The Hijacking of Homeland Security

[wing2000]

Op-ed by Mr. Chertoff served as the secretary of homeland security under President George W. Bush.

The Trump administration’s deliberate decision to intervene in the Portland protests with a heavy hand, unconventional means and inflammatory political rhetoric has contributed to growing public distrust — particularly of the Department of Homeland Security.

Critics of the department are now rightly worried that its law enforcement agents might be increasingly deployed by President Trump to score political points, or even interfere with the November election.

These actions, now or into the future, endanger our democracy, and undermine the nation’s safety — by hurting the department’s ability to carry out its core mission of protecting Americans from genuine threats to our security.

Opinion | The Hijacking of Homeland Security

 

[RocksInMyHead]

On a similar note, in an interview with the current head of DHS on Sunday, a reporter at Fox asked if he could just arrest the city leadership in Portland for "not doing enough" to stop the protests. Seriously.

He brushes it off (and possibly didn't understand what she was really asking?), but for someone to even ask a question like that on a live news broadcast is insane.

 

[Richard T]

Homeland Security is protecting government buildings and helping bring law and order to an anarchic situation. It is quite a jump to go from there to having agents interfere in an election and do other political tasks. Usually the latter is done in stealth, such as the Obama use of the FBI in monitoring Trump's campaign.

 

[Belk]

Homeland Security is protecting government buildings and helping bring law and order to an anarchic situation. It is quite a jump to go from there to having agents interfere in an election and do other political tasks. Usually the latter is done in stealth, such as the Obama use of the FBI in monitoring Trump's campaign.

Oh? What law was the navy veteran who they beat breaking? How about the moms they tear gassed? What law did they break?

 

[jgarden]

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
- 10th Amendment, The U.S. Constitution

“It is most important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional Spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another.”
- George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796

“The powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.”
- James Madison

“It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“The way to have good and safe government, is not to trust it all to one; but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the National government be entrusted with the defence of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police and administration of what concerns the states generally; the Counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each Ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great National one down thro’ all its subordinates, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm and affairs by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.”
- Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, February 2, 1816

Founding Fathers Quotes on Centralized Power in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments
****************************************************************************************************************
The Founding Fathers were well aware of the dangers posed by unscrupulous leaders in positions of authority who could resort to the "standing" military to undermine democracy!

The 10th Amendment in effect delegated "policing" powers to the states as part of its "checks and balances" strategy against the concentration of too much power in one branch or level of government!

Ironically, it was not the military, but the newly formed (2002) Department of Homeland Security, under an Acting Director not confirmed by the Senate, that has emerged as that threat by encroaching on the states' policing powers under the command of a President with little knowledge or regard for the Constitution and its Amendments!

 

[wing2000]

Homeland Security is protecting government buildings and helping bring law and order to an anarchic situation. It is quite a jump to go from there to having agents interfere in an election and do other political tasks. Usually the latter is done in stealth, such as the Obama use of the FBI in monitoring Trump's campaign.

<excerpt>

"While it was appropriate for the department’s personnel to deploy to protect the Portland federal courthouse against threats by some violent actors, the tactics actually employed looked heavy-handed and dismissive of legal constraints. Videos reveal agents operating in camouflage uniforms with no clear identifying insignia. That may be appropriate combating transnational drug gangs in a border environment, but not in American cities. Other videos and reports make clear that even peaceful demonstrators — such as individuals identifying as military veterans — were struck with nonlethal projectiles and strong tear gas. And there was no respect for, or coordination with, the wishes of local authorities.

One might criticize these moves as errors in judgment, but for the fact that White House statements demonstrate the president reveling in the use of brutal and aggressive force, especially in cities that he characterizes as governed by liberal Democratic mayors. And if the politically performative aspect of this policy were not already obvious, it is rendered unmistakable when footage of the mayhem is broadcast by Trump campaign commercials."