Sen. Rand Paul disagrees with President Trump’s push to send federal law enforcement officers to cities experiencing upticks in violence.
The Kentucky senator, a libertarian-minded Republican who is an ally to Trump, wrote about his opposition in an op-ed in Reason on Tuesday titled “Rand Paul: It’s Time To Demilitarize the Police.”
“While I respect the determination to preserve law and order, sending in federal forces to quell civil unrest in Portland further distorts the boundaries, results in more aggression (including pepper-spraying and repeatedly striking a Navy veteran whose injured hand will need surgery), and has led to reports we should never hear in a free country: federal officials, dressed in camouflage, snatching protesters away in unmarked vehicles,” Paul wrote.
He also said that if Trump decides to send federal officers to Chicago, which he is expected to do, it “won’t make the situation there any better.”
Federal officers have been deployed to Portland, Oregon, where protests have been going on for months. Prior to the deployment, the daily demonstrations had started dying down with numbers dwindling to fewer than a hundred people, but their presence and tactics have inflamed the situation, spurred backlash from state and local leaders, and led to widespread calls for investigations.
Paul argued the militarization of the police force has “erod[ed] the community trust” and called it a problem when “civilian law enforcement” cannot be differentiated from “armed forces tasked with protecting our country from foreign adversaries.”
