Secret Police Kidnappers in Portland

Man in camouflage: "Get in the van!"

Citizen: "Wait. Who are you?"

Men in camouflage: "Shut up. Get in the van!"

It isn't just illegal. It is dangerous. 

In Portland, Oregon there are reports that men in unmarked uniforms have grabbed people, pushed them into vans, blindfolded them, driven them to a secret place, interrogated them, and then released them.

When police agencies have been contacted to confirm this, there appear to be no records.  It is the secret police.

There have been enough stories from credible people, reported by credible people, and not denied by federal officials, to indicate that something weird and dangerous is happening in Portland.  The Trump administration's effort to bring "law and order is taking the form of scaring the bejesus out of protesters with a super-size version of "stop and frisk." It is intimidation. It attempts a chilling effect. 

Stop and frisk, readers may recall, is a policing policy that directs police to stop and briefly detain any person an officer deems suspicious. The citizen is directed to lean out with their hands on a building or squad car, feet spread, while police search their pockets for contraband or evidence of some illegal activity. People are profiled based on appearance (age, race, clothes, time of day, demeanor) and find it humiliating. The encounter sends a message that they are being watched and had better not do anything illegal. This practice is controversial, but legal, since the encounters are brief, considered a detention, not an arrest. It takes place in public.

Federal law enforcement agencies are performing an enhanced form of this in Portland, only this time it is secret and denied, therefore not accountable. Unmarked vans have approached peaceful protests and shoved people into vans for interrogation. The head of the US Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, gave an explanation by twitter: The agency "will continue to arrest the violent criminals that are destroying federal property & injuring our agents/officers in Portland.” The acting Homeland Security chief was in town and said their purpose was to "restore order." In actual practice, the people being put into vans were not violent nor were they acting legally. After all, they were released.

Oregon officials, from the Governor, two Senators, Portland's Mayor, the County Sheriff objected. They are provoking violence, not restoring order, they said. Governor Kate Brown said the Homeland Security chief's comments "showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes. He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way.”

Shot by accident

The exact identity and intent of armed people is a matter of life and death, for citizens and police both.

In two recent events Americans have died in circumstances involving force by unknown actors. Police in Louisville, Kentucky exercised a surprise late-night no-knock entry on an apartment rented by Breonna Taylor. The police thought a man they sought might be there. He wasn't. Indeed, he was already in police custody elsewhere.

Breonna Taylor was awakened by loud banging from late night intruders. A boyfriend, unclear about who and what was going on, attempted self defense against the intruders with a handgun and fired it, hitting a police officer. The police, opened a volley of fire of their own into the apartment, killing Taylor in her bedroom. 

In Brunswick, Georgia three men saw a man jogging in their neighborhood and suspected criminal behavior. They got onto pickup trucks with weapons, pursued him, boxed him in and then, when he was cornered and turned to grab a gun pointed at him, he was shot and killed. The original determination by local law enforcement, prior to videotape becoming public, was that this was an act of self defense by the shooter. After all, a black man was reaching for a gun. The videotape suggested a different story, that Aubery was running away to avoid confrontation with armed men, and it was he that acted in desperation and self defense.

Again, the identity and intent of people using force is a matter of life and death. 

Prudent people do not just get into the vans of strangers. Prudent people do submit to police, but they also justly use self defense when confronted by armed assailants. Mysterous kidnappings by federal officers have consequences. They create confusion. It blurs the line between accountable policing and criminal intent. Protesters will carry weapons. Citizens will get shot. Police officers will get shot.

If the goal is law and order, this policy makes no sense. 

The kidnappings do make sense if the goal is prolonging disorder and creating visuals of confrontations to show as Breaking News on Fox, which is happening currently.  In Trump's view, urban protests--not the virus--are the primary danger to public safety.

 He is betting the swing voters of America care a lot about street violence, but at this point they are sick of fighting the virus and wearing masks.