A STATESIDE STORY: FEDERAL AGENTS QUELL RIOTS IN PORTLAND, OREGON; CONSIDERED FOR OTHER CITIES

Anti-police brutality and racism protest in Portland

by Mary Foran

After nearly 3 months of nightly protests and rioting in the streets of Portland, Oregon, President Donald Trump dispatched Federal Agents to guard the Federal Court House in Portland, and has considered sending agents to  other US cities suffering from rioting including Chicago, New York, Detroit and Kansas City, although the Democrat-run cities have protested the “authoritarian” move.

In Portland, the protests have centered around the Justice Center Jail and Police Headquarters and Federal buildings, and in Chicago violence has broken out with a mass shooting at a funeral that shocked the nation. Records show that Chicago had 63 people shot over the past week, 12 of them fatalities. About 150 Homeland Security Investigation Agents will be deployed to Chicago. They are known for long-term investigations of crimes such as human trafficking and terrorism, and are expected to be in the city for at least 60 days to help combat violence under the direction of the Justice Department.

On board a plane of FBI’s Critical Response Group: About 2,000 Federal Agents have been put on standby to be quickly deployed.

About 2,000 officials from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard have been put on standby to be quickly deployed to the cities in question. At least 200 members of the “rapid deployment teams” were already sent to Washington D.C., Portland and Seattle. No president in modern times has threatened to send in federal law enforcement over local opposition as in this case.

A Law Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Stephen I. Vladeck, said it was not clear how federal agents could occupy the streets of a city that is 99 per cent not federal property. “It’s of course the prerogative of the federal government to enforce federal law and protect federal property. It is not the job of the federal government to be a general police force for all crimes,” he said.

Governor of Oregon Kate Brown: Trump says “politicians out in Oregon are weak” and “afraid” of the “anarchists.”

President Trump has been quoted as saying that federal agents had done a “fantastic job” in Portland, which was “totally out of control”. He assailed the Governor, Kate Brown, and other officials for not welcoming the help. “These are anarchists” he said of  some of the  protestors, “and the politicians out there, yes, they are weak, but they are afraid of these people. They’re actually afraid of these people.”

Trump added that that is why these officials say they don’t want Federal help.

So, the protests which started with the police-instigated death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, has devolved into nightly mass hysteria and mayhem, with Federal Agents using pepper spray and tear gas liberally, and the arrest of many. And Portland is normally a quiet, backwater town.

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Fiftieth day of protests in Oregon
Photos:  Tony, uploaded 24 July 2020

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Other images
Featured image(Anti-police brutality and racism protest)/Tony, CC BY2.0
FBI’s Critical Response Group/FBI Facebook, Fair use
Kate Brown official photo: https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/meet-the-governor.aspx