THE PORTLAND ABDUCTIONS
in Portland, Oregon, after weeks of mostly peaceful (but not always) protests, people are being grabbed off the streets by heavily armed …. cops? soldiers? mercenaries? …. dressed in desert camo with no identifying badges, and spirited away in unmarked vans to undisclosed locations.
The attackers appear to be the same paramilitary types used to clear out Lafayette Park for Trump’s photo op with “his” Bible. Who ARE these guys, anyway? And what’s their evil plan? Here’s an explainer from Josh Marshall of TPM :
1/ Deputy Secretary of DHS Ken Cuccinelli tells NPR not only are they not stopping the Portland tactics they’re going to take them nationwide.
2/ Listening to Cuccinelli in this interview and other reporting from recent hours, we can see more clearly what the White House is doing and their purported legal justification. The Federal Protective Service is a federal police agency that protects federal facilities.
3/ Nothing really controversial about it. When you go to a federal courthouse and you see security there you probably realize it’s not the local PD. They’re federal agents. Since 2002 FPS has been housed with DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security.) The White House and acting officials at DHS are now using …
4/… this jurisdiction over federal facilities as a hook to make ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) into a sort of federal political police run by acting appointees at DHS and responding to the President’s campaign needs. They are saying that they’ve authorized ICE and CBP to operate in support…
5/ …of the FPS mission. In other words, in their view it’s not really CBP, it’s just officers backing up FPS. But of course, there’s nothing happening that FPS can’t handle on its own. But through this hook of jurisdiction over federal installations, CBP is now assuming …
6/ …police powers over anyone either spray painting on federal facilities or who simply might be protesting near one. Because there have been some instances of vandalism against federal buildings and monuments, this is the hook through which DHS has authorized CBP and ICE …
7/ …as what amounts to Trumps private police force or domestic security service. It’s no accident that it’s ICE and CBP. They’re among the most politicized federal police agencies, most organizationally loyal to, and supportive of Trump’s agenda and political ambitions.
8/ Critically, they are also accustomed to and trained to deal with people with few political rights and little power to make use of the rights they have.
Josh Marshall’s Twitter Feed
Fortunately the abductees have been released unharmed so far, and the trusty ACLU is hitting DHS and the FPS with lawsuits even as I type. Still it’s very scary. And fundamentally un-American. All the MAGAhats must be up in arms against this big-government overreach, right?
HAHAHAHA of course not, they are fine with it. So far Fox, Rush and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal haven’t organized their talking points in defense of the indefensible, but I will update with their “reasoning” when they do. As for the wackaloon Right, what’s happening in Portland is basically their own Jade Helm conspiracy theory come to life. But it’s not aimed at them, so they will be fine with it — all their pseudo-patriotic flag-hugging and USAUSAUSA-bellowing is just for show.
We will update with “their side of the story” once they come up with something they think will work. It will be a pack of lies and nonsense.
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