Generally well right of center, but not a wingnut.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette:
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, the first homeland security secretary, criticized the deployment of federal agents in Portland, Ore., as mayors throughout the country call on the Trump administration to keep agents out of their cities.
The administration has deployed agents with tactical gear to confront protesters in downtown Portland, Ore., and plans to send agents to Democratic-led cities, such as Philadelphia. The administration revealed Monday that it plans to send 150 Homeland Security Investigations special agents to Chicago for 60 days.
"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 militia," Ridge, a Republican, said in an interview with Sirius XM radio. He was alluding to the department's creation after the 9/11 attacks.
Ridge said he would “welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in the cities" if he were governor. But "it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities," he added, specifically calling out how the federal authorities were unwelcome in Portland.
“And I wish the president would take a more collaborative approach toward fighting this lawlessness than the unilateral approach he’s taken,” he added.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, more than a dozen mayors called the administration's intention to deploy federal forces against protesters an "abuse of power."
The letter -- signed by the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Tucson, Sacramento, Phoenix and Kansas City, Missouri on Monday -- calls on the administration to withdraw federal forces from the cities where they are currently deployed and halt plans to send them elsewhere.
"The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a national uprising and reckoning," the letter said. "The majority of the protests have been peaceful and aimed at improving our communities. Where this is not the case, it still does not justify the use of federal forces. Unilaterally deploying these paramilitary-type forces into our cities is wholly inconsistent with our system of democracy and our most basic values."
The protests in Portland began after Floyd's death in police custody. Demonstrators have also called for justice in the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain and other Black people.
Wolf has said the crackdown in Portland, Ore. — which has included personnel from the U.S. Marshals and tactical agents from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in addition to the Federal Protective Service, which was already stationed in Portland — was specific to the Pacific Northwest city, distancing his department from President Donald Trump’s commitment this week to send agents to other major cities, from Oakland to New York.
“Violent anarchists in Portland versus normal city criminal activity behavior by gangs and criminal element, those are two different things,” Wolf said, adding that the department had recorded 43 arrests in the protests. “What we have in Portland is very different than what we see in other cities.”
Portland, Ore.’s governor, the mayor and the protesters have all said that the homeland security agents and U.S. Marshals had only increased tensions in the city.
“We didn’t ask for these troops in our city. We don’t want these troops in our city, and the tactics they’re using are very un-American,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said, adding that the agents were forcing demonstrators into vans without probable cause. “There’s some really serious constitutional issues here.”
Wheeler added that many of those detained had not been charged, but rather released after questioning. “We have people who have come back and said, ‘I feel like I was kidnapped.’”
Federal authorities, however, said state and local officials had been unwilling to work with them to stop the vandalism and violence against federal officers and the U.S. courthouse in Portland
“We stand ready,” Wolf said. “I’m ready to pull my officers out of there if the violence stops. Portland is unique. There’s no other city like it right now where we see this violence at federal courthouses.”
But while the homeland security officials said the deployment of tactical agents who have frequently deployed tear gas and at times forced protesters into unmarked vehicles was needed to combat “violent criminals,” some of the demonstrators included mothers locked in arms outside the courthouse. While some have thrown rocks and bottles at federal officers, others in the crowd have demonstrated peacefully.
Citing a law codified by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 that allows the secretary to protect federal property, Wolf also defended agents who have been accused of placing protesters in unmarked vans without telling them where they are going.
But the law Wolf cited, 40 U.S. Code 1315, says homeland security officials have the right to “conduct investigations” away from federal property. Pressed about the level of probable cause needed to detain someone away from the courthouse in Portland, Wolf referred to Richard Cline, the deputy director of the Federal Protective Service. Cline described the detaining of one individual, whom he did not name, who was put into a van so agents could bring him to a safe place for questioning.
The officials did not address other accounts from demonstrators of being detained, put into unmarked vehicles and not being told where they were going.
President Donald Trump’s administration faces multiple lawsuits questioning its authority to use broad policing powers in cities. One filed Tuesday says federal agents are violating protesters’ 10th Amendment rights by engaging in police activities designated to local and state governments. The legal action was filed by the Portland-based Western States Center, which helps organize and promote the rights of communities of color and low-income people.
Gil Kerlikowske, a Customs and Border Protection chief in the Obama administration, said the department was not meeting a standard of probable cause with the detainments.
“They need the same probable cause that any police officer should have to stop somebody. It’s beyond a reasonable suspicion that this person has actually committed crime,” Kerlikowske said. “You’re not seeing that in Portland.”
No comments:
Post a Comment