Portland's city authorities have been defiant about not wanting or needing help with their Antifa problem. They have been defiant about not having a problem with rioters outside the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility despite the reams of photographic and video evidence.
Well, some of Portland's street-level cops are a little more open to the idea of federal help.
The president of Portland's police union said he's open to federal support to help the agency combat a "burst" in crime.
President Donald Trump has signaled he wants to send National Guard units into Portland, Ore., in order to protect the city as well as ICE facilities, which he said have come under attack by Antifa.
Portland is out of control. Antifa is arguably in open rebellion against legally constituted civil authorities. We've been documenting that here at RedState, and many brave independent journalists have been documenting this problem right there on the ground.
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Those National Guard troops may be needed.
Camilla Wamsley, director of Portland’s ICE office, previously told Fox News that the agency's facility has been confronted with violence for over 100 straight nights — saying that police in Portland have been directed not to help.
The nightly protests, she said, include bottle rockets striking the facility, barricades blocking vehicles and lasers targeting officers' eyes.
This whole thing might not have gotten out of control had not Portland's law enforcement been ordered, in effect, to stand down and let Antifa have the run of the street outside the ICE facility. And now one of Portland's top cops is saying that the police are struggling.
Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association, told Fox News Digital he wants to work with the feds to identify an approach to solve the city's crime issue.
"Let's present what resources we have to bring to bear to accomplish that task," Schmautz told Fox News Digital. "And if it's not sufficient, then we need help. And so, you know, again, I don't want to be drawn into a hard yes or no. What I want is for us all to identify the problem and work together as a whole of government to solve the problem."
Schmautz said that the Portland Police Bureau is "horrifically understaffed," at a time when some local leaders, he said, aren't supporting police.
Some local leaders are supporting Antifa.
Portland, we might note, is a Democrat-run city. City leaders are, as Sergeant Schmautz points out, not terribly supportive of law enforcement. City leaders have turned a blind eye to Antifa's depredations, their disruptions, the nightly siege they lay on ICE headquarters.
What's going on in Portland right now is nothing short of a rebellion. Antifa and indeed Portland's municipal leadership are openly defiant of legal, constitutional federal authority, of federal enforcement of immigration law - a role authorized by statute. If Portland won't support their own law enforcement, if the state of Oregon won't get things under control, then the task of quelling this rebellion falls to the federal government - to the National Guard, who are in fact trained specifically to deal with civil unrest, with riots, with rebellion.
Portland's leaders may not get this. But Portland's cops do. And so does President Trump.
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