A18 SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020
YMasked men, clad indistinguishably from soldiers,
yanking civilians off the street in the dead of night and
throwing them into unmarked cars is the modus operandi of
totalitarian regimes — or the stuff of dystopian fiction.
But that’s now the reality in America. In recent weeks,
the Department of Homeland Security has sent hundreds of
federal agents into Portland, Ore., to quell protests over rac-
ism and police violence.
The Justice Department and the Oregon governor ap-
pear to have negotiated a withdrawal of those agents. But
Bill Barr, the attorney general, told Congress this week that
federal agents would be headed to other cities, including
Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit. On Monday, the mayors
of Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Albuquerque, Washington and
Kansas City, Mo., sent a letter to Congress asking for legisla-
tion to stop the Trump administration from deploying fed-
eral agents to cities without their consent. Federal agents
should assist local jurisdictions, if they ask. But, at least in
the case of Portland, the conduct of federal officers clearly
made a bad situation worse.
Many of those federal agents aren’t easily recognizable
as law enforcement officials, nor do they act like them. Even
the military is concerned about the public confusion sewn
into society when heavily armed federal agents dress like
soldiers. All the more reason that the federal agents on the
streets of American cities be required to wear uniforms that
clearly identify themselves and their civilian agency.
Complicating matters even more for the average Amer-ican are the other masked and armed men who have also ap-
peared at public demonstrations in the United States over
the past few months — lockdown protesters, anti-govern-
ment activists, white supremacists, self-declared “militias.”
To the unschooled eye, they look remarkably similar, both in
the flesh and in the millions of images flitting around the
globe at the speed of social media.
Camouflage uniforms are intended to conceal a person’s
presence and intentions from an enemy, or hunters from
their quarry. But in our masked and militarized moment, the
righteous should make every effort to publicly stand out
from the wicked. The only reason to wear camouflage in an
urban setting — be it federal agents or self-declared militia
members — is intimidation.
If officers were easily identifiable, it would be harder
for them to get away with thrashing unarmed Americans
with nightsticks, shattering their bones as the camera
phones roll.
A new bill, introduced by Representatives Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Eleanor Holmes Norton of
Washington, D.C., would require on-duty federal and local
law enforcement officers to identify themselves at all times,
by name, agency and badge number. That’s a good start, but
is also insufficient.
Discarding the woodland camouflage, military-style
weaponry and violent tactics while on urban policing duty in
Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin would send an even clearer sig-
nal that federal agents intend to protect the peace, not wage
a war.Cops Don’t Need Army Fatigues
EDITORIALILLUSTRATION BY THE NEW YORK TIMES. PHOTOGRAPHS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MICHAEL DWYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS; ANDY ALFARO/
MCCLATCHY; JOSH EDELSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES; JOHN RUDOFF/SIPA, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESSTO THE EDITOR:
Australians love Americans. We’ve
supported you, and you’ve sup-
ported us, over many decades.
This is changing. Why? Because
you have a leader who has no idea
what leadership is and whose
erratic, illogical, disrespectful and
downright ugly behavior leaves us
with uncertainty about your coun-
try’s reliability as an ally.
A pity. We look forward to re-
newing normality pronto.DAVID BRETTELL
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIAAustralia Is Calling
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Virus Wipes Out 5 Years of
Economic Growth” (front page,
July 31):
The Covid-19 virus is global, and
the five years of wiped-out eco-
nomic growth is solely U.S. eco-
nomic growth. No other developed
country has seen long-term eco-
nomic consequences as drastic as
we have. As the article points out,
“data from Europe shows what
might have been.” Government
responses in Germany have “al-
lowed a much stronger economic
rebound in recent weeks.”
The difference is entirely attrib-
utable to the absence of a national
coordinated response to the virus
in the United States. A better head-
line would have been “Failure of
National Leadership to Respond to
Virus Wipes Out 5 Years of Eco-
nomic Growth.”
CHUCK HARDY, BALA CYNWYD, PA.TO THE EDITOR:
The Republicans want to, above all
else, reopen business. They must
know it is too soon to do that be-
cause the virus is not under con-
trol. So they also want to indemni-
fy employers against claims of
employees and their families that
they were made ill or died because
they were forced to go back to
work because they couldn’t sur-
vive without a paycheck until the
pandemic was brought under
control.
Were it not for this kind of stu-
pidity, we would have had this
virus under control already as
most of the rest of the industri-
alized world has done. We would
be back at work and at school.
Instead, Americans are still falling
ill and dying at alarming rates
while a president who is thrilled
that he can pass a basic mental
capacity test waged war with
federal storm troopers in Portland
and has just now decided to wear a
mask. Sometimes.
