American Police Are Now Openly Working With Violent White Nationalist

[Celerity]

The police are signaling that they welcome militia help to pacify protests, and kill unarmed citizens

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/american-police-are-now-openly-working



This weekend, the Portland police department wanted to make sure everyone knew exactly where they stood. After almost three months of violently assaulting BLM protesters, peaceful or otherwise, they decided that maybe Saturday would be a good day to stop doing that. Normally, this would be good news, but, being the Portland PD, there was a catch. They weren’t standing down in the interest of public safety or community relations. Instead, as The Washington Post reports, they were standing aside to let the neo-fascist terrorist group The Proud Boys start a street fight with antifa:

The two groups sparred for more than two hours, as people exchanged blows, fired paintballs at each other and blasted chemicals indiscriminately into the crowd. People lobbed fireworks back and forth. At least one person was hit in the abdomen with a device that flashed and exploded, causing bleeding. … As the brawls unfolded, Portland police officers remained at a distance. They made several announcements over loudspeakers, encouraging the crowds to “self-monitor for criminal activity,” even as people beat others with sticks, and at least two right-wing activists brandished handguns.

Just a bunch of armed white nationalists looking for a fight. What’s wrong with that?

The Double Standard For Law Enforcement

The police have long been accused of treating white nationalists with kid’s gloves while treating everyone else to a face full of pepper spray. And that’s if the police are in a good mood. When they’re not, you get this.

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Or this.

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Or this.

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Or if you’re black, you might just be gunned down and labeled a “thug” who should have complied with police orders. But when you’re a violent white nationalist, you don’t have to worry about that sort of thing. The police are very accommodating. If they’re not giving you a full escort to make sure your First Amendment rights are protected, a luxury they don’t afford to everyone, they’re buying you Burger King after a hard day’s work killing a church full of black people. You may think I’m being snarky here but I’m actually quite serious. We’ve been watching the police viciously attack peaceful protesters for months (years, really) but we’ve also seen them cozying up to white nationalists:

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The key words here are “don’t look like we’re playing favorites.” Naturally, warning the armed white nationalists to get off the streets so you don’t have to arrest them while you’re getting ready to gas BLM protesters and arrest them, is the literal definition of playing favourites. The Salem police chose a side. They just didn’t want to be seen doing it. The Portland police have been caught before taking sides, as well. The Portland Mercury documented how they literally coordinated with white nationalists like they were on military manoeuvres:

"We have a large group of antifa trying to flank us an [sic] you. We are stopping them for now... but not sure how long." This is one of hundreds of text messages sent between Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Lt. Jeff Niiya and Joey Gibson, leader of Vancouver alt-right group Patriot Prayer over the past two years. Like many messages discovered in a records request made in August by the Portland Mercury, it reflects many of the public's suspicions that the Portland police have been sympathetic—if not protective—of the right-wing extremist group. … "Heads up just told 4-5 black Bloch [another nickname for antifa] heading your way. One carrying a flag," writes Niiya during a protest on December 23 2017. "We will have officers nearby but you may want to think about moving soon if more come."

There were no such communications with any BLM protesters. Granted, there are no leaders to the current round of protests but even if there were, what are the chances the police would do anything other than place them under surveillance? The Portland police have clearly sided with white nationalists and they’re not putting much effort into hiding it at this point. Even their excuse for allowing neo-fascist terrorists to rampage in the streets was painfully transparent:

“Each skirmish appeared to involve willing participants and the events were not enduring in time, so officers were not deployed to intervene,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. Police said they did not stop the violence, although the event met the criteria to be declared a riot, because too few officers were available to respond and they deemed it too dangerous to intervene. Officers were tired from responding to a much smaller and less volatile protest that was declared a riot the night before, the bureau said in a statement, and incident commanders also had concerns that officers would be targeted by the crowd.

That’s a nice story, but the Portland PD always seems to have more than enough cops on hand to shoot chemical weapons, flash bangs, and rubber bullets at protesters they don’t like before wading into the crowds and smashing them with clubs and fists. The last time I went to watch white nationalists on parade, the police kept both them and the counter protesters separated by a wide margin and tolerated no bullshit from either side. It wasn’t that hard to do and did not require a massive police presence to accomplish. It’s far more likely that the reticence of the Portland PD stems from their inability to tell the combatants apart in the middle of a huge melee. After all, most of the people fighting are white with their faces covered. How do you know if the person you’re smashing into the ground with four of your fellow “officers of the law” is a filthy Marxist Hippie anti-fascist protester that deserves it or a white nationalist comrade in the war to make America great again? Chemical weapons can’t differentiate between ideologies and it won’t do to gas your own side, would it? It’s a total mystery why people are still protesting against the police.

Cops Across America Went All In On Racism And It Will Cost Them

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. Trump was president and promised the police free rein to be as awful as they wanted. White supremacy was the law of the land and the good times would never end! But Trump is not the president of state and city governments, and there’s a very good chance he won’t be the president of anything next year. He doesn’t get to dictate the budgets of police departments and while “Defund the Police” is not a particularly good slogan (you still need some cops), the premise is excellent. American law enforcement is as bloated as the military. Strip a few billion from the collective budget of the police and redirect that money into other community services. Like magic, we’ll find that improving mental health services and job opportunities reduces the need for a massive militarized police force. Several cities have started to do this already because the police are out of control. That’s at the local level. If (when) Trump flees the country to someplace without an extradition treaty, things will get significantly worse for those police departments full of “bad apples” all over the country.

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