“The United States would normally condemn this tactic if used by dictators of other countries, and its use here directly threatens our democracy.”
Demonstrators and police face off near the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C. on June 3, 2020. (Photo: Olivier Douliery)Saturday, June 6
Civil liberties groups and Democratic members of Congress are increasingly raising alarm at the Trump administration’s rapid deployment of unidentified law enforcement officials across Washington, D.C. as mass protests over the police killing of George Floyd continue to grow in the nation’s capital and across the United States.
Journalists covering the demonstrations on the ground in D.C. have in recent days documented numerous instances of armed law enforcement officers without any identifiable markings or badges refusing to say who they are or what agency they’re from.
“The United States would normally condemn this tactic if used by dictators of other countries, and its use here directly threatens our democracy,” Murphy said in a statement. “Americans have a right to know who is patrolling their streets, and to have recourse if their massive power is misused.”
5PM WHITE HOUSE — These are the unidentified DOJ officers holding the perimeter at 15th and H Streets.
They won’t tell the public to whom they report exactly…
It’s generating HUGE frustration here #GeorgeFloyd @WUSA9 pic.twitter.com/GOSbeyplLb— Mike Valerio (@MikevWUSA) June 3, 2020
Refusal by law enforcement officials to identify themselves to the public is “ordinarily associated with the security forces of rights-abusing regimes,” the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University wrote in a letter (pdf) to Attorney General William Barr on Friday.
The group said the spread of unidentifiable law enforcement officials around Washington, D.C. raises “grave constitutional concerns” because it has a chilling affect on free expression.
“They intimidate and instill fear in members of the public, and discourage the exercise of expressive and associational rights,” the letter continued. “They undermine the legitimacy of whatever demands these armed personnel make of the citizens with whom they interact. They frustrate accountability, because protesters and members of the public cannot know whom to hold responsible when these personnel engage in conduct that is abusive or unlawful. And by guaranteeing impunity, these practices enable discrimination, gratuitous violence, and other lawless behavior.”
Back outside the White House. Today the perimeter has been pushed back another half block. Federal law enforcement of some kind, but they won’t identify themselves, and all insignias and name plates have been removed. pic.twitter.com/q5dmdMgkLV
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) June 3, 2020
Asked who they’re with, these guys say only that they’re with “The Department of Justice.” pic.twitter.com/ciVDtP8ndk
— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) June 2, 2020
As the New York Times reported Thursday, “the question over the federal law enforcement practices comes as Attorney General William P. Barr has flooded Washington with agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Bureau of Prisons.”
“Barr on Wednesday night further empowered those teams from the Bureau of Prisons with the authority to make arrests at the demonstrations,” the Times noted.
Senior members of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter (pdf) to Barr on Saturday demanding a full list of the departments and agencies that have been activated in response to mass protests over Floyd’s killing and immediate answers as to why officials are concealing their identities.
“We are deeply disturbed by the sudden surge of unidentified federal law enforcement officers into the District of Columbia,” the lawmakers wrote. “The vast majority of protests in the District of Columbia have been peaceful. It appears that the massive influx of federal forces is intended to assert authoritarian power over the District of Columbia.”
This article published by Common Dreams on June 6, 2020, here…
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