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Category: Politics

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor is prepared to arrest federal agents

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor is prepared to arrest federal agents

Brentin Mock writes: After numerous reports and lawsuits in Portland regarding un-badged and un-uniformed federal officers arresting, beating, and detaining people in unmarked vehicles, the Trump administration’s response is that they’re going to do it even more, and in more cities. Saying that his federal agents are doing a “fantastic job,” Trump has suggested that he will also deploy agents in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Milwaukee to do the same. In one of those cities, the city…

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The federal crackdown in Portland is ‘legal.’ That’s the problem with it

The federal crackdown in Portland is ‘legal.’ That’s the problem with it

Garrett M. Graff writes: When Americans worried about their nation slipping into a dystopian authoritarian regime, no one ever expected those nightmares to involve the Federal Protective Service. That’s in part because before the post-apocalyptic images of federal officers dressed in military gear waving flaming cans of smoke and dressed in gas masks on the streets of the community that inspired “Portlandia,” few Americans knew the FPS existed at all. Even today, the obscure entity may still be unknown to…

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Former head of DHS says Trump’s use of its agents ‘undermines the credibility of the department’s principal mission’

Former head of DHS says Trump’s use of its agents ‘undermines the credibility of the department’s principal mission’

Greg Sargent writes: Under fire for dispatching federal law enforcement into cities in defiance of local leaders, in part to create TV imagery that sends an authoritarian thrill up President Trump’s leg, top officials are offering several new defenses. All are profoundly weak — which is why senior members of previous Republican administrations are now condemning what’s happening. One of these is Michael Chertoff, the former director of homeland security under George W. Bush, who said in an interview that…

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Trump’s request to his UK ambassador: Get the British Open for me

Trump’s request to his UK ambassador: Get the British Open for me

The New York Times reports: The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that President Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode. The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of…

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Elizabeth Warren’s new role: Key Joe Biden policy adviser

Elizabeth Warren’s new role: Key Joe Biden policy adviser

The Associated Press reports: Joe Biden accused Elizabeth Warren last year of holding an “angry, unyielding viewpoint.” She embraced that label and slammed Biden as “naive” for thinking he could work with Republicans as president. She warned Democrats against picking a “Washington insider” and pointedly refused to endorse Biden until weeks after exiting the race. Now, those bitter primary clashes are a distant memory. Warren, a Massachusetts senator and leading progressive, has become an unlikely confidant and adviser to Biden,…

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Ten ways that racial and environmental justice are inextricably linked

Ten ways that racial and environmental justice are inextricably linked

Nishan Degnarain writes: Cities across the United States and Europe have been reflecting on the unprecedented protests demanding greater racial justice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May. This has sparked a deeper conversation around the world among companies, universities, religious institutions, museums who have historic links to racial injustice and slavery. Given the significance of 19 June (Juneteenth), many companies and organizations have also been quick to sign up to pledges around racial justice. However,…

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Nothing can justify the attack on Portland

Nothing can justify the attack on Portland

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write: The Trump administration has faced outrage since reports first surfaced of federal agents in unmarked vehicles picking up and detaining protesters in Portland, Oregon. Rather than backing down, though, President Trump appears to have decided to go all in: In a July 20 interview, he threatened to send “more federal law enforcement” to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland—cities run by “liberal Democrats,” he asserted. The question of whether or not the…

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Trump’s internal security force is wielding power that cannot and should not exist in a democracy

Trump’s internal security force is wielding power that cannot and should not exist in a democracy

Jamelle Bouie writes: The United States is no stranger to the use of military or quasi-military force against protesters. During the Whiskey Rebellion, a tax revolt of farmers and distillers in western Pennsylvania that culminated in 1794, President George Washington raised a federal militia to meet insurgents in the field. To break the Pullman Strike of 1894, during which workers shut down rail traffic in much of the country, President Grover Cleveland deployed federal troops to Chicago, sparking a confrontation…

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Who actually wants Trump to send in the feds? Police unions

Who actually wants Trump to send in the feds? Police unions

The Daily Beast reports: Leaders of cities like Portland and Chicago publicly say they don’t want federal law enforcement policing protesters. But as President Donald Trump threatens to send in the troops to a handful of America’s largest cities, some of those same locales’ police unions appear to be circumventing elected officials to work with the feds. On Monday, Trump indicated a desire to send federal law enforcement to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland, apparently to crush…

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Former DHS secretary Tom Ridge says department ‘was not established to be the president’s personal militia’

Former DHS secretary Tom Ridge says department ‘was not established to be the president’s personal militia’

Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports: The nation’s first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security had sharp words for his former agency Tuesday, condemning the Trump administration’s decision to send federal officers into the streets of Portland, Ore. to quell protests, saying it was “counterproductive,” and that it was not the agency’s mission to act as domestic law enforcement. “The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president’s personal…

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EU reaches ‘truly historic’ deal on pandemic recovery after fractious summit

EU reaches ‘truly historic’ deal on pandemic recovery after fractious summit

Reuters reports: European Union leaders clinched an “historic” deal on a massive stimulus plan for their coronavirus-throttled economies in the early hours of Tuesday, after a fractious summit lasting almost five days. The agreement paves the way for the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to raise billions of euros on capital markets on behalf of all 27 states, an unprecedented act of solidarity in almost seven decades of European integration. Summit chairman Charles Michel called the accord, reached at a…

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What you need to know about the battle of Portland

What you need to know about the battle of Portland

Robert Evans writes: The city of Portland, Oregon is currently in the national spotlight after video evidence of federal agents driving rented vans and abducting activists went viral. This footage was taken in the early morning hours of July 15, and an Oregon Public Broadcasting article published on the 16th brought the matter out of the local social networks of Portland activists and on to the national stage. As I write this, mainstream media personalities are beginning to parachute into…

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A Navy vet asked federal officers in Portland to remember their oaths. Then they broke his hand

A Navy vet asked federal officers in Portland to remember their oaths. Then they broke his hand

The Washington Post reports: He came to the protest with a question. He left with two broken bones in a confrontation with federal officers that went viral. Christopher David had watched in horror as videos surfaced of federal officers in camouflage throwing protesters into unmarked vans in Portland. The 53-year-old Portland resident had heard the stories: protesters injured, gassed, sprayed with chemicals that tugged at their nostrils and burned their eyes. David, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and…

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From antifa to mothers in helmets, diverse elements come together in Portland protests

From antifa to mothers in helmets, diverse elements come together in Portland protests

The New York Times reports: Angela Foster started showing up in the early days of the protests in Portland as one of the novice activists standing off to the side with no gear to protect herself. Roughly 40 demonstrations later, she has moved toward the front, wearing a mask, goggles and a helmet, and bracing for law enforcement officers to charge at her. “We’re not leaving,” Ms. Foster said in an interview on Sunday. While President Trump on Sunday described…

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Trump’s stormtroopers heading for Chicago

Trump’s stormtroopers heading for Chicago

Chicago Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities. The Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, agents are set to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts, according to sources familiar with the matter, though a specific plan on what the agents…

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DHS authorizes domestic surveillance to protect statues and monuments

DHS authorizes domestic surveillance to protect statues and monuments

Lawfare reports: You might not imagine that the U.S. intelligence community would have much stake in local protests over monuments and statues. You’d be wrong. A document provided to Lawfare on July 19 from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) describes personnel as “collecting and reporting on various activities in the context of elevated threats targeting monuments, memorials, and statues”—and it gives legal guidance concerning the “expanded intelligence activities necessary to mitigate the significant…

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