We need to pass lifesaving and
economy-saving financial aid to
families, lock this country down
until this virus is under control,
make everybody wear masks and
stop fooling around. Our country is
at stake. And whatever you do, get
a mail-in ballot and vote this reck-less toddler out of office before he
breaks the greatest democracy in
the world.
JOANNE POLVY COHEN
SHERMAN OAKS, CALIF.TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Despite Safeguards, a Mislead-
ing Video Goes Viral, With Help
From the Trumps” (news article,
July 29):
Is it not awful enough that
Covid-19 has infected four million
Americans and killed 150,000 of us?
Now, on top of an inept and con-
fused response by the federal gov-
ernment and the president, such
that the United States now leads
the world in total cases, new cases
and deaths, comes a disinformation
video by “America’s Frontline Doc-
tors” that promotes ineffective
treatments for the virus. The video
argues against the use of masks
and undermines the work of first
responders, true front-line care
providers and public health work-
ers who are daily risking their lives
to help Americans infected with this
virus.
Even worse: The president and
his son tweet out this disinforma-
tion video to everyone who still
listens to their sorry accounts.
You would think that the virus is
doing its damage effectively right
now, without needing the help of
the Trump family to further in-
crease the suffering and death of
people across this country. But I
guess that things can always be
made worse.
THOMAS AMATRUDA, EDINA, MINN.
The writer is an oncologist.TO THE EDITOR:
My wife and I were tested 14 days
ago at an urgent care center owned
by a large medical group that has
operations spanning several coun-
ties just north of the city. For two
weeks, no results and no informa-
tion as to when results would be
available. Finally, we found out the
results: negative.
The sign advertised results in
three to five days. The care center
blamed the lab, of course. Point-
less? Methinks so.
ERIC RUPPERT, PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.Why the Virus Is Getting the Better of Us
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR:
Re “A Wrinkle in Stores’ Mask
Policies: Enforcement” (news
article, nytimes.com, July 29):
Working as a grocery checker, I
became a witness to how our soci-
ety sometimes seemed washed of
decency, civility and emotional
intelligence. Even now with the
pandemic, though, retailers coddle
customers who curse at, threaten,
spit on or intimidate employees.
Reinforcement — not lack of en-
forcement — is the “wrinkle.”
I’m not surprised that we’re
being idiots about wearing masks,
because, among other things,
Americans are resistant to change.
Any grocery store that relocates a
single item can tell you that.
Some of us will laugh at
customer meltdowns, but if there’s
a joke in a retail worker having to
confront agitated and possibly
armed people, what do we think
the punchline is going to be?
If only we had some kind of
organized force in our communities
that was trained in verbal de-esca-
lation techniques that could resolvequality-of-life issues without strip-
ping people of their dignity.DOMINIC ANDRES GONZALEZ
SAN ANTONIOTO THE EDITOR:
Let an anti-masker imagine being a
retail worker who is (rightly or
wrongly) terrified of this sometimes
fatal disease, but who needs that
job to feed a family. And then,
please just put a mask on inside a
store. Take your civil-disobedience
protest, about being able to breathe
freely, out of buildings where em-
ployees are trapped.
Move it to the streets and parks,
where at least the people you meet
— like me, a teacher who’s worked
safely from home since March —
can step out of your way.
I also wish the private sector had
more and stronger unions, and that
retail workers had a hefty strike
fund available. We the people love
our freedoms, but we also love our
bread, butter and beer.
EILEEN GLOSTER
NORTH ADAMS, MASS.When Shoppers Refuse to Wear Masks
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Crises Abound, Yet Trump
Chooses to Attack Election” (front
page, July 31):
President Trump has finally
played the delay-the-election card,
and that he has is a measure of
how desperate he is to stay in
power. He is, as this and other
articles point out, unmoored, iso-
lated and sinking in the polls.
However, the fact that many Re-
publicans did not join the Demo-
crats in condemning him shows
how strong the political class feels
he still is.Mr. Trump and his enablers are
still powerful and capable of great
mischief between now and the
election. We cannot let our guard
down. Isolated and sinking or not,
Mr. Trump and his cronies remain
a potent menace to society and
American ideals, and must be
taken seriously right up to the end.
TIM SHAW, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.TO THE EDITOR:
President Trump should be called
out for the absurd hypocrisy he is
showing by whining about the
possibility of a rigged election. If
he is seriously worried about the
election being rigged against him
(as opposed to being rigged for
him), there is still time to fix the
situation.
He should allot more (not less)
funding to the post office to handle
the absentee ballots. And he should
give the states funds so they can
open up more and safer polling
places, and so they can hire more
monitors to allow people to drop off
their ballots in person, perhaps
even a drive-through.
It is obvious that he doesn’t want
to fix the situation, but would in-
stead rather prepare for some way
to blame away his impending de-
feat.
LESLIE FRIEDMAN, MENDHAM, N.J.So Trump Wants to Postpone the Election