What are Secret police? What makes a security for secret, and separate from normal police, is chiefly the lack of identity. These actors wear masks, carry no identification, will not respond to questions, and will never be identified to the public.

They also will not be identified to local police authorities. This means the public has zero ability to hold them accountable for abuse or misconduct. Secret police are also characterized by lack of oversight. The public usually has no information on who they take orders from.

Why are secret police bad? The number one reason is that these parties act outside of the scope of the law. That sounds strange, because it’s hard to imagine law enforcement being illegal. However, the key difference is that normal police operate on rules and regulations that

have requirements for action, but secret police act solely on whim and have no clear requirements to justify them taking action (more on that further down). Secret police have only ever been maintained in authoritarian/fascist states. It is impossible for a secret police force to

maintained within a true democracy. The reason for this being that democracies are based on the concept of public accountability over government and representative action. Secret police are literally the opposite of this model. Furthermore, the motivation and purpose of

secret police is completely anti-democratic. Secret police have never existed to maintain law and order. They are purely enforcers of a leader’s political agenda and meant to strike fear into those who decent. This is why we see them pop up during a major protest and why Trump

has threatened to send them to other cities “run by liberal democrats.” Historically, we can clearly see that a leader uses secret police when their policies and actions are in extreme opposition to the people and there is heavy political resistance.

These leaders have given up on winning politically or maintaining law and order and protecting civil rights. They choose control over human rights and democracy.

Aré secret police legal? Secret police generally start out as an illegal force that violates it’s citizen’s rights and later becomes legalized when an authoritarian gains more power. The secret police’s actions in America are 100% illegal and their very creation is

anti-democratic. Their actions are illegal because they violate the 4th Amendment, which prevents law enforcement from making seizures without probable cause or warrants. The legal defense of them right now is that they are operating under the rule that can “arrest” anyone if

they believe that a felony has happened or will take place. The key here is that they do not require probable cause, only the suspicion of a crime. Also, the admin has stripped away the proviso for this group that their actions cannot be solely on First Amendment activity.

This literally means these men are being told they can “arrest” people for protesting. This, of course, is completely illegal. This is why none of the representatives of the people of Portland or Oregon want these forces in their city or state.

The how of this is intertwined with the militarization of police forces. It started after 9/11. Now we are facing the worst case of police militarization. The core of this creation has to do with the DHS. Over the course of Trump’s presidency, he has fired or pushed out every

single Person he appointed in DHS. As he usually does with other institutions, he only partially filled the gaps and with inexperienced loyalists. The agency has been acting with a shortage of leadership and a lack of oversight for some time now.

Trump has made use of this and altered the already broad purview of the DHS to create his Domestic Security Force, or secret police. This secret police force is made up of DHS agents, CBP officers, and DEA agents. Trump also altered the mandates of the

DEA to allow them supplement other law enforcement and conduct covert surveillance. This is particularly concerning, because the language used makes it sound if the DEA is combatting some terrorist or drug cartel, but in actuality the subjects in these new mandates are

the American people. Customs and Border Patrol agents have been pulled into this because of Trump’s political ties to the agency and their support for him. In the past, Trump has ordered CBP officers to break the law and and even said he would use his pardon power to protect them

Not surprising, our representatives on both sides are failing Anerucan democracy and its people in dramatic fashion. Furthermore, congress is currently debating giving the DHS powers vastly expand their powers of surveillance and use dragnet

tactics with computer data. Basically, this would mean they would track internet activity for anyone and then use these secret police to “arrest” them. This is not democracy or law and order. This is the new USA.