If President Donald Trump has his way, federal law enforcement agents like those in Portland, Oregon, could soon head to other cities with Democratic mayors: “I’m going to do something — that, I can tell you. Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these … we’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.”
The horrible “these,” as described by Trump, are “rioters, arsonists and left-wing extremists” spouting “Marxism,” who seek “the destruction of the United States system of government.”
If what we have seen in Portland is any indication of what lies ahead, the mayors are right to be nervous. Heavily armed camouflaged men, obscuring their identities, beating people and spiriting others away to who knows where are not what we normally associate with democracy in America.Rather than simply protecting federal property, their core responsibility, they are provoking some confrontations with protesters and abusing their legal authority. Already, in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order protecting journalists and legal observers.
When Trump ran for president, he promised to take America back to greatness. I assumed he wanted to return us to the 1950s, when minorities and women supposedly knew their respective places, and coal and tobacco were king. He apparently had an earlier period in mind: the years right after World War I.
Nationwide raids on ‘Reds’ in 1920s
In that era, federal agents stormed across America, arresting and deporting presumed enemies of the state. The effort was led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whose nighttime raids transformed him into a legendary figure and potential presidential candidate.
Typical were the nationwide raids conducted on the night of Jan. 2, 1920. The Chicago Tribune report was headlined, “U.S. Drags in 4,000 Reds: Aliens Seized in Huge Raids To Be Deported.”
A New York Times headline pointed to “Evidence Showing Campaign to Form Soviet Councils and Overthrow Government.” The story claimed that those arrested were “endeavoring to bring about the establishment of a Soviet form of government in this country.”
Justice Department official William Flynn told reporters at the time, “I believe that with these raids, the backbone of the radical movement in this country is broken.”
In fact, most of those arrested seemed about as much of threat to America as the drunken guy ranting at any neighborhood bar. Nonetheless, thousands were deported. That even more were not was due in large measure to the efforts of a courageous Labor Department official, Louis Freeland Post, who stood up to Palmer and said enough is enough.
In testimony before Congress, Assistant Labor Secretary Post attributed the reports of danger, bombs and anarchist killers to what he called “newspaper talk” spread by “two-salary newspaper men” paid to generate publicity for Palmer’s Justice Department and to take “advantage of the discontent that is afloat in the country to make a terror.”
Post pointed out that “in all these sweeping raids over the country, in which men were arrested at midnight and taken out of their beds at 3 o’clock in the morning in their homes, without warrant, in which their houses and their persons were searched without warrant,” the only dangerous armaments recovered were “three pistols, two of them .22 caliber.”
In light of such testimony, Palmer’s presidential aspirations turned to dust.
Rev. Jesse Jackson:John Lewis’ lifetime of ‘good trouble’ changed America
Trump’s arguments about anarchists and revolutionaries are similarly flawed and false. The allegations, like much of what Trump says, are simply not true. America’s constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly aren’t unconditional, but nor are they limited to causes that Trump likes. They are also for speech and ideas that, to certain ears, sound dangerously un-American but nonetheless are protected by the Constitution.
Political agenda in Trump threats
What gives Trump the ability to ignore norms, laws and the Constitution is the simple power he wields as commander in chief. As president, he can issue an executive order saying anything he wants. In this case, he is asserting that the troops are protecting federal property and “revered American monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial.” He claims that fearful state and local officials “appear to have lost the ability to distinguish between the lawful exercise of rights to free speech and assembly and unvarnished vandalism,” and have therefore “surrendered to mob rule.”
Local officials disagree, and they see a political agenda in Trump’s threats.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed a suit by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum seeking a restraining order against Trump’s agents. But more than a dozen mayors have asked the federal government to withdraw the officers or stop plans to deploy them, and Democrats are demanding an investigation into the use of federal officers in Portland. Inspectors general at the departments of Justice and Homeland Security say they intend to investigate.
Portland strategy: Look tough and beat Biden. But Trump’s making cities less safe.
In retrospect, many of the actions taken by Attorney General Palmer were judged both immoral and unconstitutional. They were tolerated because a lot of people were afraid and accepted his lies.
Also, Trump knows what Palmer knew: the federal government can engage in all kinds of illegal or questionable activities until either the courts or Congress put an end to it. This makes the issue of legality almost irrelevant since the “putting an end to it” part generally takes time and requires skilled legal intervention. Until a court or Congress calls him out, Trump can essentially do whatever he wants. By the time we get around to curtailing his abuses of power, he is on to something else.
In 1920, an honest federal official stood up for what was right — and ended up restraining Palmer’s outrageous behavior. One longs for an official in the executive branch with the guts to stand up to Trump.