Leaked audio: Lawyers praised 'beauty' of controversial protest-response tactics
Lawyers running a training session for officers deploying to protect besieged federal property extolled the “beauty” of a protest-response strategy that some legal experts have criticized as potentially unconstitutional, according to an audio recording obtained by POLITICO.
The training highlights the fierce legal debate over the Trump administration’s push to send federal officers into American cities, sometimes against the wishes of local officials. Images of violent clashes and of vandalism have aired non-stop in conservative media outlets, while President Donald Trump has cast his 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, as dangerously indulgent of “anarchists” and “thugs.”
Videos have shown federal officers in Portland pulling protesters into unmarked vans to transport them for questioning. Some protesters have said they were detained without probable cause and never charged with crimes. The incidents have drawn pointed scrutiny to how the Department of Homeland Security legally defends the detention and transportation of protesters.
The audio POLITICO obtained includes an explanation from government lawyers of how to use little-known federal regulations to remove people from protests, but legal experts reacted to the training differently: Civil liberties advocates who reviewed a transcript of the audio raised concerns that the training amounts to a playbook for punishing freedom of speech and assembly. Former law enforcement officials, meanwhile, say the recommended tactics help them de-escalate raucous protests without bringing stiffer criminal charges against participants.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/leaked-audio-lawyers-praised-beauty-of-controversial-protest-response-tactics/ar-BB17v1Yu?li=BBnb7Kz
