Portland, Oregon And Dublin Ireland: A Lesson

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

There are news reports that federal agents - without warrants or cause - are driving around Portland in unmarked vans and grabbing protestors off the streets on ‘suspicion’ (it isn’t immediately clear what these people are suspected of).

This is GREAT! Nothing recruits people to a movement like illegal, baseless security overreactions. Precisely the same thing happened in the aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916 (along with executions, but let’s hope this doesn’t go that far). People who supported the movement from the sidelines and even some who had been indifferent to it, flocked to the cause.

People agitating for civic or political change always have the goal of goading the government into a clampdown of exactly this sort and the result is always the same - it swells the ranks of the people in the streets.

Just a handful of years after the Rising, the Irish Free State was established, followed shortly by the Republic of Ireland.

Boru

[ido]

To sum up– American citizens are “disappeared” from the streets of an American city by camouflaged, unidentified secret police. Detainee released but not told what if any charges.
.
We’ve seen this law & order playbook before, la mano dura. It is autocratic. It is fascism. Banana republic. Tinpot Dictatorship. Extra-judicial terrorism.

Call it what you will–it’s not democracy. & it is here right now.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

To sum up– American citizens are “disappeared” from the streets of an American city by camouflaged, unidentified secret police. Detainee released but not told what if any charges.
.
We’ve seen this law & order playbook before, la mano dura. It is autocratic. It is fascism. Banana republic. Tinpot Dictatorship. Extra-judicial terrorism.

Call it what you will–it’s not democracy. & it is here right now.

Actually, they Americans being snatched aren’t being ‘disappeared’. They’re being released as soon as they asked for a lawyer (which I find very telling).

But that’s not the point. The US government is adopting a tactic which nearly always has the opposite outcome from what they’re after. It’s not primarily a legal, ethical, or political issue (although it certainly has elements of all of those). It’s just one more display of the blundering buffoonery which as always characterized the current administration.

Boru

[brewer]

A power bar laced with Ex-Lax would work also. These guys are not very inventive.

[Pat Mustard]

There are news reports that federal agents - without warrants or cause - are driving around Portland in unmarked vans and grabbing protestors off the streets on ‘suspicion’ (it isn’t immediately clear what these people are suspected of).

This is GREAT! Nothing recruits people to a movement like illegal, baseless security overreactions. Precisely the same thing happened in the aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916 (along with executions, but let’s hope this doesn’t go that far). People who supported the movement from the sidelines and even some who had been indifferent to it, flocked to the cause.

People agitating for civic or political change always have the goal of goading the government into a clampdown of exactly this sort and the result is always the same - it swells the ranks of the people in the streets.

Just a handful of years after the Rising, the Irish Free State was established, followed shortly by the Republic of Ireland.

Boru

I don't think what's happening in Portland has anything to do with law and order (not even the twisted version of rightists). It is Trump's brownshirts engaging in live fire training for their anticipated coup in November.

[Fireball]

How do we know that these people are actually police? Because they say so?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

There are news reports that federal agents - without warrants or cause - are driving around Portland in unmarked vans and grabbing protestors off the streets on ‘suspicion’ (it isn’t immediately clear what these people are suspected of).

This is GREAT! Nothing recruits people to a movement like illegal, baseless security overreactions. Precisely the same thing happened in the aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916 (along with executions, but let’s hope this doesn’t go that far). People who supported the movement from the sidelines and even some who had been indifferent to it, flocked to the cause.

People agitating for civic or political change always have the goal of goading the government into a clampdown of exactly this sort and the result is always the same - it swells the ranks of the people in the streets.

Just a handful of years after the Rising, the Irish Free State was established, followed shortly by the Republic of Ireland.

Boru

I don't think what's happening in Portland has anything to do with law and order (not even the twisted version of rightists).  It is Trump's brownshirts engaging in live fire training for their anticipated coup in November.

Of COURSE it’s got nothing to do with law and order. It’s to do with making the protestors discouraged. It’s a tactic that’s never worked and isn’t going to work now.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

How do we know that these people are actually police? Because they say so?

They’re exactly police - it’s Homeland Security and Border Patrol agents. And we know it’s them because both agencies have said they’re the ones doing it.

Boru

[Porcupine]

How do we know that these people are actually police?

Whether they're a bastard or not may not be a sufficient condition but it's a necessary one. My half-jokinglyness half-not withstanding.

Personally, I'd replace the ACAB acronym with AHAB.

[Pat Mustard]

I don't think what's happening in Portland has anything to do with law and order (not even the twisted version of rightists).  It is Trump's brownshirts engaging in live fire training for their anticipated coup in November.

Of COURSE it’s got nothing to do with law and order. It’s to do with making the protestors discouraged. It’s a tactic that’s never worked and isn’t going to work now.

Boru

I did include the rightists version of law and order in my post. You know the one where law and order are solely to be used in the suppression of dissent.