‘Operation Yep We’re Nazis’: Twitter takes on Trump and Barr’s paramilitary Operation Legend

A photograph of Trump and Barr standing outside

Flickr / Office of Public Affairs

Attorney General Barr’s Operation Legend has a more sinister purpose than “to protect the safety of our citizens.” And that purpose is to orchestrate a climate of fear in an attempt to shore up Trump’s failing reelection bid. And AG Barr and Trump are ready to break laws and bones to get it done.

William Barr’s Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Operation Legend to fulfill “Trump’s promise to assist America’s cities that are plagued by recent violence.” However, most of these cities have not asked for assistance, and some are even fighting in court trying to get federal agents to leave. Unidentified federal agents have invaded Portland, Oregon, brutalizing US citizens, or arresting them without cause and throwing them into unmarked cars. We can get an idea of what cities like Albuquerque and Chicago can look forward to under future invasions under Operation Legend.

Here’s what’s really going on with Operation Legend.

Trump announces the invasion

Trump standing at a podium

Kremlin

The current occupant of the White House aspires to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Richard Nixon. (Except for the part where he is forced to resign, that is.) The L.A. Times points out that Trump has long done this in terms of, “employing dog whistle language — phrases and imagery designed to trigger racist fears that nevertheless carry just enough ambiguity to allow plausible deniability.”

In Trump’s first speech addressing George Floyd’s murder, after offering some stiff words of sympathy, the president moved right into triggering fear. Referring to himself as the “president of law and order,” Trump called activists an “angry mob” who threatened “peace-loving citizens.” He was already threatening to deploy the military to “dominate” US citizens.

While Trump thunders about force, AG Barr works to give Trump legal cover to deploy federal forces wherever Trump wants to. And right now, that seems to be states with Democratic leadership.

What is ‘Operation Legend’?

A photograph of AG Barr speaking.

Wikimedia

Operation Legend appeared in response to the murder of LeGend Taliferro, a four-year-old boy killed in his bed by gunfire in Kansas City, Missouri. Attorney General William Barr sent federal agents to Kansas City to assist in the investigation.

LeGend’s mother, Charron Powell, is understandably grateful to have support in finding justice for the loss of her son. But as the initiative named for young LeGend Taliferro is used to send federal forces into more cities, the mission seems to get murkier.

Uninvited guests

William Barr looking confused

Screenshot / YouTube

Barr’s DOJ claims that “federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials.” Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, does not seem to have been notified that federal agents were headed to his city. So much for “work in conjunction.”

Lucas also points out that policing is just one part of the needed response to violence. But the federal government is not deploying mental health professionals, and now Mayor Lucas sees the investigative work done in his city being twisted by AG Barr, “to score political points.”

Onward and downward

Person being handcuffed

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Federal agents were able to make an arrest in LeGend’s case, but now their purpose is being expanded beyond responding to the horrific death of a child.

AG Barr is sending federal agents to more places under the auspices of protecting “residents of those cities from senseless acts of deadly violence.” Places that don’t want AG Barr’s boots on their ground.

Cash for capture

A photograph of a few dollar bills.

Canva

Part of Operation Legend’s approach in the city of Albuquerque is a reward offered for tips about another murder. Many Americans are losing added unemployment benefits this week, and millions are about to have their protection from evictions expire. Meanwhile, Trump has plenty of cash to throw at Operation Legend.

Barr has always slid feds through cracks in the law

William Barr smiling

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AG Barr has a history of getting federal agents into places that they did not have the legal authority to go. After Hurricane Hugo decimated the Virginia Islands in 1989, Barr was an assistant attorney general, and hatched a plan to send in federal agents “without presidential authority.” Years later, Barr bragged about how he did it.

“I said, ‘We can send people down to defend the federal function, keep our courts open, and if they see any crime being committed in front of them, then, as law enforcement officers, they can make the arrest.’

Our object was just to get federal law enforcement down there and play it by ear…without declaring martial law.

The DOJ’s press release about Operation Legend mentions areas, “plagued by recent violence.” When you think about how Barr uses the law, “recent violence” starts to sounds eerily nonspecific.

