July 20: President Trump Threatens to Send Federal Police to Control Anti-racist Protestors
From Mercury News, July 20, 2020 see original article here
Trump threatens to send federal police to Oakland, mayor derides ‘racist dog whistle’
Libby Schaaf: Nothing more likely to incite violence in Oakland than Trump-ordered troops
By Wes Goldberg | wgoldberg@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News GroupPUBLISHED: July 20, 2020 at 3:34 p.m. | UPDATED: July 21, 2020 at 3:54 a.m.
President Trump threatened Monday to send federal law enforcement into Oakland, but the latest in his long feud with Democratic-run cities and their leaders amounted to a “racist campaign tactic,” the city’s mayor said in a sharp response. The president on Monday said he could send federal agents to several cities across the country, including Oakland — which he called “a mess” — though it wasn’t immediately clear what his reasoning for sending such a response was. Federal police have been seen in Portland, Ore., clashing violently with protestors and, in some cases, whisking suspects away in unmarked vans. Oakland, a city long known for major protests both peaceful and chaotic, hasn’t seen sizable clashes between police and demonstrators in weeks. The president has asserted that politicians in traditionally blue regions are “afraid” of protestors, who Trump referred to as “anarchists” on Monday. The remarks seemed to further irritate Bay Area politicians and activists tired of the president’s rhetoric.
“Oakland needs COVID relief — not troops — from our president,” Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf said in a pair of tweets. “He should stop slandering diverse, progressive cities like Oakland in his racist dog whistles and divisive campaign tactics. “We are not experiencing any civil unrest right now. But I can think of nothing more likely to incite it than the presence of Trump-ordered military troops into Oakland.”
Following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, several Bay Area protests turned violent with police firing tear gas and flashbang grenades amid days of demonstrations and sporadic looting. Schaaf and other local mayors and police chiefs responded with curfews and authorized arrests to keep people home. Those curfews have long since been lifted. Zach Norris, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, said that protests in Oakland have been powerful but have largely been non-violent. Additional police involvement, he said, could threaten that. “Where I’ve seen violence escalate is where police haven’t really respected folks’ right to gather and assemble, and June 1, 2020, was one example of that,” Norris said, mentioning a day that saw some 15,000 people march peacefully before clashes with police at night. The Oakland police department later acknowledged the use of tear gas and flashbangs that night should be investigated.