The Feds Are Still the Jackbooted Thugs We Were Warned About Reason.com

Federal agents still target Americans, but now it’s Homeland Security instead of ATF, and they’re after protesters supporting Black Lives Matter and police reform instead of gun owners and antigovernment activists. And that makes all the difference, unfortunately.

“Where is the NRA?” critics ask. It’s a valid question one I posed to the organization. I received no reply.

More responsive was a representative of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AZCDL), a grassroots gun-rights organization in the Copper State (full disclosure: I’m a member).

“While the AZCDL does not endorse the federal government parachuting into local jurisdictions, that said, if the local jurisdiction is malfeasant in protecting federal property, the federal government has a duty to act,” media coordinator Charles Heller told me.

Fair enough so far as it goes the federal government does have the responsibility to protect its property. But while much of the increasingly violent street theater in Portland is now focused around federal buildings, that wasn’t the case when the feds arrived.

via reason.com