How widespread this is, and whether they’re targeting vandals or casting a much broader net at demonstrators, are open questions as I write this. The two stories about this circulating today, one from WaPo and the other from Oregon Public Broadcasting, claim that “protesters” are being snatched as well.
What’s not in question is that this is twice at least in the past two months that federal agents kitted out in military or paramilitary trappings have appeared on America’s streets without any markings identifying who they are or what agency they’re with. When it happened in D.C. last month in the first flush of George Floyd protests, the agents at least looked like cops in riot gear, not soldiers. The agents on the streets of Portland this week look like troops; they have a completely generic “POLICE” tag on their chests but otherwise they seem poised to deploy.
Hellbound and Down 