Federal agents he can deploy need to stay away from Colorado's protests
By THE DENVER POST EDITORIAL BOARD |
PUBLISHED: July 23, 2020 at 1:50 p.m. | UPDATED: July 23, 2020 at 1:50 p.m.
Coloradans must be prepared for the possibility that President Donald Trump will order federal agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into Denver to intimidate protesters and silence the voices clamoring for an end to police brutality and for reform of our deeply flawed justice system ...
Trump — or any president for that matter — does not get to decide whether or not protests occur. He either needs to tone down his rhetoric and explain the limited mission of these federal agents or he needs to withdraw them completely from Portland. He also needs to explain that Operation LeGend — which he announced on Wednesday will send federal resources to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to fight violent crime — is completely unrelated to protests, the Black Lives Matter movement or Democratic governors and mayors. His conflation of the program with protests is irresponsible.
If Homeland Security agents arrive in Denver in riot gear, we hope thousands of Coloradans — Republicans and Democrats, police officers and leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement — will stand at least 6 feet apart in masks (coronavirus is dangerous but so are efforts to turn Americans against each other) and peacefully tell the feds we don’t need their help to solve this conflict.
Coloradans are working it out together ...
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/23/editorial-trump-and-the-federal-agents-he-can-deploy-need-to-stay-away-from-colorados-protests/
