Secret Police Expand their Ops, but so do Protest Groups
As I speculated two posts ago, the unidentified, unmarked federal police invading Portland, provoking/harassing/shooting peaceful protesters, and causing a stir with their uninvited violations of civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution, were just the Trump administration’s beta test for other large cities having Democrat mayors (which is most of them; 35 of the 50 largest U.S. cities at least), whom Trump denounces as “weak”. A Federal Court judge dismissed the State of Oregon’s lawsuit for a restraining order against the Department of Homeland Security; he ruled that the State had no standing to sue. No standing to protect its own citizens from illegal searches, seizures and detainments. So now the coast is clear for Operation Gestapo to invade many other cities…the rumor is they have already started in Kansas City and Chicago.
On the other side of things, Portland is gaining fame or notoriety (depending on which side of the political fence you occupy) for its “Wall of Moms” donning yellow T-shirts and linking arms across the leading edge of protest gatherings to protect the other protesters from police batons and munitions. Not long after the Wall of Moms became known, a Wall of Vets organized, made up of U.S. military veterans seeking to fulfill their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Portlanders and Seattlites I speak with or write to are generally in favor of the protesters’ right to peacefully assemble, and are aware that violent/destructive activity typically takes place after-hours, by people not affiliated with the protests.
But in Oregon, you don’t have to go very far outside of Portland to hear a very different average sentiment. People elsewhere in Oregon have nothing short of contempt for Portland and its citizens. In their minds the protesters and the vandals are one and the same. In their opinions it is just fine that Federal officers have been deployed to “protect” Federal property in Portland (there are a couple of U.S. District Courthouses there). If the protesters would only be respectful, and not disrupt things in downtown Portland, they argue, the protesters would in turn be respected. But since they can’t or won’t, the argument goes, martial law should be imposed and anyone caught out after curfew should be shot.
Two things immediately come to mind that are wrong with this argument or viewpoint. First, it misses the whole point of protest. A protest is by its very nature a disruption, a way to blow a shrill whistle and say “Wait a minute! All is not well! There are serious problems in our country and they are not being addressed properly!” If you aren’t getting in the faces of the powers that be to blow that whistle, then you will be quickly ignored and dismissed…sad but true. Second, the slope is indeed slippery from martial law in the so-called “protest cities” to martial law everywhere. It’s a slippery slope from someone getting disappeared for attending a nighttime protest to someone losing rights/privileges/status for doing other things that are technically legal but critical of the Trump regime (writing a blog, say). There is no dividing line between a “protester” and a “normal” person. Protesters are moms, dads, healthcare workers, Uber drivers, architects, veterans, grocery store employees, and clergypersons…they are you and me. What happens to them can easily happen to you and me.
It is now 100 days until the Presidential election. The hope I cling to is that its results will herald the end of the Trump era.
Bike Newbie 