“There’s somethin’ happening here,
What it is ain’t exactly clear,
There’s a man with a gun over there,
Telling me I’ve got to beware”
(“For What It’s Worth”, Buffalo Springfield, 1967)
People in authority don’t like folks who protest against the actions of people in authority. Even though free speech is a cornerstone of our democracy, it is barely tolerated by politicians who want to do whatever they want to do. “Thank you for your input. Now, go back to your corner!”
Mayors, police chiefs, governors, and even Presidents don’t appreciate opponents of theirs in the streets “singing songs and carryin’ signs, mostly say hooray for our side”.
It’s embarrassing, it’s invariably on the 6 o’clock news (and consumes social media), and it’s hard for your public relations folks to spin in a positive way. People in power like to do their dirty work in the shadows; public protests reveal the ugly underbelly of politics. These things have got to be quashed, the sooner the better, so that the status quo can resume speed.
One of the most common tactics is for politicians to brand the protesters as “anarchists”, the assembled group a “mob”, and their civil disobedience as a “riot”.
This labeling distracts the public from the issue being protested and, simultaneously, justifies law enforcement to swing batons, shoot rubber bullets, throw tear gas canisters into crowds, and turn a peaceful march into a panicked stampede. In the police-instigated melee, sometimes the assaulted protesters fight back…and then, just as predicted (and caused), a riot ensues by a “mob” that is angry not about the original issue but rather the brutality of police officers.
“Law and order” appears to have prevailed, but an ugly scar remains, the original problem festers, and people become more resentful.
Congressman John Lewis, who died the other day, was arrested 45 times in his younger days while protesting for civil rights in the South. He was also burned, beaten, water hosed to the ground, and had dogs set upon him by aggressive police who called him “Nigger”, “Communist”, and worse.
He and his buddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, eventually got the politicians’ attention.
President Donald Trump, who is obviously learning-impaired, is using heavy-handed tactics to stifle protests that are disrupting his 2020 election campaign. He got on the wrong side of the George Floyd issue, and is now trying to brand social justice protesters as “mobs”, “rioters”, and “Antifa” guerrillas.
Since the issue (police brutality against people of color) isn’t going away soon enough for his taste, the President is resorting to brute force to make the public distraction (to his optimistic campaign messaging) go away.
Trump’s use of un-badged Federal forces in military camo to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park in Washington D.C….so he could do a photo op holding a Bible in front of a small church…was a sign that he’s not amused by the First Amendment. In that incident, American citizens who were exercising their right to free speech, were pelted with tear gas and stampeded.
So much for the U.S. Constitution.
Evidently emboldened by this power play, President Trump has now organized a military detachment of dubious provenance (unmarked uniforms, no name tags, no Federal agency claiming responsibility…hence no accountability) to harass protesters in Northwest cities. In some cases, citizens have been grabbed by the mysterious camouflaged, masked men and thrown into unmarked vehicles and spirited away to fates unknown.
The mayors of the cities involved (Portland and Seattle) did not ask the President for this “help” and, in fact, have publicly asked him to cease and desist these tactics. They have not declared an emergency or asked for assistance from the National Guard or, certainly, from the President’s armed posse.
It is apparent that President Trump is doing this for two reasons: (1) to scare Americans into believing that mob anarchy is running rampant in this Nation; and, (2) to demonstrate that he is a “strong” leader who knows how to deal with “mobs”, “rioters”, anarchists, socialists, Communists, Liberals, and Democrats who want to ruin America.
In other words, he’s trying to scare up some votes for his failing campaign. He says he’s the “Law and Order” candidate.
The Trump Administration has routinely plumbed the depths of impropriety and malfeasance, but this latest tactic of utilizing a secret army to carry out political tasks just about takes the cake. It’s the kind of behavior that is usually associated with thug dictators, not leaders of democracies, and certainly not the kind of thing that is kosher (or legal) in the so-called Greatest Nation on Earth.
We’ve fought wars and engineered the overthrow of dictators where such tactics were employed. The Taliban, Saddaam Hussein, South American dictators in the 1970’s and 1980’s and others routinely used masked goons to enforce rules, silence critics, and “disappear” citizens.
Adolph Hitler had a devoted group of thugs like this called the “Brown Shirts”. They looted, burned, and murdered Nazi critics and Jews to advance the Fuhrer’s agenda.
Vladimir Putin, upon whom President Trump has lauded praise, employed Russian forces in unmarked uniforms (“Little Green Men”) to invade Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014. Putin denied responsibility, saying that the invaders must have been indigenous patriots. It worked: the Russians now control 7 percent of Ukrainian territory.
So, we now have a President of our own who believes that there are no rules or constraints on his behavior. He got away with it when he attempted to extort the Ukrainian President to help his re-election (i.e. Trump was impeached by Congress but the Senate gave him a free pass), and now he has put together a 21st Century Praetorian Guard, answerable only to him, to do his political bidding while masked and in combat fatigues.
The President of the United States, protector of our Constitutional rights, is now assaulting and “disappearing” citizens who are exercising their right to assemble and speak.
As an attorney in Oregon said, “When we see masked men in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping.”
Will waterboarding be next?
UPDATE: President Trump’s new campaign strategy, to scare the Hell out of American citizens by proclaiming rampant anarchy that needs to be quelled by his anonymous Stormtroopers, seems to be working to his satisfaction.
He announced yesterday that he intends to send more armed, masked men in camouflage uniforms to other cities in the country…places that are governed by Democrats and are “out of control”. He’s now putting out campaign ads that portray him as “the law and order candidate” and describe opponent Joe Biden as encouraging violent “mobs” and being in favor of “defunding police departments”.
Those are lies, but we’ve come to expect that from the President of the United States.
This development has been awhile in coming, but is predictable. The economy is in shambles because Trump mis-managed the Covid-19 pandemic. The President has little positive to brag about right now. Traditionally, Presidents who are in trouble with a few months until an election pull a rabbit out of a hat…often its a war…to distract voters. It’s referred to as an “October Surprise”.
This week President Trump pulled two rabbits out of the hat: (1) Igniting a war of words with China over alleged theft of scientific property; and, (2) Throwing jet fuel on Black Lives Matter protests, with the hope that armed conflict will erupt in more cities…justifying hero Trump and his posse of Brown Shirts to ride in and kick citizen ass.
He also not-so-loudly changed his tune about public health measures to combat the pandemic…after 141,000 deaths.
He said that he now supports and encourages the wearing of face masks in public to prevent the spread of infection. Well done, Sir! You’re only four months late.
The President stuck to his guns on Covid-19, though. He still insisted that “it will just go away some day”.
Like him, I hope.