Relax! I know I grabbed you off the street, but I'm just a criminal, not a federal agent!

[muriel_volestrangler]

Alexandra Petri:

Hello, harmless passerby, and welcome to my unmarked van!

I know this is very creepy for you, but I want you to relax: I am just a criminal, doing this entirely on my own dime and my own time, and you can have recourse to law enforcement later! I know it would be terrifying if I were actually some sort of federal law enforcement, because then you would have no recourse, and, furthermore, you might feel that the country had taken a serious turn. But, no, America is still as great as it has ever been! I, personally, am a criminal monster who is constructing a sculpture out of mandibles to placate the Elk God, but America’s system of rights and constitutional protections is absolutely still fully intact. So, that’s good.

I have gotten a lot of feedback during my years of seizing people without warning and placing them into this van (do be sure to fill out the form, which is located on the seat next to you) and the No. 1 piece of feedback has been that people want to know that America’s system of rights remains in place. Congratulations, it does! Now you can focus on being scared of me, personally, an extra-legal, non-state actor who should definitely not be doing this and who deserves to be punished as the criminal I am.

Again, I am just doing this for myself, with no color of law whatsoever! I heard on the news that there was a building here that had to be repainted with 47 coats of paint, and to me, that was a summons to come onto the street and start just seizing people at random and tossing them into this van. But, again, that is because my thinking is bad. I am in no way affiliated with any federal agency, not even of any kind! And, frankly, I shouldn’t be!
...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/17/relax-i-know-i-grabbed-you-off-street-im-just-criminal-not-federal-agent/

[diverdownjt]

1. Has anyone figured out where these people are taken?

Are they released? Any stories from this little part of our passion play?

[allnews]

2. I read where the one

Was detained in some federal courthouse building. He was released after about 90 minutes. I believe taken back out and dropped off on street.

[safeinOhio]

4. They have to release them.

To charge them and have a court date, they would have to testify in court. That would blow their little game of who am I.

[usedtobedemgurl]

3. MSNBC Covered This Last Night

They said as soon as people demanded their rights, they were let go. And, yes, they were held in federal buildings.

[RicROC]

6. not-in-uniform

Seems to me that anyone in fatigues but without military insignia or name tag should be considered 'not-in-uniform' according to military protocol. Therefore, not operating within the bounds of law if they assault anyone.

Prosecute these thugs and their superiors!

[debsy]

5. Sounds to me like Eric Prince.

This is exactly the kind of stuff his company does. We have been living in a silent coup for the last 4 years. Trump will "win" the election again and they will continue to devolve the U. S. into an authoritarian state.

[louzke9]

7. YES.....

Under federal CONTRACT, BUT by WHO/WHOM? Bill Barr? Homeland Security? Probably Donald Trump, or Steven Miller. Sounds like a FUBAR scheme he would try to pull. I personally think this is a "DRY RUN" or test for after November. NO OTHER REASON I can think of for this! If Trump loses, who knows what he will pull! What ever it is, it will fail but not before it causes severe damage in the process. Like all his policies and machinations. BE PREPARED!

[KS Toronado]

8. Where is the camera phone footage that would go viral?

[ancianita]

10. Portland has a group of video documentarians who accompany citizens at night.

The latest filmed incident didn't happen anywhere near federal buildings or monuments.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. This was the first one I saw, but I'm not sure whether it's the best known

Link to tweet

10 million views, anyway.

[KS Toronado]

12. Thanks, this is the type of video ABC,CBS,NBC, etc should be running.

Camo guys in unmarked van saying nothing more than you're under arrest come with us.
This is about to get UGLY, do they have live ammo in their pistols?

[ancianita]

9. If DHS allows CBP to outsource security, we might be looking at private military companies, or

PMC's.

As of 2013 there were at least fifteen such paramilitaries run by companies run by CEO's.

There are probably a whole lot more right now, and William Barr has probably got their back.

P.W. Singer was the first to map their presence, history and structure in Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (2013). It needs some updating but it's still a relevant read.

An introduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company

List of U.S. PMC's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paramilitary_organizations#List_of_non-governmental_paramilitary_units

Blurred militias is where Nazi adjacent corporatists in this government are going.

Various unorganized non-governmental Militia organizations in the United States (that are not associated with the U.S. military, law enforcement agencies, nor state defense forces in any way) with some linked to white identitarianism, anti-governmental movements, domestic terrorism and crime.

