Weekly thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests, racial injustice, and policing policy - week of July 20

If you haven't seen the beating of the Navy veteran by the unmarked federal police yet, here's an article about it (paywall): A Navy vet asked federal officers in Portland to remember their oaths. Then they broke his hand.

Here it is on video: https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1284726088187310080

The way everything is going, I've been wondering what to do if the Republicans hang onto power after November/January. With these secret police being used now, I wonder how much more they're going to escalate their crackdown against everyone who isn't them and whether I should get out while I can (once the pandemic has run its course) or stay and fight.

A 15 year old Michigan girl is in juvenile detention for not doing her homework (discussed here in last week's weekly thread by @patience_limited and @kfwyre)

She had a hearing today...and the same judge who originally had her locked up denied her motion for release

Grace was a high school sophomore in Birmingham Public Schools when she was charged with assault and theft last year, for incidents in which she bit her mother’s finger and pulled her hair and stole another student’s cellphone.

She was placed on probation in mid-April and, among other requirements, was to complete her schoolwork. Grace, who has ADHD and receives special education services, struggled with the transition to online learning and fell behind when Groves High School stopped in-person learning because of COVID-19. Her probation officer filed a violation against her on May 5, two weeks into the probation.

The school-to-prison pipeline in action. Charged with assault and theft, put on probation, then sent to juvenile detention for violating the probation.

On May 14, Brennan found Grace guilty of violating probation for “failure to submit any schoolwork and getting up for school.” She ordered her detained, concluding Grace was a “threat to (the) community” based on the prior charges of assault and theft.

"Threat to the community", based on...pulling her mother's hair, and stealing another student's cellphone.

Grace was placed in secure detention at Children’s Village, in suburban Detroit, for about three weeks and then transferred to a residential treatment program within the facility.

"Children's Village" is a somewhat disturbingly Orwellian name for a juvenile jail.

The decision to detain Grace came while the state was operating under an order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to eliminate any form of detention or residential placement unless a young person posed a “substantial and immediate safety risk to others.”

This detention was already absurd...but to do it during the pandemic, when there's an explicit order from the governor to avoid locking people up unless absolutely necessary?

The one tiny possible ray of good news:

The Michigan Supreme Court’s oversight agency has opened a review of the procedures in the cases.

In what I'm sure is a complete coincidence (from the original article):

Grace is Black in a predominantly white community

And the judge, seen in this latest article, is white.

Bellingcat published a long article about the situation in Portland today: What You Need To Know About The Battle of Portland

They also tear-gassed Portland's mayor, Ted Wheeler, after he'd been speaking for a few hours at the protests.

A handful of Seattle Police Department officers appear to have broken the law by registering to vote with their precinct addresses. Among them is Officer Michael Solan, President of the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

DoubleVerify, an advertising company that monitors for hate speech to try to avoid advertising near it, tells Axios that they've detected about three times more hate speech than "normal" on the internet since the day after George Floyd's death.

Pictures from the protests in Portland

Videos Show How Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland

In just over a week, the chaotic scenes in Portland grabbed the nation’s attention and raised questions about whether the U.S. government is exceeding its authority and violating civil rights. The officers came because of an executive order signed by President Trump in late June to protect federal property from destruction. “If we didn’t take a stand in Portland, you know, we’ve arrested many of these leaders. If we didn’t take that stand, right now you would have a problem like — they were going to lose Portland.”

The protests against racism and police brutality, which started in May, had largely been peaceful and were held across Portland. But after federal officers arrived in the city on July 4, demonstrations became centered around this U.S. District courthouse and this building housing federal agencies. Both are property of the U.S. government. The buildings have clearly been vandalized, and the Department of Homeland Security has a mandate to protect them. That’s usually done by officers from the Federal Protective Service. But on the ground in Portland, we have seen a new task force, including U.S. Marshals, BORTAC, a unit of Customs and Border Protection, and a special response team from ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

According to a government memo leaked to The Times, these units are insufficiently trained to perform crowd control. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying. Night after night, videos show these officers emerging from the two federal buildings as protesters draw near. Hundreds of videos reviewed by The Times show that although protesters were antagonistic, officers often responded with disproportionate force. They blanketed streets with tear gas. “Are you OK?” They struck protesters with batons, and used flash bangs, pepper balls and other less-lethal munitions to clear the streets.

Their actions often appeared to escalate rather than de-escalate matters. And in some instances, they attacked when there was no apparent threat. On July 11, protester Donavan La Bella was at the federal courthouse when an officer appears to have fired at his head in retaliation for tossing a spent tear gas canister. La Bella’s mother told local media he suffered skull fractures and needed surgery. Later that night when field medics sought officers’ help for a wounded protester, they were aggressively cleared away. On July 18, a Navy veteran was batoned and pepper-sprayed in another unprovoked attack. His right hand was broken, and he needs surgery. Sometimes members of the press were hit. Photographer Mathieu Lewis Rolland, told The Times that a volley of 10 projectiles were fired into his back. In the middle of all this, protesters were detained in ways that alarmed civil rights advocates and former Homeland Security officials.

