Minneapolis Social Injustice and Related

[Chik]

I just wonder where all the 2A militia types who claim to be arming up to defend themselves from tyrannical government are. This seems like exactly what they've been waiting for.

'Been wondering the same. Why are they so scarce now when this could be their biggest showtime???

[gregl]

'Been wondering the same. Why are they so scarce now when this could be their biggest showtime???

Most 2A militia types are also racists, so they have no interest in supporting protests that have anything to do with BLM. They're snug at home, cheering on DHS/CBP.

Greg

[Chik]

Most 2A militia types are also racists, so they have no interest in supporting protests that have anything to do with BLM. They're snug at home, cheering on DHS/CBP.

Greg

Putting aside who they support, their enemy (the feds) is on full view. Shouldn't they be having a massive hard-on?

[gregl]

Putting aside who they support, their enemy (the feds) is on full view. Shouldn't they be having a massive hard-on?

Their purported enemy is the Government. Their real enemy is anyone who disagrees with their worldview. Militia types are typically unnamed white men with guns, the same image as the DHS/CBP stormtroopers in Portland. The militia types identify with the stormtroopers. They love the fact that the DHS/CBP agents are pulling protesters off the streets and into unmarked vehicles, to be whisked away. This is very tribal, so logic doesn't necessarily apply. Or perhaps I should say that this action by Trump and his minions appeals to the emotions of the militia types. It keeps them at home now and will likely encourage some of their numbers to vote for Trump come November. In that respect, it's a brilliant move.

Greg

[Chik]

Their purported enemy is the Government. Their real enemy is anyone who disagrees with their worldview. Militia types are typically unnamed white men with guns, the same image as the DHS/CBP stormtroopers in Portland. The militia types identify with the stormtroopers. They love the fact that the DHS/CBP agents are pulling protesters off the streets and into unmarked vehicles, to be whisked away. This is very tribal, logic doesn't apply.

Greg

I have my tongue firmly in cheek, and I have a feeling Matt does too.

[Matthew Strongin]

I have my tongue firmly in cheek, and I have a feeling Matt does too.

Nailed it. If nothing else this situation in Portland and events surrounding many of the BLM protests removes the facade of the small government, "come and take 'em," defend the constitution at all costs militia-types. It's easy to hide behind slogans and rhetoric, but when the government actually turns tyrannical, suspends due process, and starts plucking people off the street for exercising their first amendment rights or even just looking like someone who might have maybe been at a constitutionally protected protest, well, then they're absent. Because it's not about protecting the constitution or ensuring the rights of the people aren't infringed upon by government. It's about playing dress up to instill fear with the hope of preserving the status quo in the face of evolving demographics.

And, no, I'm not in any way advocating for these militia-types to take action. I just find it interesting that we're witnessing the exact type of government overreach they claim to be against and yet....maybe it would be different if a Democrat was in office.

[robin3mj]

Nailed it. If nothing else this situation in Portland and events surrounding many of the BLM protests removes the facade of the small government, "come and take 'em," defend the constitution at all costs militia-types. It's easy to hide behind slogans and rhetoric, but when the government actually turns tyrannical, suspends due process, and starts plucking people off the street for exercising their first amendment rights or even just looking like someone who might have maybe been at a constitutionally protected protest, well, then they're absent. Because it's not about protecting the constitution or ensuring the rights of the people aren't infringed upon by government. It's about playing dress up to instill fear with the hope of preserving the status quo in the face of evolving demographics.

And, no, I'm not in any way advocating for these militia-types to take action. I just find it interesting that we're witnessing the exact type of government overreach they claim to be against and yet....maybe it would be different if a Democrat was in office.

Agreed- much easier to "occupy" a rural bird refuge when all you have to do is displace some park rangers, and claim all the online kudos and publicity that goes with.

