In 1920, an honest federal official exposed outrageous raids on ‘radicals.’ One longs for an executive branch official with the guts to stand up to Trump.
Ellis Cose, July 27, 2020
If President Donald Trump has his way, federal law enforcement agents like those in Portland, Oregon, could soon head to other cities with Democratic mayors:“I’m going to do something — that, I can tell you. Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these … we’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.”
The horrible “these,” as described by Trump, are “rioters, arsonists and left-wing extremists” spouting “Marxism,” who seek “the destruction of the United States system of government.”
If what we have seen in Portland is any indication of what lies ahead, the mayors are right to be nervous. Heavily armed camouflaged men, obscuring their identities, beating people and spiriting others away to who knows where are not what we normally associate with democracy in America.Rather than simply protecting federal property, their core responsibility, they are provoking some confrontations with protesters and abusing their legal authority. Already, in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order protecting journalists and legal observers.