Recently, the Trump administration has sent federal forces to Portland, Oregon, where they’ve been violently confronting protesters, many of whom have been peaceful until the feds stepped in and started instigating violence. The gross abuse of power has sparked outrage — the personnel have been dispatched explicitly against the wishes of local authorities, and the Trump administration has largely refused to take the concerns of those authorities seriously. During Monday remarks in the Oval Office, Trump delusionally suggested that local leaders were physically afraid of the protesters. Now, members of Congress have unveiled legislation meant to thwart the president’s rush to get federal forces on the streets of American cities.
The legislation is backed by Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici (both of whom are Democrats from Oregon) and Democratic House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of D.C., alongside Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Chris Murphy (D-Ct.). The legislation is called the “Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act” and would “block the Trump administration from deploying federal forces as a shadowy paramilitary against Americans,” as a press release summarizes.
The provisions of the legislation include requirements for clear identification of federal personnel and the vehicles that they’re using. In Portland, there have been personnel without readily visible identification. Furthermore, some personnel have been using unmarked vehicles to conduct arrests, as if they or their superiors imagine themselves to be some kind of secret police or hired goon squad working on behalf of the president and his political allies.
The legislation would demand “individual and agency identification on uniforms of officers and prevent unmarked vehicles from being used in arrests” and it would “[limit] federal agents’ crowd control activities to federal property and its immediate vicinity, unless their presence is specifically requested by both the mayor and governor.” It would also require public disclosures of deployments like the one in Portland, and the disclosures would be required to include information like the exact number of deployed personnel and the explicit purposes that they’ve been dispatched for.
Blumenauer commented:
‘The Trump administration’s egregious trampling of individual liberties and the right of free assembly should never have been allowed to happen. Yet it’s clear that the Gestapo-like tactics used in Washington, D.C. and now Portland are likely a dress rehearsal for other communities around the country. We must block this type of dangerous and undemocratic behavior once and for all.’
Oregon’s two Democratic Senators also spoke out. Merkley commented:
‘What we have seen in the last 10 days in Portland has been horrific and unconscionable. Federal forces have shot an unarmed protester in the head with impact munitions, and paramilitary forces in camouflage have been grabbing people off the streets and putting them into unmarked vans. These are the actions of an authoritarian regime, not a democratic republic. This gross violation of Americans’ civil rights must end immediately.’
Wyden ominously added that “[if] it can happen in Portland, it can happen anywhere.” The Portland violence comes after the Trump administration also deployed not-immediately-identified federal personnel into the streets of D.C. to harass and attack peaceful protesters there, too. The deployments drew outrage, but the Trump administration continues on in their bubble in which everyday Americans are the enemy.
