With his poll numbers dropping, due in part to his utter failure concerning the coronavirus, Trump is seeking to divert attention from that failure, and bolster his stature with his base as the strongman autocrat who can crush the BLM uprising by unleashing thugs in camouflaged fatigues against largely peaceful protesters.

He portrays the nation’s cities as out of control because of the wave of protests that erupted after the police murder of George Floyd. He says that the protesters are not protesters but “anarchists who hate America.”

“I’m going to do something – that I can tell you,” Trump told reporters. “Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these – Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.”

He went on, “All run, really by very liberal Democrats. All run, really by radical left.”

In Portland, there have been scenes video taped of agents beating people with batons, firing large amounts of tear gas as well as less-lethal projectiles.

One protester, who was holding up a speaker broadcasting a speech to the crowd, was hit in the head by one such projectile. His skull was fractured, requiring surgery.

A Navy veteran came to the protests because of what the agents were doing. He put on his Navy sweatshirt and hat to identify himself as a veteran, thinking the agents would not attack him. He wanted to engage them in a dialog, but was met with a barrage of hits by a baton and pepper-spray.

One of his hands suffered broken bones.

Agents in unmarked vans have snatched people off the street, who didn’t know if they were being kidnapped by rightist gangs, who often wear camouflage. (Portland has been home to racist groups like the Proud Boys. In 2017, shortly after Trump took office, one such “Alt-Right” supporter tried to kill two Black teenagers on public transportation, but was stopped by white bystanders. Then the white nationalist turned his knife on them, killing two.)

After protesters were snatched up by the agents, they were taken to a federal court house, questioned and released after a few hours with no explanation or charges. It was just to terrify and intimidate.

The protests had largely been dying out, as in other cities, before the Feds arrived. Since then they have grown again. Last weekend, a group of mothers of protesters formed what they called a “Wall of Moms” to shield them from the thugs in fatigues.

One of the “Moms” was interviewed, where she said, “Their actions are terrifying,” referring to the feds. “I mean, we, as a democracy, we need to stand up. I am 60 years old. I probably shouldn’t be here in pubic [because of the virus]. But this is beyond acceptable.”

Democratic elected officials, from the governor of Oregon, down to the mayor of Portland, have demanded that the federal agents be removed, to no avail. It should be noted that the movement has been protesting against these very same officials, and police before the federal agents arrived.

Lilith Sinclair an Afro-indigenous organizer, spoke on Democracy Now July 21. Here is some of what she said, lightly edited:

“It’s hard the encompass the depth of what we’ve experienced in the streets of Portland. This movement originally started with a single Black mom coming out into the streets and leading the call for an occupation of the federal court house to demand change. That has swelled into a movement, thousands strong, that has united so many of our people here.

“What we’ve seen is a continuous escalation against our protesters. But something that is important for us to understand is that we’ve been facing severe police brutality from our local police force, for years.

“What we’ve been experiencing started with our local police force engaging in not only intimidation tactics, but violent brutality against our protesters. We have officers using flash bang grenades repeatedly. [These stun and disorient people, with a loud noise and bright flash. They have severed hands and fingers, induced heart attacks, and sometimes kill.]

“Also deploying CS gas and other munitions — tear gas, pepper spray bullets and more. This has been a long-term engagement with a militarized police force. The federal occupation has escalated it.

“We’re seeing these disappearances. These unmarked vehicles going around the streets are full of men in uniforms with no badges, no IDs. They refuse to even answer the question ‘Are you or are you not law enforcement?’ And it’s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety but feel that our fight is justified.

“This is occurring during an international global health pandemic and the push to reopen by not just Republicans but Democrats too. In Oregon there was reopening, and then saw people now, weeks later, experiencing higher rates in cases, being once again laid off from their jobs, being once again failed by the unemployment system.

“The people have a moment to understand the failures of this capitalist, white supremacist system because they have nothing but time on their hands. The movement is swelling. We saw the moms come out. Last night it was the dad bloc, a lot of amazing folks that came downtown after watching people get brutalized on a nightly basis.

“We are spending our nights in terror. We can’t sleep on one side of the city because of the flash bangs, and tear gas across the entire city. It’s affecting our houseless community, its affecting our neighborhoods.

“It’s not been addressed by our state and local officials except for well-meaning words [calling for the federal agents to be removed], which is causing a rightful sense of frustration and anger, and causing the protests to grow.”

In the coming days, if Trump carries out his threats to send more federal agents into more cities, we’ll see what the reaction will be.

Barry Sheppard