Trump and Barr's War against the American People
Trump and Barr’s War against the American People
By Thomas Coffin
The Trump/Barr escalation of paramilitary force against the American citizenry has moved from St. John’s Church in Washington D.C. across country to a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon.
On June 1, 2020, the administration, led by its Attorney General assuming the unprecedented role of commanding a tactical assault force, deployed a swat team and a military helicopter to rout a peaceful assembly at an Episcopal Church to enable Donald Trump to stage a photo-op of him holding a Bible in front of the Church. A related, and deeper, purpose was to signal forcible dominance over protestors daring to exercise their free speech rights and to express the intent of launching attacks by military forces against other protestors throughout the country.
Fortunately, the Nation’s military leaders, apparently caught off guard by this garish spectacle, responded with a statement apologizing for their unwitting presence at the event and promising never to use the military forces under their command to attack the citizenry of the United States. Undoubtedly cognizant of Trump’s notorious ignorance of our Nation’s history, they pointed out that their sworn duty was to protect and defend the People, not to attack them, and that the deployment of American troops against the American people had never been done in our 231 years as a Constitutional Republic.
What’s Tyranny to do without a military that blindly obeys a dictator-in-his-own-mind’s orders? Create a private police paramilitary unit to be his own personal army, just as he so easily co-opted the Department of Justice and turned it into his personal legal swat team under William Barr. In a matter of weeks, a makeshift army was cobbled together from various federal agencies, most within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and they were dispatched to Portland, Oregon (far from the country’s borders, the protection of which is their primary mission) to do what the Armed Forces refused to do—“dominate” the American people.
St. John’s was an alarming snapshot into the totalitarian mindsets of Trump and Barr, and it appears to have been a rehearsal for similar operations across America. Portland represents the beginning of a campaign against American cities that resist the Trump brand of nationalism, racism, suppression of civil rights, unequal application of the law, and abolition of the rule of law. Free speech is no longer “free”. Wake up America—the sun is rising on Trump and his Party’s new order of governance (I won’t call it the Republican Party because that is no longer an accurate label: it is the Trump Party which holds none of the traditional values of its predecessor). It is an autocratic order, which has been methodically disassembling the Constitutional model of governance for the past 3 ½ years. What we are witnessing now, as November 3 creeps ever closer, is the facade of pretextual adherence to democracy and our Constitution being torn away as desperation mounts. The “Oh My God” moments are multiplying like a virus in a petri dish. Did we not notice that he recently refused to say he would abide by the election results if he lost?
Trump’s choice to spearhead the occupation paramilitary forces is perfectly logical. Chad Wolf, the Acting Secretary of DHS, has a resume that includes collaborating with white nationalist Stephen Miller to create the notorious family separation policy, whereby children were torn from their asylum-seeking parents at the border and detained in crowded cages. The parents were deported without them, and the administration failed to keep records that would facilitate ever reuniting the families. The Geneva Convention categorizes such actions as acts of genocide. As we tell ourselves that the iron fist of tyranny can never happen here, we need to recognize that it is already happening here and put in context the paramilitary presence of Trump’s troops in Portland. This has virtually nothing to do with protecting a federal building from graffiti signage, broken windows, or other property damage from protest activity. In fact, according to local civic leaders who are united in opposition to the presence of what they view as a destabilizing force engaging in unconstitutional actions, the paramilitary units have only escalated the tension and conflicts. The property protection rationale is simply a cover story to do what Trump has repeatedly fantasized doing—dominate the streets and use military combat tactics to end the protest activity. As Trump lamented when he attempted to find some way to exonerate the Saudi government for the brutal torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi by its operatives, “the cover-up was the worst in the history of cover-ups”. (Rule #1—create a credible cover-up.) But his cover story for Portland is easily belied by the fact that the St. John’s assembly (the dress rehearsal for Portland) was utterly peaceful and non-violent, yet the Trump/Barr paramilitary unit attacked them anyway simply because they wanted the area cleared of protestors for a photo-op.
