BY ED FELIEN
They’ve pretty clearly laid out their battle plan for the next months leading to the election. A sympathetic police force will say it can’t keep order and protect federal buildings and monuments, and we’ll have to rely on federal assistance. Erik Prince is coordinating the operations. He’s the one recruiting staff. He’s the former head of Blackwater, the private security firm that was doing security training in Baghdad when some of their employees fired into a crowd killing 17 Iraqis.
There are a lot of police departments that have been taken over by white supremacists. City Heat, the cops-only motorcycle gang that started in Chicago, flies Confederate flags and wears Nazi war medals. Bob Kroll, head of the Minneapolis Police Federation, is part of the Minnesota branch.
In Portland, Prince’s federal security patrol went several blocks away from their federal building firing tear gas cannisters and blocking off streets. The local police were collaborating with the feds. What about Chicago? Minneapolis?
This is a flagrantly unconstitutional act by a president terrified of losing an election and going to jail on tax fraud charges brought by the Southern District of New York.
This is a deliberately provocative act, meant to cause a violent reaction on the part of the left. That would be the excuse for Trump to declare martial law and cancel the election. He would do it like he did it in Bolivia. He would cancel the results of the election because demonstrators (probably right-wing agent provocateurs) were stopping people from voting at a handful of polling stations. He would say he only wanted to restore law and order. When things calmed down (and he would do everything he could to make sure things didn’t calm down) he would hold new elections.
Until then, the country is in lockdown!
The only way this can be stopped is by our Mayor telling our chief to arrest any federal officer that steps out of a federal office building and tries to arrest or attack Minneapolis citizens exercising their constitutional rights. But the Minneapolis Police Department has already begun collaborating with Trump. 200 officers, probably Kroll’s hardcore, have complained of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the earlier George Floyd demonstrations. Ron Meuser, who handles most disability claims for the Minneapolis Police Federation, said since the killing of George Floyd, officers have felt abandoned by city and state politicians as well as the community at large. “It’s an emotional beatdown on a daily basis for these guys,” he told Fox News.
Mayo Clinic says, “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.”
Abandonment? Really?
They can’t come to work and restore law and order, when some agent provocateur commits some horrible act, because they’ve got PTSD because they feel abandoned?
Let’s be serious here. Any officer that refuses duty when ordered to appear will turn in their badge.
What do we need to meet the challenges of demonstrators? We need dialog. When Jacob Frey met with the demonstration organized by the Black Visions Collective, he told them he disagreed with them, and then he walked away. He should have sat down with them. He should have said, “OK, then, what do you want?” And then he should have listened. Instead he walked away.
We don’t need a flood of blue to meet angry demonstrators. We need an army of social workers.
It is extremely critical that we all appreciate what is happening. The police turned over in Portland. They are wavering in Seattle and Chicago. Bob Kroll has a majority of supporters in his Police Federation who endorsed Trump.
We need to plan to react to provocative acts and find immediate alternatives to handling this very serious constitutional crisis.
