Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

I don’t understand. Please explain this to me like I’m a five-year-old.

How does a police union have the authority to call on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to bring para-military units to a city? I thought unions were there to try to help their members not get fired, or to ask for raises, or to have an employer pay a greater share of health benefits. My understanding of a police department is they work for a city, ultimately a mayor, and the only person who has the actual authority to ask for federal help is the mayor, or its equivalent.

I have always believed that federal property is federal property and state property was state property. And thereby city property is city property like state property is state property. Is is not accurate that the federal government has no jurisdiction over the use of state or city property? That the federal government cannot intervene unless a governor requests their assistance?

How does a federal para-military unit have the authority to arrest any citizen who is not on federal property? If a peaceful protestor remains on state or city property, would it not be true then a federal para-military cannot arrest, bash, batter, tear gas, or otherwise attack peaceful protesters who are not on federal property, let along kidnap anyone in an unmarked vehicle?

I’m also wondering where the true Republicans are who always shout from the rooftops about state rights and individual freedoms. Why have they not stepped forward en masse to condemn and to take action against an affront to local jurisdictional control?

I’ll ask again as well. Why have the Democrats in Congress, who control the purse strings of the nation, not cut off disbursement of funds to the DHS until they have removed themselves from Portland and discontinue their plans to attack other cities? That is, unless the Democrats really want this to use against the man in the Oval Office, hoping against hope it doesn’t go too far and backfire on their plan. Or maybe these paramilitary units are not being paid through the federal government. What if they are being paid by one or more of the ultra-conservative billionaires of the nation? What if they are a private army paid for by a foreign government?

Why are the press not covering this story non-stop? Why are they not following the money and the orders to get to the bottom of what is happening in Portland, and coming soon to a city near you, and exposing the truth. Not to do so is to be complicit in the tear gassing and attack of veterans, peaceful protesters, and moms. I always thought it was their job to bear witness to atrocities, report on the atrocities, and to speak truth to power. Why have they not called on the man in the Oval Office to resign, and to do so each and every day?

I don’t understand.

Please, can someone explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old.

I want to understand.