Trump and Wolf seem to think that unarmed protesters are the same as armed far-right extremists

One may remember the standoff between federal agents and Cliven Bundy and family, along with his armed supporters, which came to a head in 2014 after more than 20 years during which Bundy refused to pay grazing fees on federal land in Nevada that he was using, claiming that the federal government had no “legal” right to own or control land at all. People might not recall this, but it all started when the BLM established a protected area for the endangered desert tortoise, which encompassed part of the federal land that Bundy was leasing. Bundy refused the government refund for the leased land that was being reclaimed, and went further, refusing to pay the grazing fees on the federal lands that he refusing to remove his cattle from. Senator Harry Reid called Bundy and his armed supporters “domestic terrorists,” but Republican Sen. Dean Heller called them “patriots.” Two of Bundy’s armed supporters, Jerad and Amanda Miller, were so fanatical that they decided to murder two random Las Vegas police officers. Modern times seemed to have left Bundy far behind, because he had this to say about the “negroes”:

They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom.

The trials of Bundy, his kin, and the armed militias supporting them were a complete farce, with almost all cases dismissed despite the clearly illegally acts committed. Bundy’s son Ammon Bundy apparently learned the wrong lessons, because he would soon travel to Oregon to become the leader of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge “occupation,” ironic because that is where Trump and his familiar Chad Wolf first sent DHS goons to behave like lawless thugs. Bundy called his far-right extremist “army of occupation” the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, and it was their “intention” to publicize their assertion, like in the Bundy standoff, that the federal government had no claim to any land, that it all belonged to “citizen” who claimed it. Ammon Bundy “justified” his actions by claiming he was supporting the “rights” of ranchers Dwight and Steve Hammond, who had made death threats against the park managers, and had been convicted of illegally setting fires on federal land.

Again, legal sanction against those involved in that armed standoff were a mixed bag, and the Hammonds would be pardoned by Trump in 2018. Since Waco in 1993, federal agents have been reluctant to take on armed far-right militants and armed groups whose intent is the deliberate rejection of federal laws and authority. And yet here we are today with Trump and his DHS familiar Chad Wolf sending in DHS thugs to go to “war” against unarmed protesters of police abuse of lethal force. The DHS today is an entity that is highly politicized and fraught with incompetence. Whereas once federal agencies like FEMA were independent and acted according to need, now they must answer to the secretary of DHS (“acting” or not), who in this administration does nothing more than act in the political interests of Trump and the personal prejudices (usually of the racial variety) of those making the “decisions.” I wrote before that ICE should be abolished because it is no longer performing its intended function—to root out foreign terrorists; today under the Trump administration it has just become another terrorist group itself, its officers acting without restraint, operating in a largely extralegal manner like a lawless Latin American paramilitary force.

Current “acting” DHS secretary Wolf—whose always looks as if he is in need of a shave and shower—visited Portland recently and proclaimed protesters there to be “violent” and “lawless” anarchists.  Of course, Wolf knows a thing or two about being “lawless”; after all, he was one of the architects of the family separation, which was declared unlawful two years ago and yet it continues to be enforced as if no one will notice. Wolf cites “facts,” but those “facts”—allegedly vandalizing federal buildings and statues—are hardly in the same league with far-right extremists threatening bloody mayhem. Border Patrol agents and others under the DHS umbrella have been accused of what legal scholars are calling illegal kidnapping and abduction, jumping out of marked vehicles in unidentifiable uniforms and failing to identify themselves or explaining themselves as the seize and arrest protesters seemingly at random, and otherwise engaging in activities no local agency asked them to do.

Trump and his familiars are calling this “Operation Legend,” and he apparently wants to spread this all over country to stop scenes of protest which he could have quieted down a little had he just shown the slightest amount of understanding. Instead, Trump went to Mount Rushmore and spewed forth a speech by his favorite racist aide, Stephen Miller, that showed that Trump’s habit for dividing the country has only become more hardened, and now he wants to solidify his “legend” as a man who knows only brute force and bullying to get his way.

Tom Ridge, the first director of the DHS under George Bush, recently made clear that the department’s initial intent was “to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president’s personal militia.” Wolf is hardly an “expert” on what is “lawful” action and what is not; besides ignoring the law by continuing family separation, Wolf announced that he would ignore the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on DACA, and despite a subsequent lower court ruling that ordered the Trump administration to resume DACA applications, Wolf has apparently directed that all first-time applications be rejected.  

There is a major difference between far-right “freedom fighters” and protesters in Portland: the former preaches deliberate destruction of laws and a desire for the overthrow of the federal government, violently if necessary—and the latter just wants someone to at least pretend that they give a damn. Trump’s pardoning of the Hammonds, and his familiars like Wolf making statements like “I do not think that we have a systemic racism problem with law enforcement officers across this country” appears to show where the Trump administration ‘s sympathies and priorities lie.