Watching thousands of moms, singing “hands up, please don’t shoot me” as a lullaby tune in downtown Portland has given me hope. These women, dressed in yellow and wearing bike helmets and goggles, have come together over the past week to join nightly BLM demonstrators in Portland, Oregon. Standing arm-in-arm, placing themselves between camo-clad, armed federal officers and younger protesters as an act of protection and solidarity is quite the sight. As the number of moms turning out in Portland grows with each protest, mom protest groups are springing up in cities all across the US, and other “wall” groups such as “Wall of Dads,” and “Wall of Vets,” have formed as well.
I visited the Wall of Moms website at http://thewallofmoms.com. On their homepage is a statement of their mission: “A PDX-based network of womxn and non-binary mother-identifying folx dedicated to supporting the current civil rights movement to end police brutality by defending and supporting BLM protesters on the front line and online.” If you visit the website, it’s statement is pretty powerful. Just last night in Portland, the Wall of Vets, whose members are military veterans, joined protesters in the city for the first time, standing with their hands clasped behind their backs and some holding BLM signs. A few nights ago, a group of dads carried leaf blowers to help deflect tear gas away from the Wall of Moms organization and BLM protesters. One photo posted on Twitter showed a dad with a sign displaying “Fathers Against Fascism,” and other photos and videos showed dads wearing helmets and forming their own human wall. These groups are committed to protecting protesters from federal “law enforcement officers” dressed in military gear who beat protesters with batons, launch tear gas against American citizens, and kidnap protesters and shove them into unmarked vans.
Over the past week, federal “law enforcement,” which are uninvited and heavily militarized CBP (Customs and Border Protection) agents, have been violently seizing and detaining protesters. Some 100 or more agents are from three units of the CBP, one is the SWAT-type Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), and the other two units are the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue unit, and the Special Response Team. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, calls the protesters “violent anarchists,” and condemned the “rampant long-lasting violence” in Portland (2). Wolf, a lobbyist, and relatively new to his position in the DHS, has publicly denied that there’s a problem with systemic racism in US law enforcement, he downplayed the severity of Covid-19, and he’s the architect of the family separation policy. Wolf’s Boss, Cuccinelli, has said that homosexuality is “intrinsically wrong,” has associations with anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Muslim groups, and once made a comment that compared immigrants to rats (2). He also said that the use of unmarked vehicles to pick protesters off the streets of Portland was “so common it’s barely worth discussion.” These are the men in charge of the federal agents invading our cities, and let’s just be honest and not pretend that they just want to protect property and monuments. Why federal agents? American cities do have their own law enforcement by the way, and if things escalate and become dangerous for the citizenry, governors can call in the National Guard. Members of the National Guard take an oath, to support and defend the Constitution of the US and their states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Do CBP agents take the same oath? It sure doesn’t look that way when they beat a Navy veteran with a baton and break his hand, or fire rubber bullets that blind and maim into crowds of civilians. The citizens of the US do have the constitutional right to assemble and protest, and the fact that the DHS ignores the requests of mayors and governors to keep CBP out of their cities tells me that the White House thinks it can override states-rights, especially blue states.
On Monday, Trump threatened to send federal CBP forces to Chicago, Albuquerque and other “Democrat” cities. CBP agents are supposed to be patrolling our borders, not invading our cities, and their tactics more than likely violate the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments of the Constitution. Their presence in American cities has nothing to do with enforcing immigration law (which is what they’re hired to do). These “officers” have even violated the Geneva Convention by destroying medical supplies in tents set up at demonstrations. Under Trump, court decisions have created loopholes that have emboldened CBP’s treatment of undocumented immigrants at the border, stuffing children in cages and separating them from their families, holding immigrants in detention centers for months with limited or no access to medical care or legal council. These abuses are now being used on the American people, and the CBP, under the direction of Wolf and Cuccinelli, are using the same oppressive tactics on Americans that they use on immigrants at the border.
Since the murder of George Floyd, and the protests and demonstrations that have arisen out of the tragedy of his death, Trump has called himself the “law and order” president, and in a desperate move to fuel his re-election campaign, he is fanning the flames of fear that if Biden is elected, our country will descend into violence and anarchy. The White House claims that the CBP and DHS are needed to protect federal buildings and monuments, and to enforce law in American cities. The authorization of federal authorities to invade, uninvited by local lawmakers and representatives, to detain, batter and assault protesters is frightening, and it’s message is obvious, and is the kind of tactics used by dictators across the globe. Dictators seek to strip the people of free speech, the right to assemble, and the right to protest human rights violations and abuses. Trump is using moves straight out of the dictator’s playbook, and his latest stunt is intended to intimidate and threaten American citizens, to bully us into keeping quiet, timid and obedient. But that’s not going to happen.
What heartens me is that the “wall” groups have joined the BLM movement in active solidarity and support. These people are risking getting beaten with billy clubs and tear-gassed to voice their support for equal rights, justice, police reform, and most importantly, to defend Democracy. When I read the story of Beverly Barnum (1), one of the organizers of the Wall of Moms, it gave me hope. According to the interview, Barnum was motivated by the BLM movement, and wanted to show her support for the African American community. Before the murder of George Floyd, Barnum said she wasn’t an activist, but she added that mothers have a responsibility to protect human rights. She said that mothers run to help when they see someone drowning or falling off a bike, and she applies this idea to police violence against African Americans. She is quoted in the article as saying: “Here in the suburbs, we’re so focused on serving our families that sometimes we forget that the entire world is our family. And as mothers, we have a responsibility to look up and pay attention and do something.” Mothers coming together is nothing new, the organization “Mothers of the Movement,” was founded in after 2013, and includes the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. Now, mothers across the country inspired by mom movements and the “Wall of Moms” are forming similar groups in other cities.
There’s a line from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech he gave in DC in 1963 that applies to Portland, and to each and every city across our nation right now:
“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Now is the time for change, now is the time for Americans to show solidarity for one another. If we don’t raise our voices and fight against injustice, then there is no hope for democracy.
And to the Wall of Moms, you go girls!
Sources:
1. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/23/wall-of-moms-protests-portland