Paramilitary units under the DHS umbrella have the mission of protecting our borders from terrorists, drug cartels, and similar threats to national security. They are not trained to police a civilian community pursuant to the standards governing police actions, e.g., probable cause which is required to seize people and the requirement that only reasonable force be used to effect those seizures. According to media reports, the federal forces in Portland have acted in ways that exceed the boundaries of what is lawfully allowed by police officers. In one reported incident, an unarmed protestor holding only a bullhorn was shot in the head by a rubber bullet euphemistically described by DHS as “less than lethal force”. That description is highly misleading. According to the spectrum of “reasonable force” that police must be trained in before they can be certified, a blunt force trauma delivered to a suspect’s head—such as a rubber bullet—is considered to be “deadly” or “lethal” force because it is foreseeable that such a blow will cause serious or even fatal bodily injury. In this particular incident, the protestor suffered a skull fracture and was hospitalized in critical condition. One must ask whether the paramilitary units dispatched hastily to Portland were ever trained regarding use of force standards.
In another area of concern, reports have surfaced that unidentified personnel attached to the DHS force, clothed in camouflage and patrolling areas in unmarked vehicles away from the federal building that is the supposed basis for their presence, have forcibly seized at least one person from the streets, forced him into their vehicle and detained him in a cell at the courthouse for interrogation. He was not advised of the basis for his seizure, there were no warrants, he was not advised of his rights, and he was held without legal justification for several hours. There are also reports of at least one other unsuccessful attempt to seize a protestor in the same manner. There is no transparency or accountability for these seizures, because of the impossibility of identifying the actors and the lack of records of the incidents.
If these reports are accurate, such actions are extremely troubling and ominous. Such beyond the pale lawlessness is unheard of from trained and certified police officers. It amounts to rogue, outside the law, and egregious abuse of authority in a democracy such as the United States.
Such tactics are reminiscent of secret police forces used to terrorize citizens in totalitarian regimes such as the Stasi in East Germany and the SIDE in Argentina during the “Dirty War” in which dissidents were seized and tortured before being murdered. Can’t happen here? The erosion of basic human rights, the rule of law, the norms of decency, and Constitutional restraints on the powers of the Executive branch have been happening so much it has become normalized. I previously mentioned the separation policy. The detention of migrant children continues today in facilities operated by private entities. Examples include an 18-month old separated from her mother by ICE without explanation or an opportunity to even prepare for such a devastating event. An administration capable of such cruelty is capable of ever deeper descents into depravity. We must never pretend that it “can’t happen here”. Such a denial mindset only paves the way for increased disregard for constitutional rights which is the hallmark of this administration. When in our wildest imagination did we ever think that sending troops or paramilitary units to “dominate” our own people could ever happen here?
I have lost count of the number of otherwise level-headed Americans who refuse to take the threat presented to democracy by the Trump Movement seriously. He has literally rid his administration of anyone who evidences loyalty to the Constitution and country over himself. As he nears the end of his 4-year term the inhabitants of his administration have all passed the only litmus test that matters—blind fealty to the man, not to the Nation that man is supposed to serve. In the powerful position of Attorney General, he has finally found the perfect instrument to expand his powers beyond any restraints the Constitution might present were it to be interpreted in accordance with its purpose and underlying principles. The rule of law has been effectively turned upside down to create the double standard that is being applied as Trump directs. Our Nation has reached the final stages of a strategic transition to autocracy. At the Senate impeachment proceedings, the Trump Party abdicated any checks and balance role contemplated by our Founders and surrendered to the Trump Movement. All that stands now between the Movement and the death of our Democracy is us—We the People. It is critical that we recall our Founders and the social compact between the People and the Government that those Founders bequeathed to us—the “posterity” they had in mind when they drafted the Constitution and framed that document with this historic Preamble:
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
Promote the general Welfare, and secure Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United State of America
Ask yourself how many of these values does this administration promote.
“Perfect Union”? “Justice”? “Domestic Tranquility“? “General Welfare”? “Liberty?
None. Absolutely none of them. Trump is on record as stating the Constitution is obsolete and archaic. He is even on record as stating he wants to abolish the freedom of speech protections in the 1st Amendment. How have we reached a point where we are being governed by a president that doesn’t believe in the Constitution he is sworn to uphold and defend? Under a democracy, government serves the People, not the other way around. It is up to us to restore our Constitution as the Law of the Land, and firmly reject the poison of totalitarian rule.