even when the world’s gone mad
One of the hardest tasks for a politically aware citizen in this polarized environment is to hew to your principles even when your opponent’s ox is being gored. During the Trump years I had to constantly check check my own priors as we observed the actions of the FBI and DOJ working on the various Trump scandals. As it turned out, the Trump administration was unusually reckless and corrupt and the federal law enforcement agencies were actually quite restrained for political reasons so there wasn’t even much accountability, much less overkill. (Mueller, anyone?)
But during the protests in the summer of 2020, we saw them revert to form. The rough treatment in Lafayette Square is the most notorious example but there was plenty of federal overzealous policing going on all over the country under the leadership of Bill Barr and Donald Trump. And I think we can feel pretty confident that even today there are many feds in the various agencies who are hard core right wingers who are very amenable to authoritarian government.
The F.B.I. set up extensive surveillance operations inside Portland’s protest movement, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and current and former federal officials, with agents standing shoulder to shoulder with activists, tailing vandalism suspects to guide the local police toward arrests and furtively videotaping inside one of the country’s most active domestic protest movements.
The breadth of F.B.I. involvement in Portland and other cities where federal teams were deployed at street protests became a point of concern for some within the bureau and the Justice Department who worried that it could undermine the First Amendment right to wage protest against the government, according to two officials familiar with the discussions.
Some within the departments worried that the teams could be compared to F.B.I. surveillance transgressions of decades past, such as the COINTELPRO projects that sought to spy on and disrupt various activist groups in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the officials, one current and one former, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the debate…
In Portland, federal teams were initially dispatched in July 2020 to protect the city’s federal courthouse after protesters lit fires, smashed windows and lobbed fireworks at law enforcement personnel in the area. One demonstrator had attacked a federal officer with a hammer. But the F.B.I. role quickly widened, persisting months after activists turned their attention away from the courthouse, with some targeting storefronts or local institutions whose protection would normally be up to the local police.
We already knew that a federal task force basically executed an unarmed left wing protester who was accused of shooting a far-right Donald Trump supporters during one of the Portland protests. Trump even took credit for ordering the hit, saying “that’s how it has to be, there has to be retribution.” And there were those stories of unmarked agents gathering up protesters and driving them all over town without telling anyone who they were.
Bill Barr was convinced that Antifa was taking over the country and he sent in federal law enforcement in to stop it. Right wing terrorist militias, not so much.
It’s tempting under those circumstances to become a proponent of the DOJ taking off the gloves and going after the right wing the same way they go after the left. And yes, with their propensity for violence, it’s clear that the authorities should be keeping an eye on what they’re doing. But we can’t lose our perspective either. Political disagreements morphing into political violence is something the United States has seen far too often in our history and the government has far too often overreacted. It never ends well.
I’m glad they are being tough on the most violent of the January 6th protesters. That was a true act of political insurrection. But we can’t let ourselves get too caught up in the idea that this problem will be solved with harsh law enforcement. That way lies authoritarian danger of its own. Our divide is really a political and cultural problem that we must seek political and cultural solutions to bridge.
I’ve always written about these issues going back to the very beginning of this blog believing that it’s important that we remain as clear-eyed and objective as we can when it comes to government police authority. I think it’s going to be even more important going forward as we confront the latest threat of neo-fascist, white nationalism on the right. I will do my best to convey what I see out there with as much clarity as I can.
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cheers — digby
Happy Hollandaise!