“Donald
Trump has vowed to send federal officers to several American
cities led by Democrats in what critics say is an attempt to play the ‘law and
order’ card to boost his bid for re-election. Trump’s threat came after a federal crackdown on anti-racism protests in
Portland, Oregon, that involved unmarked cars and unidentified forces in
camouflage.
“Speaking
to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump identified New York, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland as places in need of federal
agents, describing those cities’ mayors as ‘liberal Democrats.’ ‘We’re sending
law enforcement,’ he said. ‘We can’t let this happen to the cities.’
“Singling
out Chicago, where more than 63 people were shot, 12 fatally, over the weekend,
Trump pivoted to an attack on his election rival, Joe Biden. ‘And you add it up
over the summer – this is worse than Afghanistan, by far. This is worse than
anything anyone has ever seen. All run by the same liberal Democrats. And you
know what? If Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole
country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.’
“Struggling
against Biden in the opinion polls, Trump has leaned into a dark and divisive theme reminiscent of
his fellow Republican Richard Nixon in 1968. ‘I am your president of law and order,’
he declared in the White House Rose Garden on 1 June, shortly before park
police and national guard troops fired teargas and chased peaceful protesters
from Lafayette Square so he could stage a photo op outside a historic church.
“Since
then he has repeatedly – and falsely – accused Biden of planning
to ‘defund the police’ and effectively surrender cities and suburbs to violent
criminals. The conservative Fox News network, meanwhile, has been giving
emphasis to coverage of inner-city violence rather the coronavirus pandemic.
“Larry Sabato, director of the Center for
Politics at the University of Virginia, said: ‘He took longer than I thought he
would to start emphasising law and order. But I bet he starts at the
convention. It’s going to be one of the key themes of the convention. These
crazy liberals are causing problems again.’
“Such
a strategy is ‘certainly a candidate’ for explaining the fresh crackdown in
major cities, Sabato added. ‘I’ll tell you what it really is, though. It is an
unmistakeable hint of what a second Trump term will be like. There’ll be no
hesitation to do any of this.’
“The Trump administration sent federal
officers into Portland after weeks of protests there over police brutality and
racial injustice that followed the police killing of George Floyd in
Minneapolis in May. Last week, videos showed unidentified federal personnel
taking people off the street and driving them away in black minivans. Mark
Morgan, acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, defended the
actions in a tweet on Sunday: ‘Law and Order – a cornerstone of American
society – is under siege in Portland.’
“On
Monday the Chicago Tribune newspaper reported that
the Department of Homeland Security was making plans to deploy about 150 agents
in the city where police defending a statue clashed with demonstrators on
Friday.
“Lori
Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago and a Democrat, told the Associated Press: ‘I
have great concerns about that in particular, given the track record in the
city of Portland. I have talked to the mayor of Portland [and] we don’t need
federal agents without any insignia taking people off the street and holding
them, I think, unlawfully.’
“The
issue has laid bare the binary choice for voters in November. Democrats,
warning of a threat to civil liberties, called for Chad Wolf, acting secretary
of Homeland Security, to quit. Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia said Wolf was ‘overseeing
authoritarian abuses that betray our bedrock principles and would horrify our
nation’s Founders.’
“He
added: ‘Ordering the occupation of US cities, seeking the escalation of
violence, and intentionally risking American lives over peaceful protests and
graffiti is unfathomable and unacceptable. Secretary Wolf must resign
immediately or be fired.’
“The
House committee chairmen Jerry Nadler, Adam Smith and Bennie Thompson said in a
joint statement: ‘The Trump administration continues to weaponize federal law
enforcement for its own agenda. Like we saw in Lafayette [Square], rather than
supporting and protecting the American people, we are witnessing the oppression
of peaceful protesters by our own government. ‘Not only do their action[s]
undermine civil rights and sow fear and discord across the country, but in this
case, they sully the reputation of members of our armed forces who were not
involved.’
“And
the congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan wrote on Twitter: ‘They’ll have to
arrest me first if they think they’re going to illegally lay their hands on my
residents.’ The sinister events in Portland have renewed fears about creeping
authoritarianism from Trump’s White House.
“Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor
at Harvard University, has called for peaceful civil disobedience. ‘Stormtrooper
tactics have no place in a free society,’ he said. ‘The apparent deployment of
the military for domestic law enforcement violates the Posse Comitatus Act in
the absence of a genuine insurrection, and the claim that such deployment is
genuinely necessary to preserve order does not meet the laugh test. The
administration is violating the first amendment on a regular basis now, thereby
endangering all our liberties’” (The Guardian).
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