The Portland Protests: Freedom Requires Unremitting Vigilance

As outrage rapidly spreads across the nation we are in danger of experiencing government-sponsored atrocity overload. Many are experiencing an overwhelming sense of hopelessness against the power of the administration’s military-enforced lawlessness.  On Friday, July 17, 2020, in Portland, Oregon, camouflage-clad military from Homeland Security in unmarked vans seized peaceful protesters and assaulted an American citizen, peacefully holding up a sign, causing him a severe concussion. This can only be described as an attack on the Constitution of the United States.  It is reminiscent of August 28, 1968, when protesters outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago were beaten bloody by police as the entire world watched American democracy at work.  Here we are, fifty-two years later, proving that freedom requires unremitting vigilance.

The U. S. Department of Homeland Security was created in November 2002 in response to the attacks of 9/11 to protect the United States from terrorist threats and attacks by coordinating the efforts of all federal law enforcement agencies. The overreaching use of military force against peace demonstrators is a direct violation of its stated purpose and of the first amendment of the Constitution. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows finds Homeland Security’s use of military force, meant to protect our citizens, an abhorrent subversion of all for which we stand.  We condemn this abuse of power and beg all Americans of good conscience to demand their representative in Congress put a stop to this egregious violation of our civil rights.