Checkpoint: Portland, And The Death Of Democracy
Nathan Howard / Stringer
In his book The Arab Uprisings: The People want the Fall of the Regime, award-winning BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen writes “Arabs, like everyone else, do not want rulers who depend on fear, who wield power based on police states that terrorize the people”. The book itself may be an account of the various revolutions that swept the Middle East during and after the 2011 Arab Spring, but it also points to a consistent factor in the maintenance of authoritarian regimes. A repressive and often secretive police force.
The role of the police in a democratic country is to Protect and Serve. If they fail in that regard, the people have the right to demand consequences and justice. Behind the growing calls to defund and even abolish the police in the United States is a recognition by the American people that police officers who fail to protect and serve, who instead commit deadly and often racist acts of brutality, are not held accountable for those actions by the political system.
Within a dictatorship, the police do not serve the people but rather the authoritarian leader. Their role is not to protect civilians, but to intimidate and silence criticism of the regime by any means necessary. Throughout history, the worst atrocities have been committed by men and women in the employ of the state who were simply following orders.
Today’s America, under the presidency of Donald Trump, is taking its first steps in that lamentable direction. As Black Lives Matter protests continue to erupt across the country, Trump has begun using federal agents against the protesters in a way that, despite his own insistences on Twitter, undermines the very foundations of law and order in a democratic society.
For the past month, unidentified federal agents have been sent into cities and states with protest movements without permission from local or state authorities. To make matters worse, these agents are reportedly using rented vans to accomplish the goal of snatching protesters off the streets without making formal arrests, bypassing the constitutional rights of American citizens and making finding the agents responsible through legitimate avenues impossible. In short, Trump’s response to the protests concerning the lack of accountability for law enforcement officers is to make those officers even less accountable.
Reportedly, Trump’s ‘secret police force’ is being drawn from the ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs enforcement, and the U.S. Marshall’s Service. The goals for the President, it can be assumed, is to paint himself as a strong authority figure. Going over the heads of state authorities is an attempt to send a message to his supporters, and those perhaps on the fence ahead of the election later this year, that only he can be trusted to maintain law and order and that Democrats will allow “anarchists” to control the streets should Joe Biden win in November.
The tactic is a favourite of despots the world over. Basher Al-Assad, President of Syria, also insisted that Syrians had a simple choice between peace and stability with him, or anarchy should he leave power. Even as his military was gunning down unarmed protesters in 2011, Assad told the world that his soldiers were fighting against dangerous anarchists threatening to tear Syria apart. His lies helped pave the way for the Syrian Civil War, the death and displacement of millions of his citizens, and the rise of ISIS terrorism.
Portland, Oregon, is serving as the unwilling testing ground for how much the Trump Administration can get away with while subverting democracy. The sheer size and overreaching mission of the DHS since its foundation in 2002 already opens it up to abuses of power and civil liberties violations. “Operation Diligent Valor”, as the actions of federal agents in Portland have been designated, is simply the latest showing of how truly unaccountable the federal government can be when it so wishes.
On the face of it, these agents are in place to protect federal property from damage during the protests. However, actions speak louder than words. Using fear and intimidation tactics to clamp down on American’s constitutional right to gather and protest does not fall under the remit of protecting federal property. The actions of federal agents, along with their complete lack of identifying names or badge numbers, has led some to compare them to the Gestapo, the Nazi’s secret police force who rounded up Jews and political opponents on Hitler’s orders.
With Trump mobilizing these agents to invade more American cities like Chicago and New York, it is becoming more clear that the end goal is not simply a PR stunt. Polls are showing Trump losing to Biden in the Presidential Election, and some worry that the current President will refuse to leave the Oval office once his time is up. He has seemingly joked about extending the limit on presidential terms before, and recently advocated postponing the election altogether, something he doesn’t actually have the power to do.
If, however, Trump were to try and delay the election (another well known tactic from the dictator’s playbook), protests would presumably escalate far beyond what America is experiencing right now. The Black Lives Matter protests, while widespread, face many critics from both the conservative and liberal political spheres. Attempting to delay the election in November would bring Americans from all walks of life out onto the streets to protest the denial of their democracy.
Portland is the trial run for smashing protests against Trump. The DHS is being used as an authoritarian secret police force in preparation for the moment Trump either delays the election or refuses to accept a losing result. Allowing them to attack protests now, with no accountability and no repercussions, will only encourage them to continue with this agenda when the protests are ones calling for the free and fair elections Trump wants to deny America.
For the sake of American democracy, this situation cannot be allowed to continue.