Anti-police protesters plan to march on the home of Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf

Anti-police protesters plan to march to the Virginia home of Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to demand the removal of federal agents from Portland, Oregon, and other cities.

‘As part of a national call to action we’re calling for a march and rally at Chad Wolf’s house in Alexandria, Virginia on Sunday, July 26th at 10am to demand that Trump’s troops be removed from every city,’ read the notice from ShutDown DC.

‘Please meet us at Preston Rd and Valley Drive. We’re calling for ICE to be abolished.

‘We’re calling for every person detained by CBP to be freed.’

Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is pictured above at the White House on Wednesday. Demonstrators are planning to march toward his Alexandria, Virginia, home on Sunday

A group known as ShutDown DC is circulating an announcement to its followers asking them to gather in Alexandria for a demonstration outside Wolf's home

A group known as ShutDown DC is circulating an announcement to its followers asking them to gather in Alexandria for a demonstration outside Wolf’s home

ShutDown DC is demanding that the Trump administration remove federal agents from cities like Portland, Oregon, and other towns. The image above shows federal police in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Saturday night

ShutDown DC is demanding that the Trump administration remove federal agents from cities like Portland, Oregon, and other towns. The image above shows federal police in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Saturday night

The Trump administration has pledged to expand its use of DHS officers in cities across the country.

Demonstrations have happened in Oregon’s largest city nightly for two months since George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in the custody of police in Minneapolis in May.

Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest but state and local officials say they are making the situation worse.

Civil liberties advocates were outraged last week by video images of masked federal agents who were heavily armed and clad in tactical gear with no identifiable badges or insignia taking a protester into custody and hauling him away in an unmarked van.

Local officials in Portland, including the mayor, governor, and the attorney general, have demanded that federal agents leave the city. But the administration has refused to pull them out.

‘We will not retreat,’ Wolf said in a press conference on Tuesday. ‘We will continue to take appropriate action.’

The acting secretary defended the federal agents, saying: ‘They’re not military or civilian police officers. These police officers are not storm troopers. They’re not the Gestapo.’

The Gestapo is a reference to the official secret police used by Nazi Germany against its enemies throughout Europe in the years leading up to the Second World War. 

Since federal agents have been deployed to Portland, the situation appears to have escalated.

Authorities declared a riot early on Sunday in the Rose City, where protesters breached a fence surrounding the city’s federal courthouse building where US agents have been stationed. 

A federal agent is seen above aiming non-lethal munitions at protesters in downtown Portland on Saturday

A federal agent is seen above aiming non-lethal munitions at protesters in downtown Portland on Saturday

Protesters in Portland manage to breach the perimeter fence of the federal court building in the early hours of Sunday morning, prompting a massive response from federal police who used tear gas and non-lethal munitions to clear the area

Protesters in Portland manage to breach the perimeter fence of the federal court building in the early hours of Sunday morning, prompting a massive response from federal police who used tear gas and non-lethal munitions to clear the area

Federal officers line up to deploy tear gas at demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Portland early on Sunday morning

Federal officers line up to deploy tear gas at demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Portland early on Sunday morning

Protesters react to tear gas being deployed by federal officers during a protest in downtown Portland on Sunday

Protesters react to tear gas being deployed by federal officers during a protest in downtown Portland on Sunday

A federal agent armed with a baton and wearing a gas mask is seen above in Portland late on Saturday night

A federal agent armed with a baton and wearing a gas mask is seen above in Portland late on Saturday night

Police described via Twitter the ‘violent conduct of people downtown’ as creating a ‘grave risk of public alarm.’

Police demanded people leave the area surrounding the courthouse, around 1:20am on Sunday, and said that those who fail to adhere may be arrested or subjection to teargas and impact weapons.

By 1:40pm, both federal officers and Portland police could be seen on the streets, surrounding the courthouse, attempting to clear the area and deploying teargas.

Protesters remained in the streets past 2:30am, forming lines across intersections and holding makeshift shields, as police patrolled and closed blocks abutting the area.

Multiple arrests were made, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many.

President Trump announced on Wednesday that he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a ‘law and order’ mantle.

Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the ‘radical left,’ which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even though criminal justice experts say it defies easy explanation.

