Turnkey Tyranny Is Alive and Well Under Trump
The Trump administration didn’t make the DHS into a freight train — it just stepped on the gas
Against the wishes of the city’s leaders and amidst cries of illegality around the country, nameless Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents have continued to teargas, pepper-spray, shoot at, and generally terrorize protesters in Portland for the second week in a row. And the story shows no sign of slowing: President Trump is now promising to send even more federal law enforcement officers into the city this weekend.
Every day seems to bring a slew of shocking new videos showing DHS’s war-like tactics, as it seeks to crush the protests near the federal building downtown. Unmarked vans are snatching people off the streets, agents are spraying so much tear gas it’s causing tornadoes, peaceful demonstrators are being shot in the head with rubber bullets, and journalists are getting attacked for documenting the aggressions.
This is, to borrow a phrase coined by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, turnkey tyranny come to life. Donald Trump may have given the order that led DHS to besiege Portland, but what we’re seeing is the natural progression of a sprawling federal agency handed incredible powers, with little oversight, that never should have existed in the…
