In a surprising move, acting Department of Homeland Security Chief Chad Wolf has pulled federal forces out of Portland. The Oregon city has been in the grips of nightly protests since the May 25 death of George Floyd. The protests, organized by Black Lives Matter, have been a nightly occurrence in the city for months.
In recent weeks, federal forces allege that protesters had been targeting federal structures, like the federal courthouse, with acts of vandalism. This resulted in President Trump tapping DHS and Border Patrol to act as supplemental law enforcement to help quell the unrest. Protesters seethed at the appearance of these federal forces, however.
Protesters in Portland have alleged that the federal forces have been acting extrajudicially. Reports of federal forces scooping protesters into unmarked vans have scandalized online commentators. The ACLU even went so far as to sue the Trump Administration over the allegations. The DHS and Border Patrol have categorically denied these accusations.
However, Chad Wolf has announced that the federal forces are pulling back from Portland. They’ll be handing off their current duties to Portland’s own police department. Oregon Mayor Kate Brown, a Democrat, announced the move simultaneously with Secretary Wolf. Brown characterized the federal forces as inciting violence, and seemed gleeful to have them gone.
Pundits on the left have characterized this move as a retreat on the part of the federal government and a victory for lawless protests. However, Secretary Wolf explained the reasoning behind the move in a public statement. He explained that the federal forces had a plan in place to hand off enforcement to local officers so they could get control of situation in their own city.
“That plan includes a robust presence of Oregon State Police in downtown Portland. State and local law enforcement will begin securing properties and streets, especially those surrounding federal properties, that have been under nightly attack for the past two months,” Wolf emphatically noted in the public statement.
Some online have noted that this could be a glimpse of a possible future. Protests that destroy property and threaten livelihoods could become a norm in big cities around the US.
Seeing federal forces cede territory to protesters in the United States is a bizarre sight indeed. Many on the right fear that this sight could become more common should President Trump not be reelected in November.
For many, this has made the November election even more of a crux point for an already strange year.
