r/politics • u/thenewrepublic The New Republic • 14d ago

Soft Paywall Trump’s Agents in D.C. Caught on Video Randomly Harassing People

https://newrepublic.com/post/199014/trump-agents-dc-takeover-video-harassing-people
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u/brain_overclocked 14d ago edited 14d ago

Federal law enforcement has begun patrolling public areas in Washington, D.C., and harassing normal civilians in the wake of President Trump’s federal takeover of the district.

In one video posted on Reddit Monday night, four police officers, one of whom is clearly from the U.S. Park Police, can be seen walking up to some men smoking cigarettes on a stoop. The officers question the men before warning them to “tell their boys” that the entire federal police force is out and looking for reasons to accost people.

The interaction:

“How y’all doing today? Y’all staying out of trouble?” says one of the officers, wearing a backward hat and a vest with “US Park Police” on it. He sees one of the men sitting down filming and immediately confronts him.

“You got your ID on you, champ?” the officer asks, walking up the steps closer to the men.

“No, I live right here.... It’s a cigarette.”

The Park Police officer begins to shine his flashlight and look the men up and down with suspicion.

“Did y’all get a call or something about right here?” the man filming asks. Then the Park Police agent begins to explain Trump’s takeover of the city.

“So we’re uh, doing checks, keeping everybody safe down here, right? Have you heard of the federal search that Donald Trump’s puttin’ out?” he asks, before going on to explain the trivial goals of the federal agents.

“Trump’s got all federal agencies kind of coming together for seven days, going out, trying to stop the violent crime, all kinds of stuff. So we’re out here contacting people, talking to ’em, right?” the officer continues. “The quality of life offenses—smoking, drinking in public—it can’t happen outside, right? Most people know that. So we’re contacting people, trying to advise them of the law so they learn, right? And then if there’s other stuff going on where it turns into … there’s multiple agencies, if there’s a shooting or things like that.... We’re just out here trying to inform people and educate people, it’s not like we’re trying to just go … ruin someone’s life over a joint or something like that, alright?”

“I only ask because when you walked up, at the moment you walked up, you only had asked me—” the man filming tried to object.

“Yeah well it smelled like the odor of marijuana, burnt marijuana in the air, right? And you’re the only guy that had something lit in your hand.... I didn’t realize it was just a cigarette, I appreciate you … not getting chippy,” the officer responds. “Just know, learn. Tell your boys, everybody’s out. From FBI to Park Police. So do your thing, let ’em know, don’t be smoking outside, don’t be drinking outside. Because Donald Trump’s tired of it.”

This officer approached some men who were at their own home, asked them for ID, and lectured them about staying out of trouble. And then warned them that more people like him from three-letter government organizations would be coming to make sure they weren’t doing evil things like smoking cigarettes or weed peacefully on the steps of their own residence.

Big Brother is looking out for you, making sure that you don't smoke on your own fucking property. "Party of small government" my fucking ass.

Trump Border Czar Confirms Racial Profiling Is Now Law of the Land

Immigration Czar Tom Homan just enthusiastically confirmed what we already knew: ICE is using indiscriminate racial profiling tactics to detain immigrants.

“People need to understand, ICE officers and border patrol, they don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain ‘em and question ‘em,” Homan said when asked about a Los Angeles federal judge issuing a temporary restraining order on his west coast immigration crackdown. “Get our typical facts based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions ... agents are trained what they need to detain somebody temporarily and question them is not probable cause, it’s reasonable suspicion. We’re trained on that. Every agent gets 4th amendment training over and over again.”

Trump Is Asking the Supreme Court to Bless Stephen Miller’s Racial Profiling

On Thursday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to lift an injunction blocking ICE’s mass arrest program based on unconstitutional racial profiling. The injunction, issued by a district court in California, bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting people because of four factors, alone or in combination: “appearing” Hispanic, speaking Spanish or accented English, working a particular type of job, and being present at a place where immigrants “are known to gather.” The Justice Department claimed that the district court “egregiously” and “needlessly upended immigration enforcement” by prohibiting such arrests and sought permission to resume them immediately.

Trump's Washington, D.C., takeover targets a host of groups, many of them vulnerable

Trump said cops will be allowed to do "whatever the hell they want."

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u/BigDictionEnergy 14d ago

"That sounds great, man. I feel safer already. Hey, have you heard anything about those Epstein files?"

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u/meryl_gear 14d ago

“You think you could sniff those out?”

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u/BigDictionEnergy 14d ago

Dope username. The codec frequency is on the back of the CD case.

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u/TapEmbarrassed4376 14d ago

God what a fucking wet dream that would be if he said that

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u/TheAskewOne 14d ago

Calling those men "champ" and "boys". They sure know how to choose their words, right?

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u/wtfnouniquename 14d ago

I'd probably be in jail because I would have found it difficult not to respond to his "Donald Trump's tired of it" comment with "fuck Donald Trump." Seriously, if Donald Trump thinks/wants it it's almost certainly wrong. Am I breaking the law? No? Then fuck off and fuck Donald Trump.

