While the protesters have repeatedly decried the city’s own police tactics, Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as police commissioner, and other leaders have united in calls for federal agencies to stay away. City commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty went to join protesters gathered outside the county Justice Center downtown, saying the city will “not allow armed military forces to attack our people.”Perhaps if mayors and local political leaders all over the country like Wheeler hadn't spent the past several decades beefing up police forces with military equipment and installing surveillance cameras everywhere they would have some moral standing to say anything now. Instead we have this thing where the mayors can only complain about federal troops abusing and disappearing people because, "hey that's our job!"
“Today we show the country and the world that the city of Portland, even as much as we fight among ourselves, will come together to stand up for our Constitutional rights,” Ms. Hardesty said Friday.
There shouldn't even be a DHS in the first place. Maybe I'm old now and 20 years seems like five seconds. But it really was practically yesterday that George Bush took advantage of post 9/11 xenophobic, racist paranoia in order to consolidate the the national police/surveillance state. All I've seen local politicians do ever since then is brag about all the DHS grant programs to militarize police they've been on hand to oversee. Nobody who has been a part of creating that monster can credibly claim they have a plan to stop it now.
Also I know it's only been a day since this story broke but has anyone tried to determine the identity of anyone detained by these feds or where they've been taken yet?
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