Stern Co-Signs Piece in Opposition to DHS Deployment in Portland
Jessica Stern, Research Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, co-signed a letter published in USA Today denouncing the militarized deployment of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) law enforcement personnel in Portland, Oregon. Stern was one of 21 former security leaders to co-sign the letter. Other co-signers include Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security, retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, former Central Intelligence Agency director, and Adrian Fenty, former mayor, District of Columbia.
The piece expresses a deep concern shared among the co-signers that the deployment of DHS officers to handle unarmed protesters undermines, rather than promotes, public safety. The letter argues that any and all public safety responses requiring federal personnel must be collaborative partnerships between federal and state/local authorities rather than a unilateral federal response.
An excerpt:
In recent days, we have watched with increasing outrage the images of DHS personnel in military-style uniforms striking and using tear gas against unarmed protesters and taking them into custody in unmarked vehicles.
While those who perpetrate crimes and acts of violence during protests should be arrested and prosecuted, the unilateral deployment of militarized DHS officers has served to undermine, rather than promote, public safety.
The full piece can be read here.
Professor Jessica Stern is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. She is the coauthor with J.M. Berger of ISIS: The State of Terror; and the author of Denial: A Memoir of Terror; Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill; and The Ultimate Terrorists. Learn more about her here.