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By Marilyn Bechtel
OAKLAND, Calif. – Outrage is growing throughout the country over Donald Trump’s use of federal law enforcement against protesters in Portland, Oregon, and his threats to dispatch federal officers to other U.S. cities.
On July 20, Trump told reporters he might send federal “law enforcement” to cities he claimed were experiencing heightened violence, naming cities including New York, Chicago, and Oakland – calling the latter “a mess.”
On July 22, he said federal agents were being dispatched to Chicago, Kansas City, MO, and Albuquerque.
Following Monday’s announcement, four California mayors – Oakland’s Libby Schaaf, Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, Sacramento’s Darrell Steinberg and San Jose’s Sam Liccardo – joined the mayors of Portland and 10 other U.S. cities in sending a powerful protest to U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.
The July 20 letter, also signed by the mayors of Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Tucson, Phoenix and Kansas City, MO, called such deployments “unprecedented” and said they violate “fundamental constitutional protections and tenets of federalism … This abuse of power cannot continue...
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