![]() ![]() ![]() The government counts up its law enforcement personnel only every eight years, and all told, at last count in 2016, the federal government employed over 132,000 civilian law enforcement officers-only about half of which come from the major “brand name” agencies like the FBI, ATF, Secret Service, DEA and CBP. It is the heaviest show of force in the nation’s capital since the protests and riots of the Vietnam War.Īs large as the public show of force on D.C.’s streets has turned out to be-Bloomberg reported Thursday that the force includes nearly 3,000 law enforcement-it still represents only a tiny sliver of the government’s armed agents and officers. The Drug Enforcement Administration has been given special powers to enable it to surveil protesters. headquarters-what in normal times is the path to a food court for federal workers. Battalions of agents were mustered in the lobby of Customs and Border Protection’s D.C. this week with what amounts to a federal army of occupation, overseen from the FBI Washington area command post in Chinatown. Nearly all of these agencies are headquartered in and around the capital, making it easy for Attorney General William Barr to enlist them as part of his vast effort to “flood the zone” in D.C. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday demanding that federal officers identify themselves and their agency. Some protesters have compared the anonymous armed officers to Russia’s “Little Green Men,” the soldiers-dressed-up-as-civilians who invaded and occupied eastern Ukraine. ![]() The images of such military-style men in America’s capital are disconcerting, in part, because absent identifying signs of actual authority the rows of federal officers appear all-but indistinguishable from the open-carrying, white militia members cosplaying as survivalists who have gathered in other recent protests against pandemic stay-at-home orders. Eagle-eyed protesters have identified some of them as belonging to Bureau of Prisons’ riot police units from Texas, but others remain a mystery. “Tell us who you are, identify yourselves!” protesters demanded, as they stared down the helmeted, sunglass-wearing mostly white men outside the White House. Many of the apparently federal agents have refused to identify which agency they work for. Few sights from the nation’s protests in recent days have seemed more dystopian than the appearance of rows of heavily-armed riot police around Washington in drab military-style uniforms with no insignia, identifying emblems or name badges. ![]()
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