(THREAD) "Blacks ops" means "covert military operations that may employ measures not generally authorized." In Portland right now is an interagency federal paramilitary force comprising 16 agencies; the force is acting covertly—without any nameplates—outside the scope of the law.
1/ What the proponents of Trump's secret police are doing is lying about every element of what's happening in Portland and what this force is doing. Here, Attorney Barnes' first lie is that we know which agencies are engaging in these operations. We don't, and that's intentional.
2/ If, as Barnes' lie would have it, Barr were only employing two entities—DHS and the U.S. Marshals Service—and the forces were so identified, yes, "black ops" would be a sensationalized moniker for what's happening.
But what Barnes describes is not at all what's happening now.
But what Barnes describes is not at all what's happening now.
3/ In fact, the force is Portland is deliberately comprised of so many components of the executive branch that it has made it impossible for media even to know who to talk to about it, as no one will discuss it comprehensively or take accountability for it. But that's not all.
4/ The lack of individual, unit, or agency nameplates means that these individuals can't be questioned by citizens—who they won't speak to under any circumstances, anyway—local officials, or media. And their use of unmarked vehicles is further intended to shield their identities.
5/ Citizen journalists have captured many instances of these forces moving quickly, silently, without documentation or verbalization of a basis for probable cause, then jumping into a car and speeding off. They speed off, indeed, the moment they're spotted in their hiding spaces.
6/ So calling the work being done "covert" is richly justified by the factual record. Just so, their armaments, tactics and use of munitions is consistent with a "military" operation broadly writ. Note: "Military" means "relating to or characteristic of soldiers or armed forces."
7/ But don't take my word for it—take Barr's. And Trump's. And Wolf's. They've made clear this is part of the war on terrorism, and that in their view—therefore, in the view of the mission of this interagency force—they're dealing with "terrorists." So yes—these are military ops.
8/ Secretary of Defense Esper has even used the term "battlespaces" to describe the locations this interagency force would and does operate in. So when the foremost constitutional scholar in America implicitly calls these "covert operations of a military character," he's correct.
9/ To be "black ops," the tactics used by this covert interagency military force must be "generally" not authorized. Major-media journalists—especially journalists from Oregon—have highlighted that Barr's Army is acting outside the enumerated scope of their authority in Portland.
10/ The feds have authority to police federal land and property in Portland and to arrest for crimes that occur in their presence. We have video of Barr's Army roving through neighborhoods arresting folks without probable cause on "crimes" they never saw—and releasing them later.
11/ I understand—we all do—how Twitter works, and how "respectability media" works. And it's true that 20 years ago, the chances of a headline saying the White House is using "black ops military" domestically being correct would be near zero. But we're in a very different moment.
12/ This isn't a time when you can look at a headline with your 1995 or 2010 vision and squint and say, "That seems improbable." It's not 2010. Or 2015. It's 2020, and in 2020—Barnes' dishonest attempts to make it sound like not much has changed notwithstanding—all is different.
13/ I was the one who posted the headline, "DHS Confirms Barr Will Be Deploying His Black Ops Interagency Army Nationwide." Almost 25,000 retweeted it. I couldn't have imagined writing such words even 4 years ago. I'm a former criminal defense attorney—not an alarmist on the law.
14/ But I stand by that absolutely jaw-dropping headline because it's true. It's 100% verifiable through major media. The Attorney General *did* create a "black ops interagency army" that is engaging in illegal operations in Portland—and DHS says it will deploy it elsewhere, too.
15/ The game liars like Barnes are playing is this: we all want now to be more like 2010 was—or 2015 was—so nice Mr. Barnes is gonna *give* that to you. "DHS and US Marshals aren't 'black ops military police'!" he assures us with a grin. Except Barr's Army is literally just that.
PS/ I'm comfortable putting my legal education against Barnes'—especially as he pretends anyone is saying "interagency" means "black ops" or "camo" is what's complained of when we say, "unidentifiable."
What passes for intellect on the right is harrowing.
What passes for intellect on the right is harrowing.
PS2/ Now here's Barnes citing—I kid you not—the 1988 Gene Hackman joint "Mississippi Burning" as his legal justification for offering a legal analysis contradicted by the *black-letter law* governing the feds' presence and scope of authority in Portland.
PS3/ Barnes ignores a little thing we call "jurisdiction"—namely, that the federal jurisdiction in Portland relevant here involves protection of federal land/property only, meaning roving patrols are illegal. And he ignores that PC in such cases is a matter of black-letter law.
PS4/ By law, these federal troops must see the crime—at a level of certainty of probable cause—to arrest for it, which means they can't walk around firing tear gas indiscriminately far from federal property and scoop up folks for non-criminal offenses or offenses they didn't see.
PS5/ If they do that, they're violating the law. And if they do it while driving around in unmarked rental cars wearing nameplate-less clothes no different from those you could buy at Walmart, they're sure as hell a "black ops interagency army"—as I said, and @tribelaw retweeted.
NOTE/ The chief rhetorical weapon Trumpists have is normalization. We all wish things were normal—and feel anxious at what we hear ourselves saying, even when we're just describing events—so Trumpists' play is to assure us nothing has changed, and any who say otherwise are crazy.
NOTE2/ A brief note on "Miranda rights": by law, these must only be administered if *two* things—custody and interrogation—are present. Police *can* put someone in custody without Miranda rights if they are *not* going to interrogate them. But Barr's Army is interrogating people.
NOTE3/ One reason police conduct what are called "investigative stops" (which require only reasonable suspicion of a crime) before they make an "arrest" (which requires probable cause) is they can avoid wrongful arrests and make interrogation (thus, Miranda warnings) less urgent.
NOTE4/ The fact that Barr's Army must remain silent—to avoid telling anyone who they are, what agency they come from, or what laws they're enforcing—means "investigative stops" can't happen. They arrest, interrogate, and release. The arrest becomes the triaging—like in a tyranny.
NOTE5/ My point here is not to give an extended law lesson—though obviously I could run circles around Barnes in doing so—but to note that *every* element of what Barr has constructed here interacts (and quite destructively, from a democracy perspective) with every other element.
TERMINOLOGY/ I'll say that "military police" was a term used by @tribelaw but not me. I don't call Barr's Army "military police," as that phrase has a specific meaning. What it is is an unlawful, covert interagency paramilitary force engaged in "military" operations broadly writ.
TERMINOLOGY2/ Just so there's no confusion, I do mean "name tapes," of course. I don't know why I keep writing "nameplates." It's some weird letter-reversal thing that's gotten into my head, and I keep doing it when typing quickly. Apologies, and I will not make this error again.
