Note: I originally posted this essay on my Substack newsletter Bumpass Warbler. Given the continued use of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to conduct criminal investigations of individuals named by the White House this essay is worth reposting. This week DHS and DOJ confirmed that they have undertaken multiple criminal investigations against Christopher Krebs, who was named in an earlier Trump executive order. The have crossed a line. Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi have become Trump’s henchmen, and the FBI and DHS the modern equivalent to Stalin’s NKVD. This is not an exercise in hyperbole, their actions constitute the first steps down a slippery slope to a police state. End Note.
Over three decades in law enforcement I saw how policing at the local, state, and federal levels changed, some of it not for the better. Today, American law enforcement sits at an inflection point, our guiding North Star under attack. It is not under siege from al-Qaida, or the Islamic State, or criminal gangs like MS-13, it is under threat from within, from a rogue president.
Our constitutional system of separation of powers and the rule of law is degraded daily, like habitat loss in the Amazon Rain Forest, as the White House continues its relentless bulldozing of norms. Habitat loss is notoriously difficult if not impossible to restore fully. Judges are maligned and threatened with impeachment, court orders disobeyed, violations of due process encouraged, speech of foreign students criminalized, constant Habeas Corpus hide and seek games, criminal investigations ordered by the White House, law firm shake downs, arrests and detentions of migrants and valid visa holder without probable cause, harassment of persons of middle eastern origin at points of entry into the United States. That’s just a sample.
While we think of constitutional crises as being played out in iconic court battles and Supreme Court hearings, the men and women in law enforcement, in particular federal agents, find themselves in the middle of this chaos every day, just trying to do their jobs. Trump and his appointees wanting scalps and press events on one side, and their conscience and oaths to defend and protect the Constitution on the other side. This is where the real battle is being waged for the heart and soul of federal law enforcement. In stark terms, are we teetering toward a federal police state?
We’re supposed to be on the side of democracy and the rule of law, were that thin blue line dividing law and constitutional order from chaos…and autocracy. That blue line is not some random color but is deeply symbolic as to the purpose and place of policing in a civil society. We don’t always get it right, and many times the police and federal agents were on the wrong side of history, but the aspiration, the idea was there.
When deciding on a uniform design for London’s newly established Metropolitan Police Department Robert Peel chose blue. The army wore red he reasoned, and not wanting the police to think of themselves as an army, and Londoners not see the police as military occupiers, he wisely decided on blue uniforms.
America followed this path in the 1850s when metropolitan police departments began to outfit their officers in uniforms, starting with the NYPD. Blue was the universal color chosen. Today we accept uniformed officers, but in the mid 19th century, police uniforms were controversial, hotly debated, as was arming them. Perhaps a legacy of America’s long-standing antipathy to standing armies. Before guns, wooden clubs were the issued weapon along with a leather badge. For those that like the historical trivia of things, longer clubs were for night shifts, hence the night stick, shorter clubs were for day shifts.
As the 19th century progressed, so did the size, power, and responsibilities of urban police departments. Federal law enforcement as we know it today practically non-existent. Police precinct buildings became overnight shelters for the homeless, soup kitchens for the hungry. Police departments conducted inspections on building boilers and were sanitation inspectors for urban slaughterhouses as well.
From the mid-19th century, police officers who died in the line of duty increasingly began to be afforded military style funerals. Conspicuous spectacles meant to send a message to the policed, and to the police officer on the beat. Today’s police funerals were 19th century inventions.
In time, near the end of the 19th century, the police were transformed into ‘guardians,’ an acknowledgement of their powerful roll in party politics and political patronage, but also in response to white middle-class urban denizens who demanded heavy handed policing to assuage their fears of crime, disease, and immorality attributed to increasing numbers of foreign migrants.
The 20th century brought police reforms and a growth in the size and number of federal law enforcement agencies. Paramilitary state police organizations were founded. Policing became more professionalized, union and advocacy groups matured. In the 1980s high-capacity pistols replaced six shot revolvers….and the number of average number of bullets being fired in a shooting went from 6 to dozens.
9/11 changed America and policing. Many police departments started looking like military units as military surplus gear was handed out like candy. Tactical uniforms once reserved for special teams, became the rage. Military style body armor, tactical gear adorned police officers like Christmas tree ornaments, long guns slung from bodies, armored vehicles patrolled streets. With military style uniforms and gear the mindset changed, I observed. This change also seeped into federal law enforcement agencies as well. Robert Peel was right.
As we witnessed recently, federal agents in Homeland Security rounded up and deported over 200 hundred alleged Venezuelan gang members using a late 18th century Act meant to be invoked in case of war. The men’s due process rights were ignored, they were swiftly deported to a foreign prison despite a federal court order to stop. The agents knowingly, and apparently willfully, ignored the constitutional right’s of these men, on the orders of one man: Donald Trump. In effect, acting like Trump’s personal army at war.
It’s not just about Homeland Security or FBI agents; it’s about federal law enforcement in general. When folks think about federal law enforcement, the FBI comes to mind (mostly because of their PR machine and TV and movie brand), but every federal department has its own law enforcement agency. About two dozen in all. They conduct criminal investigation specific to their department’s statutory functions. For instance, Medicaid fraud for HHS and tax fraud for the IRS or Visa Fraud for the State Department. They too will eventually (if not already) be tasked to conduct politically driven criminal investigations to punish and discipline Trump’s political opponents.
To my fellow officers and agents, you must decide whether you will obey illegal orders given by a president you may like and voted for. Should you obey his illegal orders now, what happens when a new president you don’t like makes similar illegal demands targeting his or her alleged enemies? That’s why we have the rule of law, not men or women. You must decide when and how you will say ‘enough’ to being muscle for party politicians in high places. It’s not our damn job to be a president’s lawless private army.
When you are asked to draw up arrest lists and swear to arrest warrants using demonstrably false statements because a president told you to — not because they committed any crimes — you’re no longer officers of the law. In fact, as you know, you open yourself up to Bivens lawsuits. Financial ruin, bankruptcy, just like the pillow guy. We are supposed to be a bulwark against injustice, not its facilitator. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in a police state.
Finally, let Jan 6 should be a warning to all. Trump organized, fired up, and sent a mob to the Capitol building. You know, not many people bring a noose to a rally unless it’s a lynch mob. They attacked our fellow federal officers. Scores were injured, crushed, beaten, one tased into cardiac arrest. One officer died that evening; several took their lives shortly afterward. Then Trump, in one of his first acts of his second term, pardoned everyone convicted of assaulting and brutalizing our brothers and sisters. His actions speak loudly. He isn’t pro-police; he sees you and I as pawns, and like any chess player will sacrifice them for the King.
