Here's a headline from the UK Daily Mail about Portland, Oregon:
Federal Agents Tear Gas 'Wall of Moms' Protecting Portland Protesters
Federal police teargassed a group of mothers who formed a 'wall of moms' to protect protesters during a Black Lives Matter demonstration over the weekend.
www.dailymail.co.uk/...
And that's just a small sample of the craziness going on in the Rose City where Trump has sent federal law enforcement to crack down on people protesting against racism and police brutality.
Federal police shot a man in the face with rubber bullets and fractured his skull.
As far as most folks here are concerned, Trump's doing this for political reasons to gain more support for himself in conservative states. He knows he'll never win the popular or electoral votes in Washington and Oregon, so instead of mourning the loss of those votes, he's using the two states as punching bags to excite the right wingers who support him and oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. Apparently, many of Trump’s supporters are not opposed to racism or police brutality, so they think that beating up on the protesters or assaulting them with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades is a great idea! (Gotta teach those upstarts a lesson, you know.)
And according to Fox News and other right-wingers, they're all dangerous Antifa anarchists, communists and domestic terrorists. So no wonder those terrorist moms were tear gassed! Serves them right for being out there protesting when they should be…. what? Staying home and taking care of the kids and supporting their man?
In any case, it reveals the utter crassness of federal cops that they would use those potentially lethal weapons on mothers standing up for their kids.
Trump probably likes this kind of thing - violence and suppression of women who oppose him. That's right up his alley if you consider his usual violent style of rhetoric and his seriously misogynist views.
Of course he will only be sending federal police or troops into liberal cities that are politically opposed to him. That's got to be sheer coincidence, right?
Traditional conservatives would oppose this kind of big government interference in local affairs, but Trump supporters are not conservatives. They are neo-fascists. Fascists love bullies and violence, as long as it's perpetrated against their political opponents.
One disturbing fact is that when asked whether he planned to send federal troops to Portland, he replied,
That depends on what you mean by ‘troops.’
In fact, the federal police or US Marshals in Portland are often unidentified and do not respond to queries about which agency of the government has deployed them. But they certainly look and act like Trump’s soldiers!
Meanwhile, two days ago there were broken windows at Starbucks and Amazon in Seattle so that's going to play right into Trump's false narrative about another “out of control” city in chaos run by a weak willed Democrat. And the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild now sounds like a Trump supporter as he pleads for federal intervention!
Now, I know that in the past local police departments were not too keen on the feds trying to control law enforcement in their city and it usually ended in a turf war. So what has changed except that many of the police now support Trump and his fascist national policies?
The Dictator In Chief claims his federal law enforcement officers have done a "great job" in Portland smashing the protests, but in reality his move has only incited more anger and more demonstrations against police and federal authorities. The Portland demonstrations are now on their 54th day of rebellion and thousands of people took to the streets over the weekend.
The problems with the Seattle and Portland police departments and their unhealthy love for the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades will only be exacerbated by Trump's polices of federal intervention and his encouragement of violence against Black Lives Matter protesters. It's very clear that his goal is actually to incite unrest and division for political purposes.
Don’t be surprised if Seattle becomes the next battleground between local government and Donald Trump over the policing of protests.
Trump has also suggested sending federal law enforcement to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland.
Fact Checking:
1) Trump says federal police are doing a great job in Portland, Oregon. The protests have continued unabated so I’m not sure what he's referring to unless he means it's great that federal police dressed as soldiers have abducted people off the street and forced them into unmarked cars.
2) Trump claims Portland is being destroyed by anarchists. Most property damage has been limited to areas near the justice center and the police union building headquarters. Most of the city has been peaceful and unaffected by protests, same as Seattle.
