But it must be noted that the deformed human being in the White House now has unidentifiable law enforcement officers deployed on the streets of Portland, Oregon, over the objections of the mayor, the governor, the state’s two senators and members of the House of Representatives.

These officers — dressed up like they’re facing imminent combat — are driving around in unmarked vans, picking up people off the street, with no justification, and then taking them somewhere to be questioned, without explaining why they’re being detained.

So far, there’s no evidence that anybody they’ve picked up has been “disappeared” (e.g. flown away in a helicopter and dropped over the Pacific Ocean), but the officials’ behavior is standard practice under authoritarian regimes. They’re already calling the protesters “violent anarchists”. The next step would be to hype the supposed danger to public order even further and declare martial law.

These events were first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting:

Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Street

Local officials and the ACLU have filed lawsuits to remove the federal presence, but the president’s cronies who run the Department of Homeland Security say it’s only the beginning.

The New York Times reports that the situation is deteriorating:

An aggressive federal campaign to suppress unrest in Portland appears to have instead rejuvenated the city’s movement, as protesters gathered by the hundreds late Friday and into Saturday morning — the largest crowd in weeks.

Federal officers at times flooded street corridors with tear gas and shot projectiles from paintball guns, while demonstrators responded by shouting that the officers in fatigues were “terrorists” and chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”

A court ruling has largely prohibited local police from using tear gas during the recent protests, which have played out for more than 50 consecutive nights in Portland.

While the protesters have repeatedly decried the city’s own police tactics, Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as police commissioner, and other leaders have united in calls for federal agencies to stay away. City commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty went to join protesters gathered outside the county Justice Center downtown, saying the city will “not allow armed military forces to attack our people.”

“Today we show the country and the world that the city of Portland, even as much as we fight among ourselves, will come together to stand up for our Constitutional rights,” Ms. Hardesty said Friday.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo explains the government’s deception in a Twitter thread:

When you go to a federal courthouse and you see security there you probably realize it’s not the local [police department]. They’re federal agents. Since 2002 [Federal Protective Services] has been housed with [the Department of Homeland Security]. The White House and acting officials at DHS are now using this jurisdiction over federal facilities as a hook to make [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and [Customs and Border Patrol] into a sort of federal political police, run by acting appointees at DHS and responding to the President’s campaign needs.

They are saying that they’ve authorized ICE and CBP to operate in support of the FPS mission. In other words, in their view it’s not really CBP it’s just officers backing up FPS. But of course there’s nothing happening that FPS can’t handle on its own. But through this hook of jurisdiction over federal installations, CBP is now assuming police powers over anyone either spray painting on federal facilities or who simply might be protesting near one. Because there have been some instances of vandalism against federal buildings and monuments, this is the hook through which DHS has authorized CBP and ICE as what amounts to Txxxx’s private police force or domestic security service. It’s no accident that it’s ICE and CBP. They’re among the most politicized federal police agencies, most . . . organizational loyal to and supportive or Txxxx’s agenda and political ambitions.

The problem, of course, is that the truly dangerous “violent anarchists” in Portland are dressed for combat and paid by our tax dollars. See the video below.