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Border Patrol cites movement to remove Lincoln statue in Park Square as one of its justifications for disappearing people in Portland, OR

The Nation got a copy of a Customs and Border Patrol memo used to justify the way federal agents are now scooping up people in Portland, OR (and cracking the odd protester's head with "less lethal" projectiles).

Among the Border Patrol's reasons for putting aside such niceties as the Constitution: The way "rioters" want to take down statues across the country. Among their examples: The move to get rid of the statue in Park Square, called "The Emancipator," that honors Lincoln but which also looks like a white guy towering over a half-naked Black man cowering on the ground.

What the memo doesn't say is that the effort to remove the statue was entirely peaceful and, not that this matters anymore, entirely legal, spurred by this video.

Also not mentioned: That the Boston Arts Commission voted unanimously to remove the city-owned statue from public view.

Do we need to organize a new generation of Minutemen to protect commission members?


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Comments

"Do we need to organize a new generation of Minutemen to protect commission members?"

If I remember correctly, there was a movement to take down MinuteMen statues at a Umass campus, back in the nineties. Because the statue has a man holding a gun.

So Adam be careful of writing about Minutemen or you could be next to be unpersoned.

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I didn't know there was some anti-Minutemen sentiment during the 90s. I attended UMass in the early 70s when teams were the Redmen. In 1972 they changed their name to the Minutemen which both got rid of the racist name, and represented the Massachusetts men who fought against British oppression in the American Revolution. There was a bit of pushback because of the celebration of the military, but not much.

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Try re-reading it.

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"Because the statue has a man holding a gun."

Not quite, Mr. Fear The "PC Police."

Despite the ready acceptance of the Minuteman, it too became the focus of controversy because of its symbolic associations. During the spring 1984, a referendum to change the name of the mascot was defeated by a margin of three to one, with Minuteman winning out over Artichokes and Statesmen. In the early 1990s, students revived the campaign opposing the Minuteman, citing it as a “symbol of oppression” and a reflection of racism, sexism, and militarism, or more simply, as a depiction of a white man with a gun. Chancellor David K. Scott announced that he was open to discussing the change, but a vocal backlash from supporters of the Minuteman in 1993-1994 and a change in opinion by some key opponents, who argued that they had come to accept the Minuteman as symbolic of liberation movements, eventually quelled the controversy.

http://scua.library.umass.edu/youmass/doku.php?id=m:mascots

That writeup is exceedingly kind, glossing over the point of MBC militias and minutemen. Hint: "stick it to the redcoats" came over a hundred years after the first minutemen units were created.

When you actually spell it out and say "hey, let's change from calling ourselves the Redmen....to the Minutemen, aka a quick-response militia which both attacked and defended against indigenous people in the area for decades"....

...then "y'knooooooooow guys, not such an improvement from a racist caricature of the indigenous people?"

...doesn't sound nearly as dumb, does it?

But don't let facts get in the way of your white fragility....

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despite social media efforts by conservatives and the NRA to make shit up about disarming the Minuteman. The Lincoln statue portrays the emancipated slave kneeling at the feet of his savior. I always found the statue as belittling. My opinion.

Madisons Federalist 46 is often cited by Second Amendment zealots to argue the need for arms to defend against a tyrannical government. The NRA endorsed president has sent secret police into a major American city to prevent constitutionally protected free speech and gathering. The second amendment warriors see no hypocrisy but consider confederate statues and flags as "heritage". The Minuteman is heritage, Robert E. Lee, his generals and troops traitors. Lincoln statue, bad art.

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Taught there for years. Never heard of this. Sounds like more truth like stories that certain people who hate colleges live to tell react other.

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That's the distance from the Lincoln statue to the headquarters of City Year. You know City Year, the place where the Tea Partiers said shock troops were being prepared by the Obama administration to suspend the constitutional rights of everyone, institute martial law, and ship "law abiding" Americans off to FEMA camps.

Oh, the irony.

The abuses by DHS that everyone feared when this "Homeland" shit arose after 9/11 are coming true.

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came to post exactly this

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The Portland situation makes me even more curious about the purpose of Attorney General Barr and Police Commissioner Gross's meeting. I'm wondering if snatching people off the street here was proposed or may still be on the table.

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We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

- Martin Luther King, Jr

The domestic extraordinary rendition seen in Portland, OR broadcasts how the Trump administration values statues more then Black lives and the health and well being of we the citizens. This is the latest in a pattern of Executive Branch hostility towards citizens. Since the death of Mr Floyd, at least 20 people have been blinded in one eye due to rubber bullets (several were journalists doing their jobs, I’m noting this for the inevitable “they shouldn’t have been doing some thing illegal” crowd), yet the priority is to escalate tensions rather than keeping people safe.

Of course I am not endorsing reckless vandalism and graffiti. But I care infinitely more about citizens who have been seriously and often permanently injured by “professional” law enforcement paid by taxpayers than I do about any inanimate, replaceable statue. I want a President who cares more about people than statues and won’t use law enforcement to abuse citizens in Lafayette Park, blind citizens in Minneapolis, or abduct citizens in Portland.

Saying that people are more valuable than statues is controversial in 2020. Thank you, President Trump and MAGA.

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Sorry all I can handle right now is making sure we don't die from Corona virus. I don't give a shit about statues right now, whether it's Abe or the Bunker Hill Monument or a classic 60s creation made by the Plaster Caster girls. P S. Adam I never thought I would be saying I miss your rhymes about MBTA rush hour fails. Make us laugh. Luv ya!

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Thats the whole point of this... put people like you (and myself) over the edge into complete chaos from the overload of information.

Being inundated with information from all different directions to break you down is exactly what they want. Its an authoritarian tactic (perfected by the KGB). Orange face has been doing it since he got into office.

Beangate is an perfect example.. and in the midst of that, this memo was drafted. While we were all pooping our pants with black beans over Goya, this crap was going down.

It's always "look over here, don't look at what I'm doing over there" with him. Distraction is is plan..

I fear this is just the start of something that is going to escalate more over the next few weeks, add C19 being at extreme levels, masks N maga fights, election woes...

August and Fall 2020 are shaping up to be fun. I've weirdly been right about everything so far...

So Fasten your seatbelts slutpuppy, this is gonna be no cake walk.

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Is the entire point of the entire criminal administration.

Wear us down until we can't discern truth from fiction.
Splinter us with stupid distractions like posing for Goya ads from the Oval Office, and numb us to the HOURLY destruction of the country.

We're never coming back from this.

Ever.

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They would be quartered in a free-standing hotel with a large parking lot with an abutting restaurant with good highway access. Think Woburn, Braintree, Norwood, or Saugus. Perhaps Burlington, because that's where DHS keeps most of their prisoners and office space in the area.

You don't want these guys to be intimidated by any building over 4-stories tall. They will stick to the burbs and national chains off duty.

This is the same crap from Beijing in 1989. Bring in redneck soldiers to the city and say - Look at these liberaalls and what they are doing to your heritage. That will get them riled up.

Look for 3 or 4 guys in shape in a minivan with out of state plates and no dealer markings. Then you will know if they are here.

Charlie, Marty, Liz, Ayanna, and Ed better pass the word on to Washington; F'Off federales, we have this democracy thing going on that is more important than the gibbon's re-election strategy.

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In good shape, hair in regs, def not the Joe Hardhat type.

They stick out like sore thumbs if you know what to look for.

And they ARE here already.

Enterprise has even been renting them vehicles under LLC's to avoid being tracked back to the Feds.

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Another thing I'd say is working against our sovereignty here is a significant federal presence in Boston proper, which is the overarching justification they are using to be in Portland, "protecting federal properties"

There's all sorts of federal property in MA, just thinking of the bigger locations: the O'Neill and JFK buildings, Federal Reserve, everything under NPS, and I suppose anything that comes near Amtrak lines. Cambridge has US DOT in Kendall.

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are the same as those used in other countries - including those that the erudite among us have referred to as "shithole" - where systematic torture by police, military and other law enforcement is an open secret.

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Title should be changed to “Police Arresting Criminals in Portland, OR.”

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And what we're witnessing is Trump & Barr's Hail Mary to retain control by any means necessary.

The majority of Germans didn't vote for Hitler either and Trump is following that same path. Even going so far as to prepare his Fuhrerbunker for what's inevitably to come.

You're outnumbered and not #winning this one, pal.

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When people use the term our side and your side in the same country, we all lose. Keep up the rhetoric.

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Divisive rhetoric is this regime's forté, so you can pound sand with your faux-concern.

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I keep hearing that “we’re all in this together”, but some Americans have opted out. When the anti-mask poop flingers abandon their juvenile abuse of grocery store workers, when the MAGA hat crowd abandons their support for White power, and when the liberty crowd grows a spine and fights DHS’s egregious encroachment on Federalism for the sake of statues, then we can consider welcoming them back into the fold.

For now, these are not people I want on “our side” and I reject your premise that merely using the term is in any way a source for division.

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You started that when you branded lawfully behaving citizens walking home from work who were kidnapped by unlawful goon squads as "criminals".

Please move to Turkey or Russia if you are going to be Unamerican like this.

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When Trump supporters like Merkin - vote suppressing, race-baiting, xenophobes try to claim that the everyone else are the divisive ones.

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Where are the warrants? Due process? This clearly violates the original intent of the Constitution.

Stop whacking off on amendment 2 and read amendments 4 and 10. Your civics teacher sucked.

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Something, something, due process.

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When was the last time you were in Portland, OR?

How many relatives do you have living near the river?

What your fake news feed and dear leader are telling you about the place is an enormous pile of bullshit.

The reality is that the city has been invaded by forces in a manner that violates the 1st, 4th, 5th,10th, and 14th amendments.

You know the bill of rights has more than a single amendment, right?

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In Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland were very irresponsible in the way they handled the violent protestors. In specifically Portland, they've had non-stop, often violent protests in front of a federal courthouse. They've torn down statues (plural), including, oddly, a locally well known statue of an elk. They've damaged other properties, including covering them with graffiti. They've routinely assaulted people. Some protestors are peaceful, but many are not.

If the local governments allowed local police to restore law and order, the federal police' wouldn't have been sent in. The whole situation is ridiculous.

I find it interesting that the cities with the more extreme, non-stop anti-racism (allegedly) protests like Portland, Seattle have very small black populations. The entire west coast, California included, have black populations well below 10%. Even the big west coast cities have very small black populations. The overwhelming number of BLM protestors, ANTIFA, etc., are white middle and upper middle class.

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Oh, darn, there goes the bell. For homework, class, Google "oregon white state." We'll discuss tomorrow.

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Every time police forces become more aggressive, amp up the militarism, and escalate tensions the situation becomes worse.

It’s almost as if highly paid professional police forces countering anti-police brutality protests with additional layers of police brutality is an ineffective strategy. Funny how that works.

These protests stem from police violence and I under-prosecuted murder by police; end police violence and end the protests.

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In Minneapolis, the police started and escalated the violence, or have you forgotten who murdered George Floyd?

Fires were being started by people who almost certainly didn't live in Minneapolis, driving around in cars with no license plates (so it's possible some weren't from out of state). Friends of mine were sleeping in their front yards with fire extinguishers ready, in case the out-of-state thugs decided to burn their homes down.

That's not "protest," that's arson and murder in support of the existing white supremacist power structure.

Meanwhile, you're saying that because some people tore down a statue without permission, it's okay for armed men to shoot protestors.

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in 1775-76.

How long will it take Portland and Oregon to rid themselves of Federal troops?

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About the ones already here in Boston.

Since Ken Cucinelli already said he's taking this op nationwide to the delight of President Big Boy, I fully expect we'll see these troops in several Democratic cities by November 3rd to intimidate voters and/or protestors.

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From DHS "Career Profiles":

Special Response Teams
Special Response Team (SRT) is the "SWAT" (Special Weapons and Tactics) of Homeland Security Investigations. HSI currently has 17 SRTs operating in offices throughout the United States. SRTs are responsible for performing high-risk arrests and search warrants, providing VIP security detail and protection, supporting rural area operations, and providing sniper coverage. SRTs are currently operating in St. Paul, Phoenix (AZ), New Orleans, Houston, New York, Dallas, Detroit, San Juan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, El Paso, Tampa, Chicago, San Diego, Miami, and Washington, D.C. SRTs are typically reserved for high-risk operations but also assist in natural disasters domestically and internationally.
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Or possibly mid January.

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Do they have a large hill overlooking their downtown? If so, all you need to do is set up a fortified artillery battery under cover of darkness and they seem to evacuate pretty quickly after.

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Is it a coup?

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Unidentified goons ignoring the Constitution, 4th, and 14th amendments are not law abiding citizens or officials. They're criminals on a paycheck.

Their actions are assault, and we should be treating these crimes as such. By protective force if necessary.

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