisbury
twitter.com/Omarisal
24 July 2020
https://twitter.com/Omarisal/status/1286854301353009152
#BreakingNews - The United States is suing the City of Seattle in Federal Court to remove the tear gas ban.
[LINKS TO FILING:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7002908-19719207776.html
]
----- 17 -----
RS Reports: Progressive City, Brutal Police
The paradox of Portland, Oregon, shows why the fight to change police culture takes more than liberal values and good intentions
By Tim Dickinson
19 July 2020
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/portand-oregon-police-brutality-history-1027677/
Forty-eight hours later, the only mark of the “riot” at the Portland Police union headquarters is a small hole in one of the gold-tinted windows, plugged with putty.
The police killing of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis on May 25th unleashed a torrent of anger against police departments across the nation. But in this Pacific Northwest city, with a shameful history of racism and police killings of black residents, the reaction has been intense and sustained. Protesters have marched by the thousands across bridges. They have toppled statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington - who enslaved more than 700 humans between them. And they have marched on police strongholds every night since the end of May. With no remorse or sense of irony, the Portland Police Bureau has met this last group of demonstrators denouncing police brutality with yet more brutality.
In the national imagination, Portland reigns as a lampoonable bastion of progressivism, naked bike rides, and handlebar mustaches. But there is nothing Portlandia about the PPB. Police here routinely embrace the violent crowd-control tactics that President Trump commanded to clear Lafayette Park - indiscriminately attacking protesters with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and other “less lethal” munitions. The bureau has been hit with two temporary restraining orders from federal judges: one rebuking the PPB for likely violations of protesters’ rights to free speech and against excessive force; the other ordering the PPB to stop arresting journalists and legal observers for documenting police clashes with protesters.
----- 18 -----
Shawn Levy
23 July 2020
https://www.facebook.com/shawn.levy/posts/10105342670342607
I posted about Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler being gassed last night, and I've removed that post in order to share one with more context.
Ted Wheeler has been a significant part of the problem here in the past few months and years: at once an empty suit and an indifferent manager of a police bureau that has aggravated almost every potentially incendiary event it has policed and thousands of incidents it has responded to.
Portland police have repeatedly created safe havens for Alt-right protest in a very liberal city (several members of the force have been outed as flat-out fascist sympathizers...and barely punished). They have, for decades, applied excessive and often lethal force in dealing with citizens of color, the homeless, and people experiencing mental difficulties. They have responded to the current series of protests by being both overbearing and ineffective -- a neat trick. And Ted Wheeler has oversight over them...and oversight is a word that has two meanings, doesn't it, and Wheeler's oversight has very much been of the 'I didn't notice that' variety.
[ALL STORIES CONTINUE AT THEIR LINKS - I'M CALLING IT OUT HERE BECAUSE YOU SHOULD GO READ IT.]
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