Donald Trump’s use of the Department of Homeland Security in his plan to send unidentified federal troops to Democratic-governed cities across the country has just been blasted by the first man to oversee that particular agency, and he’s a Republican.
Tom Ridge served as Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005 after the department was established following the 9/11 attacks. It was meant to fight threats of terrorism inside the United States from foreign groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS. But Trump has turned it against American citizens who are protesting against racial injustice and police brutality.
Unidentified federal agents dressed in military gear are snatching Americans off the street in Portland and detaining them — even though they’ve committed no crimes. It’s a gross violation of the Constitution and the kind of scheme conducted by authoritarian governments.
Trump is now planning to send such troops to other cities in an abuse of power that continues to worsen each day.
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Ridge, who is also a decorated Vietnam War veteran and the former governor of Pennsylvania, condemned Trump’s abuse of Homeland Security.
”The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism,” Ridge said during a radio interview with Michael Smerconish. “It was not established to be the president’s personal militia.”
And that’s exactly how Trump is treating the department. Though the agents are not wearing badges or making it clear who they are and what agency they are with, it’s believed that many of them are members of the US Marshals Service, ICE, and Border Patrol being used to target American citizens.
Democratic officials in these cities have demanded they be removed immediately. And Ridge agrees because he remarked that it would be a “cold day in hell” before he would allow Trump to send his goons in to terrorize his state.
“It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities,” Ridge said.
Using Homeland Security to target peacefully protesting Americans is beyond inappropriate. It smacks of fascism and should outrage the whole country. Because if Trump can get away with using these agents as his own “personal militia,” what stops him from using that militia to help him stay in office permanently even if he loses the election?
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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