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Sarbanes Calls on Trump Administration to Identify Unknown Law Enforcement Officers Operating in Washington, D.C.

June 5, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) today joined more than 120 Members of Congress in demanding answers from Attorney General William Barr about the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) deployment of unidentifiable law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C. amid the national protests against police brutality and racial injustice in America.

Numerous reports have found that DOJ law enforcement officers are policing the nation's capital without carrying name plates, official insignia or agency markings on their uniforms.

"The public must know in all cases whether individuals purporting to enforce the law by detaining citizens or using force against them are actually authorized to do so – and by whom," the Members wrote. "This is critical to police accountability to the people. How can our constituents complain about abusive conduct on the part of your officers if they cannot even identify them or which agency they work for? Anonymity for armed federal agents thus confers on them a cloak of immunity, impunity and omnipotence."

The Members continued: "It appears now that under your directive and leadership, the DOJ has formed an army of unidentifiable and unaccountable law enforcement personnel to dominate Washington, D.C. This is an invitation to further chaos, confusion, discord and violence."

See below for the full letter.

* * *
June 4, 2020

William P. Barr
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Barr:

We and our affected constituents are in a state of heightened awareness in the wake of the thoroughly unconstitutional military assault you ordered on peaceful civil rights protesters exercising their First Amendment rights in a traditional public forum in order to make way for the President's blasphemous photo opportunity at St. John's Episcopal Church on Monday night.

But now we write about a related and continuing remarkable assault on the rule of law: your deployment of Department of Justice (DOJ) law enforcement officers, including personnel from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), to act against protesters in Washington, D.C. without carrying identifying name plates, official insignia, or agency markings of any kind on their "uniforms." Washington, D.C. is the constitutional Seat of Government where all citizens have the right to travel, speak, assemble, and petition for a redress of grievances. These generic "law enforcement personnel" you have sent forth into public spaces to police and harass the citizenry have been refusing to identify themselves or their employing agencies to members of the public and the press. Several have stated that they were not permitted to identify themselves. These officers have been part of a law enforcement operation making arrests, subduing civil rights protesters, firing rubber bullets in the chests of our constituents, and intimidating the public. Who are they and who do they work for?

The United States is a constitutional democracy and all of us who are elected to public office are nothing but the servants of the people. Those appointed to public office, like you and the law enforcement officials under your command, are nothing but the servants of the servants of the people.

The public must know in all cases whether individuals purporting to enforce the law by detaining citizens or using force against them are actually authorized to do so – and by whom. This is critical to police accountability to the people. How can our constituents complain about abusive conduct on the part of your officers if they cannot even identify them or which agency they work for? Anonymity for armed federal agents thus confers on them a cloak of immunity, impunity and omnipotence. There will be no repercussions for trampling the civil rights and liberties of the people.

Identifying law enforcement personnel is also critical to prevent vigilante and impostor groups from masquerading as law enforcement officers and committing random acts of violence and abusing the rights of the people.[1] How do you propose to explain to American citizens the difference between your unidentified but heavily armed law enforcement officers and self-appointed militiamen and camouflage-sporting white supremacists carrying military-style assault weapons?

The failure of law enforcement personnel to provide identifying information on a uniform is "a direct contradiction to the oversight that [DOJ has] been providing for many years to local police" according to former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton.[2] Anonymizing law enforcement officials is a step taken by authoritarians like Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who provide amnesty to loyalists so that their free-wheeling abuse of civilians is never known.[3] This obscuring of lines of public authority is antithetical to our Constitution and should never be undertaken by the Attorney General of the United States.

Over the last week, you defied the Constitutional rights of the people. It appears now that under your directive and leadership, the DOJ has formed an army of unidentifiable and unaccountable law enforcement personnel to dominate Washington, D.C. This is an invitation to further chaos, confusion, discord and violence.

We demand that you immediately order the restoration of identifying information to the uniforms of all DOJ personnel deployed within the city of Washington, D.C. We also demand that you provide responses to the following inquiries by Monday, June 8, 2020:

  1. Identify the individual(s) who ordered that DOJ law enforcement personnel be deployed to Washington, D.C., without any identifying name plates, insignia or markers denoting agency affiliation on their uniforms.
  2. Identify the authority and basis for allowing DOJ law enforcement personnel to remove all identifying nameplates, insignia or markers denoting agency affiliation on their uniforms.
  3. Identify the individual who ordered the unidentifiable DOJ law enforcement officers to refuse to answer inquiries as to their agency affiliations and the authority under which such order was given.
  4. Identify the agencies, field offices, units, and any other identifying information from which DOJ law enforcement have been drawn and deployed to Washington, D.C.
  5. Detail whether the Department has developed contingency plans to deal with right-wing agitators, domestic terrorist organizations and paramilitary groups that may attempt to disguise themselves with paramilitary tactical gear similar to that worn by DOJ law enforcement personnel to infiltrate the District of Columbia or other locations to cause disruption and bodily harm to protesters and governmental personnel. Does the Department have a means to recognize non-law enforcement officers who are dressed in similar paramilitary tactical gear to prevent their incursion into secured areas?

Any refusal or hesitation on your part to order DOJ personnel to immediately affix both personally identifying and institutionally identifying nameplates, insignia and other markers on their uniforms will only further demonstrate your unfitness to lead the Department of Justice. We therefore look forward to your prompt and positive response.

Very truly yours,

/signatures/

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[1] Associated Press, Officials See Extremist Groups, Disinformation in Protests, The New York Times, June 3, 2020 (reporting the presence of "Boogaloo" movement members carrying long guns and wearing tactical paramilitary gear at George Floyd protests), https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/05/31/us/politics/ap-us-america-protests-behind-the-protests.html.

[2] Philip Bump, A Dangerous new factor in an uneasy moment: Unidentified law enforcement officers, The Washington Post, June 3, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/03/dangerous-new-factor-an-uneasy-moment-unidentified-law-enforcement-officers/

[3] Id. ("Many authoritarian leaders issue amnesty that free service people, clean up their records so that their abuses are never known." – Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University.)