AOC to Introduce Bill Forcing Federal Officers to Identify Themselves
Progressive Rep's new bill would remove powers from federal police
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Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is set to introduce a new bill requiring federal law enforcement officials to identify themselves.
The bill, also headed by District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), would force all on-duty agents to display their agency name, last name, and their identification number.
Unlike police, federal police who are deployed to remove terrorist organizations, by law, do not have to identify themselves or read rights to people being taken off the streets.
AOC's new bill would essentially mean federal police would need to identify themselves to terrorist suspects before making arrests.
The news comes a week after armed federal police began rounding up suspected rioters on the streets of Portland and taking them away in unmarked vehicles.
Trump followed through on his promise to send in the Feds to “quell” the violence in the city.
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Videos later went viral, showing armed feds whisking a suspected Antifa rioter in a minivan.
"Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14,” Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on last week.
"Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests so far, while others have been arrested and released.”
Ocasio-Cortez's new bill seems to be a reaction to the Federal police officers refusing to respond to a fellow protester's requests for them to identify themselves.
WATCH:
Take these terrorists off the streets and disappear them for months. Oh if only. pic.twitter.com/NYW7qKCXSw
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 15, 2020
But Ocasio-Cortez’s office insists the legislation had been in the works before the video went viral.
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Deputy director of legislation at the Government Accountability Project, Irvin McCullough, said:
“Lots of lawyers are asking the same thing: Where’s the transparency? Unidentified internal security forces are apprehending American citizens, and accounts allege these apprehension processes are more similar to overseas renditions than traditional arrests."
“Citizens deserve to know who’s arresting them—or at least what entity—to report any abuses they suffer or witness,” he added.
“Federal law enforcement officers should have their identifying information displayed while on duty,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
“This is basic.”
Federal law enforcement officers should have their identifying information displayed while on duty.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 20, 2020
This is basic.@EleanorNorton and I have introduced legislation to make it law:https://t.co/xcL1j15STo
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said local officials’ approval is not needed to launch such operations.
Trump added that similar deployments are in the works for other major cities like Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Chicago, which has been plagued with gun violence.
On Monday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler blasted Trump after federal agents rounded up far-left rioters and Antifa members.
“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Wheeler told President Donald Trump.
"This is part of the core media strategy out of Trump’s White House: to use federal troops to bolster his sagging polling data."
"And it is an absolute abuse of federal law enforcement officials.”
