The Secret Policeman's Brawl

“The activity of a police state.”
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.)

“This is what dictators do.” 
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) 

These comments are in response to actions taken in Portland OR where federal agents in military combat fatigues were taking action against protestors.

Donald Trump's whiny complaints to the contrary, we're not talking about rioters, vandals, arsonists or any thing of that sort. 

Consider this group from Sunday.  Arms linked, they stood firmly in a line outside the Portland federal courthouse, their backs turned to the federal agents. They stood their ground in peaceful protest as the agents aimed their weapons at  their backs.

The backs of women. Mothers. A "Wall of Moms" they called it. 

Not looters or rioters or the “anarchists” Donald Trump says hate our country. 

Not “violent extremists” that acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has vowed to put down.

Not the mythical “antifa” agitating Tucker Carlson so much every night.  

Just moms, about a hundred of them, standing peacefully in protest, with weapons aimed at their backs.  

This is not the first time Trump, his snivelling sycophants and his Fox News enablers have tried to conflate peaceful protests with rioters and looters.  

Trump's infamous photo op to pose awkwardly with a Bible in front of a church was accomplished by a forceful and violent expulsion of peaceful protestors from his path. 

And it's not just the use of force of against protestors under the guise of putting down violent crime. Also troubling is how this is being done. 

The "federal agents in military combat fatigues" are acting with complete impunity to forcibly stop and detain non-violent actors with no clear line of a command. Those "military combat fatigues" have no insignia or other identifiers to indicate what chain of command these agents answer to.  They bound out of vans and trucks with no markings to pull American citizens not committing any crimes off the streets and into those unmarked vans and trucks.

These actions are the very model of a secret police working for an authoritarian leader.  

True to the very model of a bully, Donald Trump is bringing force to bear on people who cannot fight back. 

The "Wall Of Moms" were tear gassed for their effrontery to Donald Trump's self image as a tough guy.  

Standing in a line, arms linked, backs turned to those who would threaten them. Is this who Donald Trump is afraid of?

Well, he should be.