{"id":3065,"date":"2020-07-17T17:26:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T21:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=3065"},"modified":"2020-07-19T09:02:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T13:02:31","slug":"secret-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2020\/07\/17\/secret-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Late Night Terror<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You walk the city streets late at night. A van pulls up, and out jumps camouflage suited men, heavily armored and with automatic weapons. They stop you, question you, then place you up against a wall. Your handcuffed and taken away in the van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds like a grim scene from Cold War East Germany, the Columbian drug wars, or present day Russia.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing like this could happen in the United States, and if it did, it certainly wouldn\u2019t be government sponsored, right?\u00a0\u00a0To detain someone you have to have \u201ccause\u201d, the legalism for a reason.\u00a0\u00a0To place someone under arrest, you need to have \u201cprobable cause\u201d, a good reason to believe they have violated the law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We grant the police authority to question, detain, arrest and charge based on a \u201csocial compact\u201d.  They get their especial authority, in return for only using it within the confines of the Constitution.  The law goes both ways:  neither side is supposed to violate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Units<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But dark vans are patrolling the streets of late night Portland, Oregon. And those camo suited men are stopping cars and pedestrians, seemingly for the \u201ccrime\u201d of \u201cbeing out\u201d. Some of those stopped try to resist, not understanding who is trying to \u201ckidnap\u201d them. One was shot by a \u201cnon-lethal\u201d weapon, and is in the hospital with a fractured skull. And in those dark vans aren\u2019t the Portland City Police, nor the Multnomah County Sheriff, nor even the Oregon State Police. They are agents of the Federal government (WAPO<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they aren\u2019t even the group we regard as the Federal police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  No, they are U.S. Marshals from the \u201cSpecial Operations Group\u201d, and the Customs and Border Patrol\u2019s \u201cTactical Unit\u201d.  They aren\u2019t even cops.  They are chosen for Portland because of their \u201cspecial\u201d skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of the United States of America has sent a \u201cspecial operations group\u201d to terrorize the streets of Portland.\u00a0\u00a0They are acting at the behest of the President, and against, (yes against), the specific requests of the Mayor of Portland, the Governor of Oregon, and a US Senator.\u00a0\u00a0But the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, stated that since, \u201c\u2026local politicians refuse to restore order to protect their city\u201d his agents will get the job done.\u00a0\u00a0And his acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, added:\u00a0\u201c\u2026we’re going to do what needs to be done to protect the men and women of this country\u201d. There’s a lot of “acting” going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been protests in Portland since George Floyd was killed.\u00a0\u00a0And Portland has a history of violent protests over the past few years.\u00a0\u00a0But the local authorities have dealt with it.\u00a0\u00a0The police in Portland have been tough when they needed to be, using tear gas and force to clear the streets.\u00a0\u00a0But they aren’t moving fast enough for Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Trump Needs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The local strategy doesn\u2019t fit into the narrative of the current Administration in Washington, DC.\u00a0\u00a0The “Feds” have to prove how tough they can be, at least, prove it to their political base.\u00a0\u00a0They threatened to send Federal troops into Seattle, but backed away at the last moment.\u00a0\u00a0They used Federal agents to clear Lafayette Square in Washington, DC, so the President could have his “upside down Bible” photo-op outside of St. John\u2019s Church.\u00a0\u00a0And now they are trying to prove their \u201cmanhood\u201d in Portland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be different if the Oregon National Guard was Federalized, or the “Insurrection Act” was triggered and the US Army went in. But it is the camo suited \u201cspecial operations\u201d units. And instead of confronting the protestors to end the protests, they are driving around in the night, terrorizing folks going home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the US Government took down right-wing groups in Montana and Idaho, the far right screamed about their First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights being violated.  But when the dark vans unload their \u201ctactical squads\u201d in the streets of Portland, not a whimper is heard from the right.  Where are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz now?  Why aren\u2019t they standing up against Federal government intrusion into state authority?  Shouldn\u2019t they be defending Americans against what some might even call terrorism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing for the Base<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

No, all we hear from them is the chuckling of bullies, getting what they want.  From the President on down, we have folks willing to squash the Constitution.  A photo-op in front of a church, or frightened protestors up against a wall in Portland: it all plays well for the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a contemporary term called \u201cGodwin\u2019s Law<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It says that in any Internet argument, ultimately someone will make a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis.\u00a0\u00a0At that point, Godwin states, the discussion is over.\u00a0\u00a0A corollary to the \u201claw\u201d is that whoever made the comparison loses the argument, because, nothing is comparable to Hitler or the Nazis.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there will be no references to “Black Shirts” in this essay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it should be a cautionary tale to Americans. These are the sanctioned actions of the government of the United States, our government. If the Trump Administration is willing to do this for largely political gain, what more are they capable of doing? Will the results of November be enough to end this slide into authoritarianism? Will they even accept those results? Or will the camo suited henchmen from DHS and Justice be needed then too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late Night Terror You walk the city streets late at night. A van pulls up, and out jumps camouflage suited men, heavily armored and with automatic weapons. They stop you, question you, then place you up against a wall. Your handcuffed and taken away in the van. Sounds like a grim scene from Cold War … Continue reading “Secret Police”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSecret Police : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A van of camo-clad, armored and weaponed "agents" jump out and arrest people on the streets in the middle of the night. 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