Federal troops in Portland

Protest isn't a crime in this country. They need reasonable suspicion of a crime for a stop and probable cause for an arrest.
Oregon Attorney General sues DHS amid reports of unlawful detainment of Portland protesters
Federal Officers Appear to Use Rental Cars From Enterprise to Snatch Portland Protesters

 

Remember the Haymarket affair

 

Protests isn't a crime. True. Rioting, blocking traffic, and destroying federal property are crimes, though.

 

It was before my time, but from what I've read, we should be able to relate to it: widespread fear of immigrants and anarchists, police action against rioters, violence, etc.

On May 3, 1886, unarmed strikers clashed with police at Chicago’s McCormick Reaper Works factory. The deaths of six workers became a call for direct action, and a public rally was called for the following day to be held in Haymarket Square. Again, the police and the strikers clashed, but this time a bomb was thrown, resulting in the death of seven policemen and many in the crowd were injured. The police, uncertain about the source of the bomb, fired into the crowd, killing four of the demonstrators.

The identity of the bomb thrower is still a mystery, but eight men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit the act. All eight were convicted of the conspiracy charge even though it was understood none had made or thrown the bomb. August Spies, a German anarchist, laborer, and activist, and Albert Parsons, a socialist laborer, activist, and former Confederate soldier from Texas, had been among the fiery and well-known speakers at the rally. Spies and Parsons, along with Adolph Fischer and George Engel, were executed by hanging. Louis Lingg, the fifth condemned to die, committed suicide while awaiting his sentence by biting down on a blasting cap in his cell. Three other defendants—Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe, and Michael Schwab—were sentenced to prison terms, but were pardoned in 1893.
The Haymarket Affair — Illinois Labor History Society
https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/haymarket-riot

 

The Oregon Attorney General says the arrests were unlawful. He says they're kidnappings.
Oregon sues feds over Portland protests as unrest continues
A court will adjudicate whether or not the abductions concerned qualified as lawful responses to those offenses.

I say it was all done for photo ops for a "law and order" theme for Trump's campaign. Tom Ridge, the Republican who was the first DHS Secretary under G.W. Bush says “it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities.” and “The department ...was not established to be the president’s personal militia.” California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) | TribLIVE.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...5e7822-cb71-11ea-89ce-ac7d5e4a5a38_story.html

 

The AG is a lawyer and a politician. I'd wait to see how the courts rule before I'd take his word.

 

Trump's move is as political as it gets.
Trump's Portland strategy: Look tough and beat Biden. But he's making cities less safe.
Federal Law Enforcement Is Making Unconstitutional Arrests In Portland
Were the Actions of Federal Agents in Portland Legal?
What the Heck Are Federal Law Enforcement Officers Doing in Portland?

 

But both the AG of Oregon and Washington are doing their jobs, providing legal services protecting the people. Great big contrast to the cronie Barr who doesn’t even pretend to represent anybody except Trump.

 

Moms lock arms --stand in line to protect protestors. Dads with blowers stand in front of Moms and protestors to blow away pepper gas.

 

Step back for a minute and think what the "states rights" Repubs who think masks are a violation of their rights would think if a Democrat President like Obama sent some jerry-rigged paramilitary force into Republlican cities uninvited on the pretext of quelling civil disturbance. They're talking now about Chicago and other Democrat-run cities. Trump official says federal troops may be deployed to other Democrat-run cities this week https://www.aol.com/150-federal-agents-deployed-chicago-151839637.html And what is the pretext for federal involvement? Well, they have federal buildings there. Critics say its an election ploy. Trump's vow to send federal officers to US cities is election ploy, critics say Trump's Reichstag fire!

 

It's kind of sick.

In other news, Trump seems to have changed his tune, which is fine. He's behaving for once.

The situation in Portland is brutal and unwarranted. Many Americans will turn a blind eye to this travesty of justice because it resembles policing. And even I recently made the mistake of going so far as to say that marshal law should be employed when republicans were protesting something; ask @guerillabedlam... he might remember as we did not agree about that. And he was right! What right does the government have to step on the necks of these people who express a dissenting opinion?!

& I, like @Tishomingo, would argue that this is political; mostly because much of what the administration does appears politically motivated. It's a democratic arena, and the powers at the local level (which in our government typically overrule those of the federal e.g. weed laws) have asked for it to stop.

How should anyone interpret this?

 

Keep in mind, I no longer support Trump. This isn't me defending Trump but rather addressing some of the criticisms about law enforcement and their tactics.

 

This video should be used as an ad to vote for Biden and against Republicans around the nation:

 

The nightly confrontation of urban protesters and authority has become ritual violence . I suppose the
introduction of the fed agents will make for a 3d game . The radio program , Ground Zero , has its studio in a Portland protest area . The host says he got a snoot full of goose gas just opening the door to see what was going on in the street last night .

 

...or the dickheads in Portland can just go home. Shrugs

2 months of this crap hasn't achieved anything, so why continue?

That's why most people don't give a crap

 

The sudden appearance of this mysterious quasi-military police force, Operation Legend, responsive to the President and apparently unaccountable to anyone else, should be a cause of concern to anyone interested in preserving our republic (small r). The alleged mission, to curb violent crime, is a transparent pretext for presidential grandstanding by a show of force. Trump deploys more federal agents under 'law-and-order' push Obviously, this has been in the works for some time and was not created in response to BLM and Antifa. Will it be used to overturn the election results in November? Not good!

 

Who Operation LeGend is named after

 

Probably...

 

Yeah and whose fault is that do you think?

Might have been plain sailing if the election had just been about Coronavirus and it's economic impact, but no, left had to go self implode again and now it will be about law and order as well, and on that Trump will pull some swing voters

The folks in Portland running amok, what the hell are they trying to accomplish?

 

True.

But I feel like the message is being heard around the world that Americans are not happy with their leadership. That we're a country divided along party lines isn't really new, but the message of BLM? That's pretty new; at least in so far as being international and so forth. Not to mention its popularity in social media... I was using WhatsApp earlier and the first, oh I don't know, 10 gifs it suggested from the menu were BLM gifs. I think that says something.

We're ready to own up to our history of systemic racism. We want to put it behind us; at least most of us do. And the world deserves to know that not everyone is on board with weird travel bans or building walls. That's not who we are.