Protesters lying on the ground in Portland in tribute to George Floyd, June 2, 2020. – Beth Nakamura / AP / SIPA
The American Minister of Justice Bill Barr must defend Tuesday, during a hearing in Congress, the intervention of federal agents in Portland where, according to him, the “riots” have nothing more to do with the death of George Floyd.
“Violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate demonstrations to wreak havoc and destruction”, he must declare before the judicial committee of the House of Representatives, according to a copy of his opening remarks published upstream.
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“In all respects an attack on the government of the United States”
“What happens every night around the courthouse” in this big city of Oregon “cannot be called a demonstration, it is in every respect an attack on the government of the United States”, must add this strong support by Donald Trump.
Echoing the Republican President, he must describe “a crowd of hundreds of rioters” equipped “with slingshots, tasers, hammers, saws, explosives …” which do not try according to him “even in a way. superficial, to link their actions to the death of George Floyd or to legitimate calls for reform ”.
The death of this African-American, suffocated by a white policeman on May 15 in Minneapolis, has sparked huge anti-racist protests and calls for police reform across the United States. The mobilization weakened considerably, but pockets of protest persisted, especially in Portland, a city in the North West clearly marked on the left.
A hardened movement after the intervention of federal agents in mid-July
The deployment in July of federal agents who, dressed in paramilitary clothing and without visible identification badges, carried out dozens of arrests there, hardened the movement and, every night, clashes took place between the police and the police. protesters.
Local Democrats accuse Donald Trump of having thrown oil on the embers and regret the intervention of federal agents. The president, who relies on his firm speech to win a second term on November 3, accuses them of being “radical leftists”.
Far from preparing for a withdrawal, a hundred new agents of the Marshals, a federal unit, have been identified for new deployments, according to a spokesperson.
Police defense and “bogus scandal of Russiagate”
During his hearing, Bill Barr must also defend the police who, according to him were “demonized” by the demonstrators and denounce “the bogus scandal of Russiagate”, in reference to the sprawling investigation into possible links between Moscow and the team campaign campaign of Donald Trump in 2016, which poisoned the first half of the Republican billionaire’s term in office.
