The Authoritarian Operation in Portland Is Only a Dress Rehearsal

[swag]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33347230/portland-oregon-protesters-detained/

A major American city is being softly Pinochet’ed in broad daylight.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
JUL 17, 2020

Excerpt:

LEO’s in camo? Unmarked vehicles? Disappearing people off the street without charge? Detention in something far too close to a police black site? (Ask some folks in Chicago how those work out.) I always knew I missed something not growing up in Santiago.

"Pettibone did not escape the federal officers. “I am basically tossed into the van,” Pettibone said. “And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn’t see and they held my hands over my head.” Pettibone and O’Shea both said they couldn’t think of anything they might have done to end up targeted by law enforcement. They attend protests regularly but they said they aren’t “instigators.” They don’t spray paint buildings, shine laser pointers at officers or do anything else other than attend protests, which law enforcement have regularly deemed “unlawful assemblies.” Blinded by his hat, in an unmarked minivan full of armed people dressed in camouflage and body armor who hadn’t identified themselves, Pettibone said he was driven around downtown before being unloaded inside a building. He wouldn’t learn until after his release that he had been inside the federal courthouse."

Why in the hell is this not a bigger story? A major American city is being softly Pinochet’ed in broad daylight. And, if we know one thing, if this president* and his administration* get away with this, it will only get worse. You’d have to be out of your mind—or comatose since the Fall of 2016—not to suspect that this could be a dry run for the kind of general urban mobilization at which the president* has been hinting since this summer's protests began.

Two more dirty words on the side of a building, and Wolf might be calling in air strikes.

. . . Portland may be a dumbshow for dummies, but it also looks like a dress rehearsal. This is not an "authoritarian impulse.” This is authoritarian government—straight, no chaser. And this administration has a powerful thirst for it. It will do anything if it thinks it can get away with it in order to benefit a president* who wants to bring the Republic down on his head.
Unmarked vehicles, disappearing people off the streets?

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Where are the lawsuits?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Yeah. Really?

I would like some more details on what is going on.

[swag]

5. You'll probably find the best reporting at

http://www.opb.org

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Thanks

Weird story to be sure.

[swag]

6. Adding the feds to an existing suit, for starters

https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-aclu-federal-law-enforcement-portland-police-lawsuit/

[MurrayDelph]

3. Welcome to Nazi-occupied Portland

My wife and I are high-risk for Covid, so we don't attend the protests. But we do go to Portland for specialists. Luckily, our next appointment is in a suburb west of downtown.

[Midnight Writer]

4. It's a test.

[hydrolastic]

8. 110 days to go to election...

The fact that the administration is putting unmarked "troops" out is really disturbing. What can we do to stop this until then?