Secret police

A photograph of National Guard troops blocking access to the Lincoln Memorial.

Screenshot / Twitter

Without being able to identify authorities, there is no way to know that they are authorities. “Absent identifying signs of actual authority the rows of federal officers appear all-but indistinguishable from the open-carrying, white militia members cosplaying as survivalists,” says Politico’s Garrett M. Graff.

Trump and Barr enforce only the laws they want to

Trump and Barr shaking hands

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AG Barr has gutted the Department of Justice in order to protect Trump while at the same time backing police brutality in the streets. As Barr uses Operation Legend to deploy federal agents to “play it by ear,” he only does it when it serves his boss’s image. For instance, the stormtroopers who kidnap people in Portland for walking down the street or beat them for asking a question were strangely absent when the governor of Michigan was under armed threat.

And follow only the laws they want to

Trump condemned for authoritarian 'abuse of power' as secret Federal Police snatch protesters off Portland streets

Screenshot / Twitter

Barr’s unidentified officers in Portland have destroyed food and first aid supplies. They have tear-gassed the mayor and beaten unsuspecting activists from behind.

Will the public tolerate it? Survey says…nah.

Demonstrator holding a sign that says 'Resist'

Flickr / Alisdare Hickson

As Trump tries to run on Nixon’s “law and order” election campaign, several crucial things have changed. Perhaps the most important is the prevalence of video cameras. Nixon was able to portray himself as what MSNBC’s Ali Velshi calls “the only thing between Ozzie and Harriet and Thunderdome.” Trump is trying the same tactics, but while he tries to scare suburban voters with Nixon-style dog-whistle rhetoric, night after night the proof is that Trump and his minions are the real danger.

As a lifetime supply of free footage of police brutality spools out across social media, Trump’s campaign tries to frighten voters about the “chaos & violence” using a photo from a demonstration in 2014 in Ukraine. Meanwhile, first the Wall of Moms, then the Wall of Vets, then more and more people join Portland activists in protest, or to protect them.

There is a court order against Trump’s thugs

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Portland activism is ramping up under the pressure of unidentified federal secret police. Trump and Barr may revel in forcible suppression of opposition, and try to silence the First Amendment right to free speech, but they are not the only ones with dogs in this hunt. Oregon courts have issued a ban against the use of force against journalists and legal observers, and the judge will hold officers who disregard this ruling to account.

“When wrongdoing is underway, officials have great incentive to blindfold the eyes of the Fourth Estate.” U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon said, quoting the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as he issued his ruling. “The free press is the guardian of the public interest, and the judiciary is the guardian of the press.”

This IS the cold day in hell

Tom Ridge giving a speech

The White House / Paul Morse

AG Barr is sending in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, but this is not what the DHS is for. Tom Ridge is a former Republican Governor, and the very first secretary of the DHS when it was formed in response to 9/11. Ridge has spoken out against this type of federal rollout.

As a former governor, Ridge says, “It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities.” Barr’s Operation Legend clearly falls under the threat Ridge saw of his former agency becoming “the president’s personal militia.”

Constitutional Carnage

A stylized photo of the Constitution

Pixabay

Chad Wolf, Trump’s Acting Secretary of Homeland Security does not have a background in law enforcement, and it shows. The Fourth Amendment is meant to protect individuals from arbitrary, oppressive, and unreasonable searches and seizures by enforcement officials. The practice of “proactive arrests” suggests the abandonment of that criteria, making this a constitutional issue as much as a partisan one.

As Wolf says, we do “need to hold individuals accountable.” That would be those individuals performing “proactive arrests.”

The ‘F’ word

Man holding a sign that says "Trump is a fascist!"

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“Fascism is not an ideology,” explains former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. “It is a process for gaining power.” When looking at the signs of fascism, you can see that Trump embodies them all.

Trump doesn’t just display the textbook signs of fascism, he embraces them, stoking the passions of his far-right ultranationalist powerbase with romanticized patriotism.

Time to speak up!

A stylized photograph of people yelling at each other through megaphones drawn on the image.

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These tactics will only get worse as we approach the election.

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