Amidst national outcry over the deployment of militarized federal agents to Portland, Oregon, where they’ve been violently confronting peaceful protesters, demonstrators gathered outside of the apparently D.C.-area home of acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf on Sunday. The protesters came from nearby — most if not all of them, including one woman who spoke at the gathering, were apparent neighbors of Wolf. They spoke against what they described as the “fascist” targeting of demonstrators who oppose the ruling administration, which in this case is, of course, the Trump team.
Video of the protest was shared by journalist Julio Rosas. A Wolf neighbor who spoke shared:
‘We know there are no career consequences for these men and women. We know there are no financial consequences for these men and women. We know there are no legal consequences for these men and women. We must make social consequences for these men and women. We must make it uncomfortable for them. We will not be good Germans! We will not be the people who sat by and watched our neighbors commit these atrocities and said nothing because their kids were home, because they were polite… What has been made more clear than ever is that men hide behind their wives, behind their children!’
Watch a video of her remarks below:
One speaker at the protest outside of Sec. Chad Wolf’s home complains how there’s no financial, career, and legal consequences for people like him. Says there must be social/political consequences: “[Wolf] lives here quietly…and we need to do something about that.” pic.twitter.com/b47dUrKFrB
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 26, 2020
It is true that — like at basically every single other meaningful juncture in American history — there have been isolated instances of sometimes violent rioting throughout the recent nationwide outcry against police brutality. It is also true that the overwhelming majority of protesters across the nation have been peaceful, but the president and his political allies have barely even attempted to distinguish between the two sides in their mad rush to turn the situation into some kind of culture war flashpoint that they can capitalize on politically.
The Department of Homeland Security has released a list of incidents that they claim justify their presence in Portland. Many of the incidents have been graffiti. To suggest that graffiti justifies paramilitary violence against peacefully protesting Americans is absolutely outrageous. The Trump administration is dangerous and out-of-control.
Just to be clear, almost all crime in Portland—including almost all violence—has been LOWER than average over the past several weeks.
(Also, graffiti isn’t a violent crime, and it looks like over half the acts cited by DHS are graffiti.) pic.twitter.com/YU7mH2z5yb
— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) July 17, 2020