[guido]

Trump’s Fake Solution to the Fake Crisis in Portland | The New Yorker

"On night fifty-two of the Portland protests, a pink beach ball, adorned with the face of a cartoon pig, bounced through Lownsdale Square. The park sits across the street from the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the site of daily standoffs with federal agents sent by President Trump supposedly to quell unrest. As the sunlight began to fade, the pink, pig-festooned ball flew above the small crowd of several dozen protesters, kept aloft as it bumped from protester to protester in the way beach balls once passed from concertgoer to concertgoer, back in the time when concerts still existed.

The porcine orb sprung past demonstrators fussing over their handmade protest signs, and past demonstrators clad entirely in black. It vaulted through the smoke cloud wafting above Riot Ribs—the popup plating free barbecue ribs, sides, and sometimes ice cream for protesters—and finally came to rest at the base of a thirty-foot monument commemorating the Spanish-American War. Across the granite memorial—built to honor Oregonians killed in battle a hundred and twenty-two years ago—hailed the spray-painted rally cries from a newer era of loss: “George Floyd,” “Welcome to Porkland,” and “Get out of our city,” the latter presumably a message for the federal officers holed up in the courthouse across the street.

Since early July, dozens of agents from multiple federal agencies, lead by the Department of Homeland Security, had insinuated themselves into Portland’s weeks-long protests following the murder of George Floyd. At first, the federal agents had fired tear gas at any demonstrator who allegedly inched too close to the courthouse, which succeeded only in drawing the demonstrators’ attention there. During the July 4th weekend, the agents escalated, assaulting protesters nightly with tear gas, rubber bullets, and flashbangs."

[guido]

Feds Sending Tactical Team to Seattle, Expanding Presence Beyond Portland - The New York Times

"The Trump administration, which has pledged to use the full force of the government to protect federal property, expanded that effort on Thursday by sending a team of tactical border officers to stand by for duty in Seattle.

The Special Response Team being deployed is similar to the tactical teams currently operating in Portland, Ore., where local officials have vehemently objected to their efforts to subdue street protests. Seattle officials have also said they do not want federal agents sent to target protesters.

Agents from the Special Response Team, operated under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, are typically deployed for intense law enforcement operations, similar to the agency’s BORTAC group that has operated in Portland.

“The C.B.P. team will be on standby in the area, should they be required,” the Federal Protective Service said in a statement about the Seattle effort.

A spokesman for the agency, who requested anonymity to speak about the operation, said the border officers were sent to back up the Federal Protective Service officers charged with protecting federal buildings, and would only be used if protests expected this weekend escalate out of control.

Seattle’s mayor, Jenny Durkan, said in an interview that she spoke earlier Thursday with Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security. She said he had assured her that the administration had no plans to deploy a surge of agents to Seattle and would not do so without communicating with the city. She had not been alerted to plans to position the tactical team, but said that the department may be distinguishing between an active deployment and agents who are on standby.

Ms. Durkan said she made it clear that the city did not need the help of federal agents.

“Any deployment here would, in my view, undermine public safety,” Ms. Durkan said.

[guido]

Trump and Portland: How His Use of Federal Forces in Cities Differs From Past Presidents - The New York Times

"Federal forces went into Los Angeles to control the Rodney King riots. They entered Washington, Chicago and Baltimore in the days after the killing of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. They went into Detroit during a race riot in 1943, and then again in 1967. They were in Little Rock, Ark., during school integration. For the Pullman Strike of 1894 in Chicago, and across numerous cities during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, they were there, too.

So in some ways, the scenes of officers clad in riot gear this week in Portland, Ore., have a long American lineage in federal responses to domestic unrest. But there is something different in this moment, too, in President Trump’s repeated vows to send forces to other American cities for reasons that slip between protecting specific federal properties, restoring general order and combating violent crime.

“The idea of bringing in troops or law enforcement in its many forms to quell civilian protest is as American as apple pie — it is foundational to this nation,” said Heather Ann Thompson, a historian at the University of Michigan. But then the president began talking about crime in Chicago, and naming cities where protests this summer haven’t turned violent.