3 Percenters
Arizona Border Recon
Hutaree

Idaho Light Foot Militia
Michigan Militia
Militia of Montana

Missouri Citizens Militia
New York Light Foot Militia
Oath Keepers

Ohio Defense Force (not an actual state defense force)
Texas Light Foot Militia
and many others totaling at around 334 unorganized militia groups as of 2011[13]

[bonniebgood]

13. So why aren't the STATE GOVERNORS HAVING THEM ARRESTED AND THROWN OUT? nt

[ancianita]

16. If this happened within CBP jurisdiction, Trump trumps governors' juridictional authority.

That doesn't mean that the abuse of power that causes actual HARM to citizens, as differentiated from illegal or undocumented humans, couldn't go to court. It could.

It probably should, once Ron Wyden and the National Governors Association get some due process investigations under way to get depositions from harmed Americans, collect documents from Homeland and the DOJ.

This time, Barr will have to defend the president's right to operate stasi against American protestors. I don't think they'll be supported constitutionally because of HARM. Who would represent The People in this case, I don't know.

But to prosecute Homeland and Trump, there will have to be some major lawyers. I wish Obama were one of them.

[Ilsa]

14. The feds are claiming they are CBP (customs & border patrol)

but what mandate do they have in Portland? It makes no sense. The arresting officers should be threatened with individual lawsuits. Make these men think about their personal responsibility in doing this unlawful act.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. CBP claims jurisdiction 100 miles from any border, coast or international airport

The author of this, Adam Silverman, was a military adviser in Iraq; he knows all about military operations in countries where the military and their target populace are opponents.

I have been worried about something like this happening for over a month now since the beginning of the protests in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. That teams of Federal law enforcement, with the majority coming from the Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Response Units (they’re trained to go in one on top of each other into cells or areas of Federal prisons and use maximum force to achieve compliance) and C&BP’s equivalents of Rapid Response Units would be deployed to all the major urban areas, especially those with majority or plurality minority populations (African American, Latinx, or a combination of the two). Specifically, that they will be used in an increasingly visible manner over the next 100 days or so culminating in widespread visible use of them during early voting periods and on election day in or near voting precincts, as well as near mail in ballot drop boxes at municipal facilities. A program of voter suppression under color of law. While the mayors and governors of these states who are Democrats will push back, and the Democratic governors won’t allow their National Guard to be pulled into these operations, the states that have Republican governors aligned with the President like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, etc, even if the cities being targeted have Democratic leadership (Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Cincinnati, etc), will play ball with the President, the Attorney General, and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security.

The goal of such operations would be to increase the fear and stress levels in big cities with significant minority populations that overwhelmingly vote Democratic to depress turnout. Voter suppression under color of law. I expect that whatever executive order (EO) the President issues next week will be declaring some sort of national emergency regarding the degradation of law and order in US cities that authorizes the Attorney General and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security to utilize Federal law enforcement to respond. For those not following it, as it did not get a lot of coverage, the President telegraphed the signing of such an executive order on Wednesday regarding restoring order while flanked by the Attorney General.
...
A second major concern has to be the Customs & Border Protection goons. C&BP asserts that they have jurisdiction to operate anywhere within 100 miles of the border, which includes all of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coastlines, as well as a 100 mile radius of all international ports of entry into the US, which is every airport that receives international arrivals or the direct shipment of international goods into the US. This puts around 2/3rd to 3/4s of the US citizenry, based on where they live, under C&BP jurisdiction. The ACLU has the details about what Customs and Border Protection asserts is its jurisdiction. And, of course, the Acting DHS Secretary, when asked about the operations in Portland, stated that DHS had jurisdiction everywhere to protect Federal facilities. Which is also most of the metropolitan/urban US.
...
Now that the Republican National Committee is out from under the Federal court imposed requirement not to use paid election monitors, I have long predicted that they would hire off duty law enforcement to work as election monitors while in uniform. While this is what got them in trouble to begin with in the 1980s and resulted in the Federal court order that was finally lifted last year, the RNC knows it works and paired with an escalating use of Federal law enforcement within urban areas between now and the election in November would go along way to suppressing the vote under the color of law.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2020/07/17/the-federal-police-operations-will-not-stay-in-portland/

[ck4829]

17. K&R