In Donald Trump’s bid to frighten suburban women, a key demographic with which he is losing badly, mostly peaceful protests are being broken up by federal agents in Portland, Oregon while the Trump administration paints them all as looters, rioters, and murderers. He’s gone so far at this point that he sent federal agents to Portland, Oregon – their organizational affiliation and identities are unknown at this point – to terrorize people trying to protest the disproportionate rate of police brutality against black Americans.
A federal judge has blocked federal agents from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers at the ongoing Portland, Oregon, protests. https://t.co/uNFHk7dG5b
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 24, 2020
While Trump is busy threatening military pay raises unless statues of slaveowners are allowed in federal buildings and their names on military bases, the ACLU was busy filing for a restraining order against the federal agents taking people off the streets with no reasonable cause to detain them and no reason for their arrests explained to them.
The ACLU tweeted an announcement about that filing on Thursday night:
‘BREAKING: A federal court just issued a restraining order on the federal agents in Portland, Oregon. We said we would deploy the full firepower of the ACLU in this fight to save our democracy — and we meant it.
‘The ruling, which comes in a case brought by the @ACLU_OR, temporarily blocks federal agents from attacking or arresting journalists and legal observers at Portland protests. We’ll keep fighting until these protections are permanent.’
BREAKING: A federal court just issued a restraining order on the federal agents in Portland, Oregon.
We said we would deploy the full firepower of the ACLU in this fight to save our democracy — and we meant it.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 24, 2020
The ruling, which comes in a case brought by the @ACLU_OR, temporarily blocks federal agents from attacking or arresting journalists and legal observers at Portland protests.
We'll keep fighting until these protections are permanent.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 24, 2020
It is a bizarre circumstance in bizarre times that a battle must be fought in court to keep the president’s secret police from attacking journalists, but the agents were also caught on video attacking a Navy veteran, who would fall under the category of legal observer, who approached them, believing they were military troops, to ask why they were not keeping their oath to protect the American people rather than attack them. 53-year-old Christopher David was hit about his body and on his hand with a baton and tear-gassed at close range.
This story makes me sick. When Navy Veteran Christopher David asked these unidentified federal agents in Portland why they weren't honoring their oath to the Constitution, they beat him—spraying him w/ tear gas & breaking his hand. We’re better than this.https://t.co/2aGAvyOYFH
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) July 23, 2020
As the ACLU fights for the American people, the president was busy on Twitter today retweeting nonsense about the wall of mothers who gathered in Portland to protect the protesters are were tear-gassed for their efforts. Buck Sexton, a political provocateur who gives Tucker Carlson’s racism a run for its money, excused the violence perpetrated against them by saying they weren’t all mothers (Sexton polled them, apparently) and some didn’t identify as female. Of course, there were other people who stood in solidarity with these moms, but the assumption that no trans man could be a mother is a real tell for the transphobic Trump.
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
