Washington: The deployment of federal agents in the US city of Portland, Oregon, and the threat by President Donald Trump to proceed in the same way with other cities, today cause concern among local authorities.
For more than fifty days, Portland has been the scene of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality after the death of African-American George Floyd, on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Although many of the protests are peaceful, the media also report that in some there is violence, vandalism and arson, in addition to new allegations of police brutality.
As protests escalated in recent weeks, the Trump administration, which continually criticizes the mass mobilizations, decided to send agents from the Department of Homeland Security to the city on the grounds of protecting federal buildings, despite opposition from local and state authorities.
The presence of these forces in Portland is accompanied by allegations that federal officials, dressed in unidentified military uniforms, abruptly detain participants in the protests.
The mayor of the city, Ted Wheeler, told CNN on Sunday that people are literally taken off the street in unmarked trucks and rental cars. “Apparently, they are denied the probable cause, and they are denied due process. They don’t even know who is pushing them into the trucks?, he said.
Last week, Oregon Governor Democrat Kate Brown called Trump’s dispatch of the agents a political theater and said it has nothing to do with public safety. Now she is deploying federal officials to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.
Despite all that controversy and criticism from many voices, Trump said yesterday that he could send such personnel to other cities led by Democrats, on the grounds that they have high levels of violence.
We are also looking at Chicago. We are looking at New York, all led by very liberal Democrats, said the president in the White House, and also mentioned cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore.