Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf spun his unidentified federal agents’ random detainment of nonviolent anti-police brutality protesters in Portland, Oregon as some kind of pre-crime measure on Tuesday night.
“Because we don’t have that local support, that local law enforcement support, we are having to go out and proactively arrest individuals,” Wolf said during an interview on Fox News. “And we need to do that because we need to hold them accountable.”
He derided the “ridiculous” notion that federal law enforcement shouldn’t take over a city without local leaders’ permission.
“You need to hold individuals accountable, and when we don’t do that, I think we get what we see in Portland today,” the Trump administration official said.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has repeatedly demanded that the Trump administration withdraw the feds from his city, asserting during a CNN interview on Sunday that their presence is “actually leading to more violence and more vandalism.”
“People are being literally scooped off the street into unmarked vans, rental cars, apparently,” Wheeler said. “They are being denied probable cause. And they are denied due process.”
Watch Wolf below:
Acting DHS secretary says federal agents are "proactively" arresting people in Portland. pic.twitter.com/cU1zw0IChz
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 22, 2020
