How America's left prepares for escalating violence | DW News

 

There are fears that a polarizing election will further inflame the culture war in the US. This week the Department of Homeland Security warned of a rise in right-wing terrorism -- the potential targets including the LGBTQ community as well as racial and ethnic minorities. While the debate over gun controls remains deadlocked in Washington, some say the best protection for “vulnerable groups" is to give them guns as well.

U.S. Homeland Security Is Literally Spying On Journalists

Physically attacking and arresting journalists just wasn't enough for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security they decided that spying on journalists covering the the protests in Portland should have intelligence dossiers created for further intimidation.  As the first amendment protects journalists from government interference and oversight Homeland Security concluded that violating these guaranteed was the best way to combat negative reporting.   

‘Intelligence reports’ distributed to other federal agencies decried as violation of constitutional right to a free press

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been surveilling the work of American journalists reporting on the unrest in Portland, Oregon, circulating “intelligence reports” on them to other federal agencies in a move that has been decried as a clear violation of the constitutional right to a free press.

The Washington Post obtained the intelligence reports which were compiled by the unit within DHS known as the “office of intelligence and analysis”. The newspaper said the reports were distributed in the past week to law enforcement and other agencies.

They referred specifically to two prominent US journalists whose reporting had revealed the disarray within the Trump administration’s contentious deployment of federal agents to quell protests in Portland.

One of the journalists, Mike Baker of the New York Times, had disclosed a leaked DHS memo that discussed the confusion prevalent among the federal agents sent to Portland. The memo showed that the camouflaged officers had little understanding of the nature of the demonstrations they were being asked to police.

The second journalist was Benjamin Wittes, who edits the national security blog Lawfare. He had also published leaked DHS documents, one of which was a memo warning the department’s officials not to disclose information to reporters.

Portland protesters demand Homeland Security forces leave

Trump Announces A Further Expansion Of His Dictatorial Use Of DHS

Because Donald Trump want's to seen as the law & order occupier of the oval office he's decided to send officers form the Department of Homeland Security (Which was created to help prevent terrorists attacks in the U.S. following the attacks on September 11, 2001.) to Chicago and Albuquerque New Mexico. All in an effort to quell violent demonstrations and attacks on federal buildings and statues. Especially those celebrating the Confederate States of America. Because you know, "history."

These surges of federal law enforcement into these cities is just part of a political stunt to portray Democratic mayors and governors as soft on crime and to film these actions for use in future campaign adverts.     


Trump and Barr pin rise in violence on calls to defund police, but offer no evidence
Donald Trump and US Attorney General Bill Barr justified a "surge" of federal law enforcement into US cities that have demonstrated against police brutality, including Chicago, on a spike in violent crime, claiming that violence is a "direct result" of calls from protesters for police reforms.

Following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, "what we have seen then is a significant increase in violent crime in many cities, and this rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakening of police forces," Barr said.

But no police forces have been weakened following protests, and amid several crisis – including widespread unemployment and a public health emergency and the overwhelming stress from a pandemic that has killed thousands of people and sickened countless others thus far – the president and his chief law enforcement official offered no evidence that connected protests to violent crime.

Because Donald Trump admires authoritarian like Vladimir Putin,  Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kim-Jong un this his way of auditioning for membership in the dictators club. 

Nothing Says Surviving A Pandemic Like A Gun

The DHS guidelines list as essential:

• Workers supporting the manufacturing of safety equipment and uniforms for law enforcement, public safety personnel, and first responders.
• Workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting ranges.

Following in the lead of Texas Attorney General Dan Patrick the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as noted above: Has deemed the the manufacturing and selling of firearms essential to stopping and/or helping elevate the spread of the deadly coronavirus.  One can only imagine those brave armed virus warriors on the hunt for a microscopic foe they are unable to locate without a microscope.    One can only imagine these fools dressed in full camouflage and armed to the teeth acting like a Special Forces unit in search of this diabolical enemy.    

Treating those infected or preventing others from becoming infected never crossed the minds of these fools as being of the highest priority.  No. Instead they decided that the ability to manufacture and sell a weapon meant for one use only, war is essential in the fight against the corona virus. 

US Journalists Sue Trump DHS: 'Coordinated Attack' On Press

Five journalists, all US citizens, were tracked, detained, and interrogated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for reporting on conditions at the southern border in 2018. Now they're suing the Trump administration.


By Common Dreams

When I saw my photo crossed out in a secret government database, I realized the secondary screening and interrogation wasn't random. I was being targeted by my own government for reporting on conditions at the border." —Bing Guan, photojournalist

Five journalists who were tracked, detained, and interrogated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for reporting on conditions at the southern border in 2018 and 2019 brought a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday for what the ACLU called an "unprecedented, coordinated attack on the freedom of the press."

The national ACLU, joined by chapters in New York and California, filed the suit (pdf) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Bing Guan, Go Nakamura, Mark Abramson, Kitra Cahana, and Ariana Drehsler. The five are all U.S. citizens who traveled to Mexico as professional photojournalists.