On July 15, several federal officers were filmed driving in unmarked vehicles in the blocks around the courthouse. Federal officers wouldn’t identify themselves but patches on the right and left sides of their uniforms match those used by members of BORTAC, the tactical unit from Customs and Border Protection. They drove the protester away in an unmarked car. D.H.S. says federal officers have made 43 arrests since July 4. Agents do have the authority to make arrests if they believe that a federal crime has been committed, like damaging federal property or attacking officers.

In recent days, the controversy mobilized a larger and more diverse crowd of protesters. A so-called wall of moms led marches through Portland’s streets and to the federal courthouse where officers cleared them away. The federal presence has also inflamed tensions. Some demonstrators damaged paneling on the courthouse and tried to set them alight. Others threw water bottles and fired fireworks toward the building. On Wednesday, July 22, Portland’s mayor joined the protests and was caught in a cloud of tear gas. “This is a egregious overreaction on the part of the federal officers. This is not a de-escalation strategy. This is flat-out urban warfare.”

At around the same time, a Customs and Border Protection plane was spotted circling overhead. C.B.P. officials told The Times it was sending a live video feed of the crowd to law enforcement on the ground. Protesters and local officials say this is all a case of federal overreach. Oregon’s attorney general has sued the federal government to stop arresting people. The president has doubled down, promising to send more federal officers to cities governed by his political rivals. “Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore, and all of these — Oakland is a mess — we’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.” The results could look like a national police force acting under presidential orders, able to ignore local demands and arrest residents. In Portland, it has been a recipe for chaos.

This was posted briefly to hackernews. The comments are disheartening.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with 9 counts of felony tax evasion

The Washington County prosecutor's office announced Wednesday that Chauvin and his wife, Kellie May Chauvin, face charges of underreporting their joint income from 2014 through 2019 by $464,433, including more than $95,000 that Derek Chauvin earned from off-duty security work.

The Atlantic starts covering the Portland detainments/abductions/????????¿????¿?¿?? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-:

Nothing can justify the attack on Portland

President Trump is cobbling together something the United States has never had before—a national police force, used to quell protests.

For decades, conservative activists and leaders have warned that “jackbooted thugs” from the federal government were going to come to take away Americans’ civil rights with no due process and no recourse. Now they’re here—but they’re deployed by a staunchly right-wing president with strong conservative support.

In Portland, Oregon, federal agents in military fatigues have for several days been patrolling the streets amid ongoing protests about police brutality. These forces, employed by the Department of Homeland Security, have snatched people off the streets of the city, refused to identify themselves, and detained people without charges. Ostensibly, they are present to protect federal buildings from protesters. In practice, they seem to be acting on a much wider mandate, either to suppress protests or (more cynically) to provoke confrontation on behalf of a flailing White House that sees it as electorally beneficial.

Federal officials have insisted these forces are necessary to stop “anarchy” (President Trump’s word). But local officials, including the mayor of Portland and Governor Kate Brown, have criticized their presence and asked, in vain, for them to leave, saying they are causing more trouble than they prevent. (As the local press notes, the idea that the city is consumed by chaos is ridiculous, though there has been some vandalism.)

A comment in reddit from a portland protester showing what they're doing to be able to protest

What the fuck. This sounds like China.

Oakland protesters set fire to courthouse, smash windows

A protest in Oakland, California, in support of racial justice and police reform turned violent when a small group of demonstrators wearing helmets and goggles and carrying large signs that doubled as shields set fire to a courthouse, vandalized a police station and shot fireworks at officers, authorities said.

About 700 demonstrators participated in what started as a peaceful march Saturday night but then some broke from the larger group and smashed windows, spray-painted graffiti and pointed lasers at officers, said Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland Police Department spokesperson.

Several fires were set in the downtown area, including one at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse that was quickly contained. Demonstrators hurled rocks, ceramic paint-filled balls and frozen water bottles through windows at the courthouse, federal building and police building in a raucous night that was unlike peaceful marches that have taken place in the city in recent weeks, Watson said.

“This was different,” Watson said. “This group of protesters had specific intentions to participate in one way or another — whether that’s carrying backpacks in with clearly very heavy items, and the smaller group would actually be engaged in doing the damage — there is a nexus with all of the attendees.”

Police made several arrests but did not provide details. There were no immediate reports of injuries to protesters or officers or immediate cost estimates of the vandalism, Watson said.