Street Roots editorial
Next month City Council will vote on deputizing several Portland Police officers to becoming Federal agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).
The FBI does do good work on numerous fronts ranging from human trafficking to combating violence against Portlanders. Saying that, SR still believes that members of local law enforcement agencies have no business operating as federal agents.
There’s no question that terrorism, or what we are calling terrorism today, is unacceptable. But the word terrorism, and the beliefs behind it, can be easily manipulated to accomplish any number of political ideologies. All words and actions can be.
The actions that took place surrounding the Pioneer Square bomb scare shouldn’t be taken lightly, but neither are they a compelling argument to abandon solid practices at home and go lock step with another bureaucracy.
Let’s take immigration. We know that immigration is a challenge we all face — one that Portland can’t solve on its own. But that doesn’t mean we jump to volunteer our police officers to become deputies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Why? Because we know that many of our citizens are immigrants, and come from all walks of life and different experiences, some good and some bad. The police serve all the people, and are sworn to protect us equally. It is a matter of public safety for an entire community.
The FBI has said that it has changed its culture. We’re not so sure.
In September, the FBI and the JTTF dispatched SWAT teams to the homes of anti-war activists in Minneapolis and Chicago and arrested people connected to the peace movement. Thinking that these peace activists might be dangerous, SR did a simple Google search and found that they looked more like grandparents, old hippies and corn-fed college kids than importers of terrorism.
It has since been reported that an undercover agent had infiltrated the groups, and supplied materials directly to the FBI, none of which amounts to a bowl of beans in the legal world.
The Chicago Teachers Union (in solidarity with the fact that several of those arrested were union members) passed a resolution condemning the raids, calling them a “witch hunt.” Because it is a witch hunt, and Portland should no more take part in these kinds of actions than it should take part in actions by ICE when they deport our neighbors.
As a city, we are proud to know that our local law enforcement represents the people, all people. We know that when working with the Portland Police Bureau that we have rights: Immigrants, refugees, peace activists, homeless folks, the gay and lesbian community, normal everyday folk and yes, even criminals.
By voting yes, the city will be saying to Portland peace activists, and others who dissent (and we are many) that we could be next — not based on local laws or policy, but on federal agendas that shift with the sands of politics. Some of us have already been targeted in the recent past.
The Portland City Council should vote no to rejoining the JTTF, or deputizing any of its officers as federal agents in any capacity, plain and simple. It may not be the popular thing to do, but the Portland we love will be better for it, and so will the diverse citizens its elected officials proudly represent.