“This is what is alarming about where we are now,” she said. “There is a way in which he is taking this to the next level.”

[theflashunc]

Jesus H Fair Use.

I get it's behind paywalls, that's no excuse to just repost verbatim. Good journalism costs money.

[guido]

You are right. Doug had posted a couple this way while I was away and I just followed that style post/reference. I'll go back to the excerpts I generally post.

Thanks for pointing that out...

[Clean39T]

While I am particularly sensitive to the fight going on across the river and down a few blocks from where I sit typing this, I'm also reflecting on the fact that Portland has consumed the protest news cycle and the t(R)umpian oliga(R)chy's move here may have been to redirect the headlines away from BLM protests and calls for police reform in other cities and toward "a bunch of leftist white kids causing trouble"..... Anybody else picking up on that?

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Also, it looks like my fair city may fine the Feds for erecting a fence in a bike lane. That's where we draw the line around here. You can gas us, beat us, and shoot us - but infringe on our green-transportation rights and you've gone a step too far. This aggression against our commuters will not stand.

[caleb]

From my morning walk.

[ides1056]

I miss him.

[guido]

Federal Agents Push Into Portland Streets, Stretching Limits of Their Authority - The New York Times

"After flooding the streets around the federal courthouse in Portland with tear gas during Friday’s early morning hours, dozens of federal officers in camouflage and tactical gear stood in formation around the front of the building.

Then, as one protester blared a soundtrack of “The Imperial March,” the officers started advancing. Through the acrid haze, they continued to fire flash grenades and welt-inducing marble-size balls filled with caustic chemicals. They moved down Main Street and continued up the hill, where one of the agents announced over a loudspeaker: “This is an unlawful assembly.”

By the time the security forces halted their advance, the federal courthouse they had been sent to protect was out of sight — two blocks behind them.

The aggressive incursion of federal officers into Portland has been stretching the legal limits of federal law enforcement, as agents with batons and riot gear range deep into the streets of a city whose leadership has made it clear they are not welcome.

“I think it’s absolutely improper,” Oregon’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, said in an interview on Friday. “It’s absolutely beyond their authority.”"

[Bob Ross]

https://eand.co/do-americans-get-tha...w-86362b107b1c

"Yesterday, the Mayor of Portland was gassed by the secret police of storm troopers that Donald Trump has sent to occupy the city.
If I wrote that sentence five years ago, you would have laughed at me. It would have seemed impossible. Inconceivable. Outlandish. And yet here we are."

[Clean39T]

https://eand.co/do-americans-get-tha...w-86362b107b1c

"Yesterday, the Mayor of Portland was gassed by the secret police of storm troopers that Donald Trump has sent to occupy the city.
If I wrote that sentence five years ago, you would have laughed at me. It would have seemed impossible. Inconceivable. Outlandish. And yet here we are."

Our Mayor also didn't do anything to stop his police force from gassing and beating protestors for months before the Feds arrived - but I'm glad he got-religion. It took some stones to go down and be in that crowd with how most feel about him around here. Even if it was a photo-op and re-election bid, at least it is raising awareness.

In other local news:

Dad with leaf blower arrested Tuesday, says he was taken to ground by federal officers during Portland protest - oregonlive.com

Of course, you don't have to take his word for it, there's live video evidence - let's go to the replay: Twitter

This is a middle-aged dad - an attorney - a husband.....

We have armed mercenaries* attacking and terrorizing peaceful protestors and law-abiding citizens on US soil. And it appears there is literally nothing that can be done about it since the Republican party has so eroded the rule of law in this country.


*Federal Protective Services employs contractors as guards - and I'm guessing they aren't using Paul Blart.

[72gmc]

In case you missed it: Revealed: oil giants help fund powerful police groups in top US cities | US policing | The Guardian

[vertical_doug]

In case you missed it: Revealed: oil giants help fund powerful police groups in top US cities | US policing | The Guardian

Everyday we are more and more like Detroit under OCP in the Robocop comics/