Special Federal Police Designed to Crush Civilians

As Donald Trump escalates his law and order agenda, catering to his populist and right-wing supporters, he deploys what the Department of Homeland Security describes as members of a U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and a Border Patrol Tactical Unit. Storm troopers, well-trained in military tactics using flash-bang grenades, tear gas and pepper spray, non-lethal (usually anyway) bullets with experts holding sniper rifles at the ready “just in case.” The philosophy that underlies these actions is an administration belief that they can hammer, arrest and defeat passionate protestors into total submission. Trump would declare victory. His base would cheer. And protests would end. 

Except for one tiny detail. These violent military attacks, mostly against peaceful protestors, simply amp up the rage and anger, and as the President believes he is pulling a Trump double down, the anti-Trump protestors quadruple down. As his senior political appointees at Homeland Security design tactics deployed by oppressive regimes around the world, implemented with glee, career senior bureaucrats, joined by what should be politically conservative military leaders, look on in horror. That these military-like incursions only happen in cities with Democratic mayors, even more in states where the governor is also a Democrat, seem to support the notion that this is a massive and destructive political charade. 

As the list of cities in which such federal police troops gather grows, Trump has not managed to reduce the protests, instead uniformly and dramatically escalating the violence he claims his efforts would subdue. These efforts haven’t worked. They won’t work. If anything, they simply reinforce precisely what those protests are all about. Bad goes to worse goes to horrific. But then, Trump points to the violence his decisions have caused as a reason to assert more violence against those communities. Trump’s specialty. 

Create a problem that really did not exist (or if it did was easily within the ambit of local control), make sure it creates lots of footage that his “news” propagandists can spin into evidence of violence… and set about to solve the “problem.” Make sure to use lots of dog whistle and buzz words. “Radical left.” “Antifa” (a philosophy, not an organization, by the way). “Radical Democrats.” People trying to “erase our culture and history.” And if you can slip in a phrase that links Trump to white supremacists without saying exactly that, go for it! Portland is the easiest example, and where we have the most visible responses. 

Eyewitness journalist Patrick Symmes, writing for the July 23rd Yahoo News: “When not emerging on most nights to drive back protesters (including Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who was gassed Wednesday night [7/22]), they have been filmed roving the downtown area in unmarked rental vans, leaping out to snatch individual protesters away for questioning… The shadowy DHS force is, at least visually, reminiscent of the secret police units that do the bidding of authoritarian regimes around the world, albeit of a far less brutal variety. 

“But there is little evidence the tactical escalation is working. The noisy show of force I witnessed Tuesday [7/21] night left hundreds of people, including me, choking on tear gas. But federal officers have essentially been deployed for a photo op: less than 15 minutes after the skirmish began, it was over. The federal officers retreated inside the courthouse, surrendering the ground they had just taken back to jeering activists. 

“By some accounts, this was night 50 of the Black Lives Matter protests that have rocked Portland and focused national attention on the Trump administration’s efforts to suppress protests that sometimes carry a violent edge. The give-and-take of ground has become an almost nightly ritual. 

“Protests begin at sunset with music and the chanting of slogans, but usually end later in the night with clouds of tear gas and nonlethal munitions ricocheting off cars and walls. In its microcosmic way, the city of Portland has become the ‘battle space’ that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper vowed to “mass and dominate” in a White House call with governors on June 1. 

“It was Trump himself who tweeted about domination, vowing to deploy the military and publicly putting Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley in charge of suppressing riots. Trump also announced, just hours before I was teargassed at the Hatfield courthouse, that the same forces would be deployed to Chicago and other cities experiencing anarchic protests.” Anarchy is simply defined: defying Trump’s vision. 

If you ever wondered how Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte, Hungary’s autocratic Viktor Orbán, Russia’s despotic Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s religious zealot-President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and even German Führer Adolph Hitler seized dictatorial power from within electoral democracies… they were elected after implementing conservative law and order campaigns using military and specialized police forces against their civilian populations. If you think that cannot happen here, think again. It’s already happening. 

On Sunday, July 19th, in a Fox News Interview by Chris Wallace of Donald Trump, this is how the President answered when asked by Wallace if he is a “gracious loser.” The President said that he's “not a good loser… I don't like to lose… I don't lose too often.” When Wallace pushed him on the question of whether he would accept the election results, Trump responded, “You don't know until you see, it depends. I think mail-in voting is gonna rig the election, I really do.” 

If being a loser is measured by the number of bankruptcies you have filed, how many people are sick and dying from wrong-headed policies in the face of a pandemic, butting heads with world leaders with little or no benefit to Americans and even how you fare in popularity polls, it seems pretty clear why the President just might not want to accept the will of the people in November. 

            I’m Peter Dekom, and if we could retroactively recast The Apprentice, would Trump still be on that show or would he be forced to migrate to The Biggest Loser… unless he ascends to the throne atop the United States of America by force.