R&I – FS
The sight of unidentified federal officers in full camouflage aiming guns at protesters and press in Portland this week chilled many of us to the bone. They teargassed the crowd, shot stun guns, beat people over the head and body and made 43 arrests.
Safe in the White House, Donald Trump vowed to send these shadowy forces on to other cities too. When the militia were later revealed to be US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, I felt less shocked but more worried, because long before they targeted sweet- looking moms locking arms in backpacks and bike-helmets, these same men spent many years terrorizing immigrants.
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The blurriness of the role and reach of these federal police is not an accident, according to the Cuny Graduate Center sociology professor Dr David Brotherton. “It’s interesting that they’ve gone straight to these outfits that have very vague protocols, it’s vague as to who oversees them, unlike the US marshals, say. These guys have more leeway.”
Having worked in and studied nations governed by dictators over decades, Brotherton sees familiar patterns emerging. “You send these storm troopers in with no intention of restoring order, rather they are agent provocateurs stirring it up. With all the paraphernalia, the gas masks, the armored cars, what is the end game? Is it creating a feeling of ungovernability, creating a feeling that it’s all out of control? That is the point, so that he can say: ‘I’m coming in to save you.’
Martin Sole
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/23/trump-portland-protests-homeland-security-officers