Very strange. My understanding was that they were only allowed to protect federal buildings and other properties. Bypassing local authorities? I suppose that Putin looks on this with an approving smile and probably muses about the soldiers without insignia earlier active on Crimea.
So we are cool with rioting and burning down buildings now?
Or are we still supposed to pretend these are peaceful protests?
They have agency patches on their fatigues, they are hardly Unidentified, stop watching CNN.
Did I say that?
Police and security forces, some wearing no identifying insignia, blocked access near the White House during protests on Wednesday in Washington. NYT Credit…Mandel Ngan/Agence
Not CNN, the link in the OP is to Bellngcat. The article was written by this man.
Robert Evans has worked as a conflict journalist in Iraq and Ukraine and reported extensively on far-right extremist groups in the United States. He’s particularly interested in the ways terrorist groups recruit, radicalize and communicate through the Internet
Local new reports are saying the same thing.
[
.As arrests of Portland protesters by unidentified federal agents gained national attention Friday, the U.S. attorney for Oregon announced he would request an investigation into the matter.
I quit reading the linked article shortly after reading, “…yet more or less inevitable — you could feel it in the mood of the crowd. The 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis had just burned there was absolutely no way Portland wasn’t going to try to do the same thing.”
Pure propaganda that tries to romanticize violent protests & roiting. When is it acceptable to tell a victim of a crime it was inevitable & had to happen? Would a rational person tell this to a mom & pop store owner to their face? If the author was pro-police & used the same phrase to explain why police used clubs over the head of violent protesters people would be jumping out if their skins.
But really I’m not that interested in this drama. Who cares? “White Flight” from the intercities turned into “Anybody with any sense flight” decades ago. Take a look at a red/blue map by county & it is obvious all these problems are happening in liberal Democrat paradises. If these people can’t governor themselves better than this perhaps these cities deserve to burn? John Carpenter was a prophet.
Cities are more progressive then rural areas mostly because higher population density demands different politics than less dense areas. Red/Blue areas are almost 100% by density.
Even cities in so-called red states are more progressive than rural areas in the same state.
In the demographic mix there is the old saying along the lines of “The more money you make, the more republican you become”. It has to do with the increased taxes ones pays.
If there were any actual journalists left they would Investigate and report on leftist extremists groups, they have been far more violent lately than the evil right wingers of the Podunk County Militia & Hunt Club have been.
Only if happen in Hong Kong and other foreign places.
Considering your political leanings I can understand why you would like to distance liberal Democrat governing from these areas that are governed by liberal Democrats. But regardless of why they choose liberal Democrat philosophies in governorship it is obvious something is broken if the stores are being looted & police stations are being overran & burned. I was raised in a mixed race household, currently live in a mixed race household, live in a red state in a red county & we like the police. The only time a police officer beat one of my family members is when he was caught breaking the law. Who cares? All I’m saying is these rioters & their supporters can blame the red rural areas, the federal government, their local police chiefs, their local mayors or who ever they want but if they march down my county road looking to bust up my property they will be in for some unpleasant surprises. Let the blue dot communities burn their stores & municipal buildings all they want. Obviously something is wrong in these areas.
Not distancing, 100% agree that governance in cities is more progressive than that of rural areas.
Cities and protests - same as why banks get robbed, that’s where the money is.
Why should any group protest in the middle of a wheat field in Kansas or at the bottom of a canyon in Utah? The more important point in the red/blue graphic is that better educated, more well off, clearer thinking socially aware and progressive people live in places where they are not surrounded by AM radio victims.
Has anyone noticed that like all other dictatorships, the first thing the supreme leader and his enablers try to do is silence the press, the intelligencia, and anyone who dares to speak against them? We see that in this little forum, none from the right wing seems to question the reason why people are protesting, they just want to stop them from protesting.
Well, like the old saying goes, when you have eliminated all dissent, who is going to protest your abduction by some anonymous goon?
Do any of your Trump lovers see the absurdity of anonymous goons in military garb abducting people who are protesting the militarization of our police? We used to point out the immorality and criminality of the communist police states, we used them as a counter to the freedom we used to be able to claim as our birthright. As others have said, Putin and Kim must be grinning like Cheshire cats as they watch the American 6 o’clock news.
They sure are as they watch these left wing wackos destroying these cities.
I happen to agree with Honore. I am NOT liberal or conservative or Democrat or Republican. I am a member of the realist party
Conservatives seemed to be cool with armed seizure and occupation of federal buildings back in 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/house-conservatives-wont-criticize-oregon-protests/459066/
I don’t know what a red dot or blue dot community is, when I am in the USA I don’t feel like a dot, just a US citizen. If we have to start categorizing communities by dots we are in trouble, What if your dot is not in fashion next week? 
I do know the overwhelming majority of protesters have been peaceable by a long shot. To denigrate or categorize a majority by the actions of a very small minority is disingenuous. To worry about them marching down your country road and busting up your property is silly. In reality, you have a better chance of forest fires, floods or termites eating your property. Spend your thoughts and efforts on preparing unpleasant surprises for those eventualities.