‘In recent weeks there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police department,’ Trump said at a White House event, blaming the movement for ‘a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence.’

‘This bloodshed must end,’ he said. ‘This bloodshed will end.’

Wolf (left) and Attorney General William Barr (right) listen to President Trump at the White House on Wednesday

Wolf (left) and Attorney General William Barr (right) listen to President Trump at the White House on Wednesday

The decision to dispatch federal agents to American cities is playing out at a hyperpoliticized moment when Trump is grasping for a new reelection strategy after the coronavirus upended the economy, dismantling what his campaign had seen as his ticket to a second term.

With less than four months until Election Day, Trump has been warning that violence will worsen if his Democratic rival Joe Biden is elected in November and Democrats have a chance to make the police reforms they have endorsed after the killing of George Floyd and nationwide protests demanding racial justice.

Crime began surging in some cities like Chicago, New York and Philadelphia when stay-at-home orders lifted.

Criminal justice experts seeking answers have pointed to the unprecedented moment: a pandemic that has killed over 140,000 Americans, historic unemployment, a mass reckoning over race and police brutality, intense stress and even the weather.

Compared with other years, crime in 2020 is down overall.

The plan Trump announced Wednesday expands an existing program that sent hundreds of federal agents to Kansas City, Missouri, after a 4-year-old boy’s shooting death to help quell a record rise in violence.

Sending federal agents to help localities is not uncommon; Attorney General William Barr announced a similar surge effort in December for seven cities with spiking violence.

But this effort will include at least 100 Department of Homeland Security Investigations officers who generally conduct drug trafficking and child exploitation investigations, in addition to personnel under the Justice Department umbrella.

DHS officers have already been dispatched to Portland and other localities to protect federal property and monuments as Trump has lambasted efforts by protesters to knock down Confederate statues.

Local authorities there have complained that agents have exacerbated tensions on the streets, while residents have accused the government of violating their constitutional rights.

Indeed, civil unrest escalated after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause.

Since the racial justice protests began, Trump’s campaign has leaned heavily into a pledge to maintain ‘law and order’ as it has tried to tie Biden to a small group of radicals and anarchists it claims is trying to destabilize America’s cities and rewrite history.

Trump hopes that sending federal agents to cities where crime is spiking will reverse bad polling numbers just 100 days before the November election. The president is seen above deplaning Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, on Friday

Trump hopes that sending federal agents to cities where crime is spiking will reverse bad polling numbers just 100 days before the November election. The president is seen above deplaning Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, on Friday

The campaign believes the push can help Trump by drumming up support from suburban and older voters who may be rattled by violent images, which have been broadcast often by conservative media outlets.

In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had initially blasted the news, said the US attorney’s office will supervise the additional agents joining existing federal law enforcement offices.

‘If those agents are here to actually work in partnership on support of gun violence and violent cases, plugging into existing infrastructure of federal agents, not trying to play police in our streets, then that’s something different,’ she said, while also accusing the president of trying to distract from scrutiny of the federal response to the pandemic.

In New Mexico, Democratic elected officials had cautioned Trump against sending in federal agents, with Senator Martin Heinrich calling on Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales to resign for attending the White House event.

‘Instead of collaborating with the Albuquerque Police Department, the Sheriff is inviting the President’s stormtroopers into Albuquerque,’ Heinrich said in a statement.

Wolf drew a distinction between the mission in Portland – to protect federal property – and the surges in Kansas City, Chicago and Albuquerque to help stop violence.

Albuquerque and Chicago will be getting millions of dollars for new officers, and the Justice Department will reimburse Chicago $3.5million for local law enforcement’s work on the federal task force.

In Kansas City, the top federal prosecutor said any agents involved in an operation to reduce violent crime in the area will be clearly identifiable when making arrests, unlike what has been seen in Portland.

Hundreds of extra agents have been sent.

‘These agents won’t be patrolling the streets,’ US Attorney Timothy Garrison said.

‘They won’t replace or usurp the authority of local officers.’ 

Operation Legend – named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment last month – was announced on July 8.

‘My one and only child who fought through open heart surgery at four months is gone due to senseless gun violence,’ LeGend’s mother, Charon Powell, said at the White House. 

‘Children are supposed to be our future and our son didn’t make it to kindergarten.’ 

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