Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has unleashed armed SWAT agents in camouflage gear from several federal government agencies onto the streets of Portland, against the expressed concerns of Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Mayor Ted Wheeler.
“This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” Governor Brown says. “The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”
“I told Acting Secretary Wolf that the federal government should remove all federal officers from our streets. His response showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes. He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way,” Brown added.
And now Wolf is in Portland, and threatening protestors whom he’s calling “violent anarchists” and “violent extremists.”
Protestors have painted graffiti on a federal courthouse, and broke some windows and doors, according to Wolf himself.
After Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) published a devastating report documenting agents from Border Patrol and other agencies sweeping up protestors into unmarked vans, detaining them, arresting some, and denying at least one was ever in their custody, Acting Secretary Wolf took to Twitter to defend his actions and his agents, and frame the narrative, declaring, “We will prevail.”
Defiant, Wolf freely admits the duly-elected governor and mayor have told him he is not to be on their streets.
“That’s just not going to happen on my watch,” Wolf says.
It’s unclear if he has the legal authority to deploy troops there.