Federal Officers Hit Portland Mayor With Tear Gas

[orangecrush]

PORTLAND, Ore. — The mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, was left coughing and wincing in the middle of his own city Wednesday night after federal officers deployed tear gas into a crowd of protesters that Mr. Wheeler had joined outside the federal courthouse.

Mr. Wheeler, who scrambled to put on goggles while denouncing what he called the “urban warfare” tactic of the federal agents, said he was outraged by the use of tear gas and that it was only making protesters more angry.

“I’m not going to lie — it stings; it’s hard to breathe,” Mr. Wheeler said. “And I can tell you with 100 percent honesty, I saw nothing which provoked this response.”

He called it an “egregious overreaction” on the part of the federal officers, and not a de-escalation strategy.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/portland-protest-tear-gas-mayor.amp.html


Erik Prince's thugs.

[Warpy]

1. They are trying to provoke people into reacting

Those dumb bastards don't realize following orders has them being sitting ducks. I've seen what happens when people are provoked beyond endurance and start throwing bricks off the roofs of 5 story apartment buildings. It is not pretty.

I'm wondering which city will boil over first. I'm wondering which governors will call in the National Guard to push these goons into places where they can't hurt people. I'm remembering when Nixon tried this bullshit, and what a reaction it drew from upper middle class parents in the suburbs when their scruffy college kids were picked up at random for preventive detention.

My city is in the crosshairs, the goons are here, the pretext an unsolved random shooting of a woman last November.

I suppose tots and pears are about all we have to count on at this point. The first time these goons kill somebody (and they will, it's their mission whether or not they know it yet), the whole country will boil over. That is not good.

[malthaussen]

4. Frankly, I don't think that is their mission...

... or rather, it is not their immediate mission. Their immediate mission is for one of them to get shot, so the escalation can be "justified" by the "lawless behavior." I think they are targets, and the poor fools don't even know it, but the people pulling the strings do, and are just praying for one of them to get hurt.

-- Mal

[Warpy]

8. There is some truth to that

I've had the unplleasant experience of seeing what happens when cobblestones and bricks are thrown from the rooftops of 5 story apartment buildings. I don't want to see it again.

Fortunately, most of this town is very short.

[PatrickforO]

6. Yeah, I'm absolutely furious over this whole thing.

Their mission is to provoke violence so Trump can pound his chest and try to get 'emergency powers' just like Hitler did back in the early 1930s.

We can't let it happen.

But you're right. It IS happening, and somebody (somebodies) will probably be killed by these goons. And yes, the country will boil over. The encouraging thing is that 58% of people now believe Black Lives Matter and support them in the demonstrations and in getting social justice.

Funny how overt ugly racism does that - Trump himself has managed to create a MASSIVE civil rights movement akin to the one back in the early 60s. And the Millennial and GenZ kids are not nearly as gullible or naive as we boomers were way back when, and we have social media.

Lastly, Trump's mistake is to believe the 'silent majority' is as reactionary as they were back in the days of Tricky Dicky, but the 'silent majority' doesn't exist in that sense any more, but in the sense that people who were silently disgusted with Trump are now speaking out. Hitting the streets. Getting active politically.

[Warpy]

7. You're right, it will happen

I can selfishly hope it won't happen here because I'm just way too old for this bullshit.

Everything fascists do is giving them significant blowback from directions they never expected. Since Dumdum can never admit he's wrong or that he miscalculated anything, I fully expect them to double down on all of it.

Nixon's Silents are just about gone, many left are frail elderly who are beyond caring about things like voting. I have to hope that the reactionary dimwit Boomers are balanced by the sour old lefties like me. I just fear November is too far away.

I was rudely awakened by a cop chopper circling overhead and there is nothing at all in the news about some gangsta getting shot real bad or any other nasty stuff going on, so I suppose it's more harassment. My area is in the crosshairs.

Tots and pears gratefully accepted.

[orangecrush]

9. Agent provocateurs

[struggle4progress]

2. "I gassed the Mayor. But I swear he was behind the fence!"

[PatrickforO]

3. Thanks for the reminder. I just did my daily call protesting Trump's

egregious overreach in sending these 'snatch squads' to 'Democrat-controlled' cities to both my US Senators and my Representative.

Because Trump cannot be allowed to get away with this gross violation of Amendments 1, 4 and 5 with these fully militarized squads, and his disgusting speech trying to get white people in suburbs to hate the demonstrators. This is an outrage, and I for one will be calling my delegation to the US Congress daily until they force Trump to cease and desist.

Gassing the mayor of Portland is NOT OK. Not by a long stretch. Trump has grossly overreached his powers, and we have to fight it tooth and nail.

Oh, I know Trump throws so much shit at the wall, people just get tired and give up.

THAT IS WHAT HE WANTS.

Well, I'm not giving up. We have about 100 days left before we can (God, I hope!) vote this piece of excrement out of office and flip pretty much every seat possible blue. Not only do we need to give Biden money, and campaign for down-ticket Dems, but we bloody well need to stand up against dictator-wannabee stuff like this.

[wnylib]

5. I'm wondering if it's possible to ID

the Gestapo individuals using police lab techniques.

In the process of detaining protesters, these thugs must be touching them and shedding DNA in the form of hairs, skin cells, etc. Maybe even spittle drops on someone's face mask from yelling the protester's face.

Immediately after release, the kidnapped protester might go to a designated place for an exam and collection of DNA to be tested.

Once DNA is tested, there are many databases that can be searched for the identity of the person it belongs to. Even genealogy sites can be helpful.

If the Gestapo thugs are identified they can be prosecuted, or at the very least, publicized for what they are.