Who are the federal officers in Portland and will they come to Seattle?
Jul 22, 2020, 2:34 PM
Federal agents deployed in Portland. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Who are those so-called unlabeled federal officers in Portland? Paul Viollis, CBS national security correspondent, and the host of a new podcast called Mending America, joined Seattle’s Morning News to explain.
“They are officers that have been authorized by the federal government to maintain order and to protect federal buildings, which they are entitled to,” Viollis said. “The markings disparity comes because they do not have names or badge numbers attached to the uniforms, not that they don’t have insignia saying that they’re representing a federal office, but they just don’t have their names out there, which is what is stirring the pot right now.”
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Isn’t there a federal marshal service that’s specifically tasked to protect federal buildings?
“DHS is ultimately responsible,” Viollis said. “The Marshal service also, with respect to courthouses. But the President, and more so on the federal side, is obligated to make sure that federal buildings are protected, which is what’s happening right now. The problem is that that doesn’t entitle those federal officers to enforce local law and consequently to affect the arrests in that regard.”
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“So there in lies where there appears to be that conflict with regard to deployment of those officers,” he added. “They’re not entitled to enforce local law. That’s that’s just what the law stipulates. They are entitled to enforce federal law if, in fact, they find people destroying a federal building. But for offenses not related to federal law, they’re not supposed to be arresting people under local law.”
Have we seen this before or is this a novel use of the of the Marshals service?
“Marshals are used constantly to protect federal buildings,” Viollis said. “What we haven’t seen before (in the modern era) … is the need for the federal government to deploy federal officers to protect against rioters. We didn’t even see this in the 60s, so no, that clearly is unprecedented.”
Could this happen in Seattle?
“One hundred percent and, in fact, I’d go so far to say that it’s foreseeable.”
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