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u/TheAskewOne 14d ago

It's not even that he's wrong. It's that in the US, we're not supposed to care about what King Donald wants.

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u/DDDingusAlert 14d ago

You don't need to be breaking the law to get detained and disappeared by the current administration.

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u/sleeplessinreno 14d ago

Yeah, some of us don't sit on the dingus committee either.

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u/STM_343_4009 14d ago

1A. Free Speech. I'd tell the cop to fuck right off too after saying shit like: "You don't really do this very often do you? Don't you watch the door when kids go on field trips at the museum?" Along with "Fuck Trump and show some spine"

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u/ErusTenebre California 14d ago

"Trump's tired of it."

"And I should give a shit about how our president is feeling on a day to day basis? I've been tired of his ass for years, no one has harassed him about that."

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u/sleeplessinreno 14d ago

Right there with you boss.

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u/Shadowhawk109 14d ago

its because they're the only Real Men

there's a entire history of police specifically calling Black Americans "boy" in order to demean them without using actual derogatory terms.

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u/TheAskewOne 14d ago

That's exactly what I was referring to.

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u/donkeyrocket 14d ago

A POS racist Park Police officer gets to play hardo for a day.

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u/ms-rumphius 14d ago

“Quality of life offense” is an absolutely fucking terrifying term. I don’t know how many more alarm bells people need. 

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u/hotthamz 14d ago

“Trump is sick of it.” Bro needs to listen to himself. Really? Drinking outside? I’m from Wisconsin-we call that a wholesome evening. Sitting on your porch with a fucking beer? That’s Norman Rockwell level wholesome.

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u/JoyKil01 14d ago

Reminder that you have a right to not carry identification on you.

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u/actibus_consequatur 14d ago

Worth pointing out that is not true everywhere, and especially under certain circumstances.

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u/schadenfreude_101 14d ago

Czar Homan - so close to being human and yet so far away

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u/OhSixTJ 14d ago

You left this part out of the Homan/racial profiling story:

“Homan’s framing of probable cause and the 4th amendment is not new, nor is it unique to the Trump administration. Homan got his initial experience on this issue working for President Obama as ICE’s Executive Associate Director of Enforcement in 2014, the same year the Obama Administration reaffirmed the use of racial profiling by federal immigration agents because they couldn’t do their jobs “without taking ethnicity into account.” “

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u/GoodtimesSans 14d ago

A single dictator is technically a small (sized) government.

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u/MariosBrother1 14d ago

Not to play Devil’s Advocate, but your own front porch CAN be considered public - for example, people cannot be having sex on their front porch, even though that’s their own property.

There are certain carve outs for edge cases such as this.

I vehemently disagree with this authoritarian crackdown, don’t get me wrong.

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u/dustinhut13 14d ago

Anyone that tells me I can't smoke or drink a beer outside on my property can get fucking lost. These idiots are going to get themselves shot going up to the wrong house

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u/IcyTransportation961 14d ago

These laws have always been used to harass minorities and give them criminal records for behavior white people in the country do constantly

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u/JRockPSU I voted 14d ago

These idiots are going to get themselves shot going up to the wrong house

Oh they people who put them there, they're counting on it. They're hoping for it to happen.

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u/MariosBrother1 14d ago

I don’t disagree with you, but I have done some research into this and from what I can tell, this is the way the law is interpreted 

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u/ResultsVary Nebraska 14d ago

Sure sure. That's the way it's interpreted. Which means around this time about a month ago - we would have had a nationwide crime spree of people drinking on their lawns.

It's interpreted that way if your skin happens to have a wee bit more melanin. Because never once have I been stopped for drinking in public when I'm mowing my front lawn - a curtilage if you will. Because I live in the midwest where when I get off work and get to mowing the lawn it's about 110 degrees. Zero chance I'm doing that without a cold beer. And cops in my state have a major Napoleon Complex.

I asked this in a previous thread... are they going to go to the wealthier side of town and start cracking down on Mr and Mrs White who are in their front lawn, in full view of the public, smoking or drinking? I have my entire 401k riding on the fact that they won't.

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u/MariosBrother1 14d ago

Not sure why you’re upset at me over this?

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u/ResultsVary Nebraska 14d ago

Not upset with you, and I apologize if it comes off that way. Upset with the situation and I'm venting.

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u/MariosBrother1 14d ago

Ahhh. Ok I’m ready.

Let it out! I will be your whipping boy! :3

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u/ResultsVary Nebraska 14d ago

If a certain supreme court had their way, you wouldn't be able to have sex on your property period.

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u/FreshBurt 14d ago

“Not to play Devil’s Advocate”

Then don’t.

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u/MariosBrother1 14d ago

You’re right we shouldn’t bring up truthful, relevant points.

My bad 

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u/CackleandGrin 14d ago

for example, people cannot be having sex on their front porch, even though that’s their own property.

And that's because you're visibly doing a sexual act where minors can be around, yeah?