- When Harriet Tubman...
Well, Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves.
She just had the slaves go work for other white people.
- [Woman] Y'all, we're leaving right now.
- Yo, can someone in this man's life help him?
I had this whole one to two minutes scripted out
where I was like dunkin' on Kanye West
and just the random nature of disparaging
and minimizing an 1800s abolitionist.
With this guy, somehow he is a billionaire anti-vaxxer
who holds so much wealth and power and influence,
yet when I talk about him, it feels wrong,
and like I'm punching down
because he is so obviously not okay.
Anyway, 'sup, you beautiful bastard?
I hope you're having a fantastic Monday.
Welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show."
Buckle up, hit that like button,
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing we're gonna talk
about today is this story out of New Jersey,
where there was a shooting at the home of a federal judge.
So this happened last night in North Brunswick at the home
of Judge Esther Salas.
Reportedly, the judge was home at the time
of the shooting with reports saying
that she was in the basement.
She ended up being unharmed,
but horribly, her 20 year old son, Daniel, was killed,
and also her husband,
a defense lawyer named Mark Anderl, was injured.
Now as far as what we know about what happened,
we have the associated press saying that the alleged gunman
was dressed as a FedEx delivery person,
though right now it is unclear if
that person actually worked
for FedEx or was just posing as a delivery person,
with reports saying that Daniel opened the door
with his father behind him,
which is when the suspect shot and then fled the scene.
With this news breaking,
We also saw the FBI's Newark Division tweeting that they
were investigating, looking for one subject,
also asking the public for any information related to this,
also saying that the search was underway,
but there was an update this morning
when law enforcement sources told NBC news in New York
that an attorney found dead
in the Catskills may have been the suspect in this case,
that man reportedly dying
from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Authorities there are also saying they're still looking
into the situation,
with NBC also saying they had found a package
that was addressed to the judge and are looking
into whether or not he was tied to this.
We're starting to get more information
about who he is as well,
reports calling him a self-described anti-feminist
by the name of Roy Den Hollander.
He allegedly brought a case before the judge in 2015.
Now all of that said, as far as who Esther Salas is,
she was appointed by president Barack Obama in 2010,
confirmed in 2011,
making her new Jersey's first Hispanic woman
to serve as a US District Judge,
and since she has had this role,
she has had a couple of very high profile cases.
She presided over a case involving one
of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, Teresa Giudice,
and her husband, Joe,
sentencing them both to staggered sentences
on fraud charges.
She has also reportedly handled cases involving members
of the Grape Street Crips, which are in connection
to a long running drug trafficking network.
In fact, back in 2016,
she actually sentenced the leader of the Grape Street Crips
to 14 years in prison,
also sentencing a leader of the South Side Cartel,
which has been described as one of the most violent gangs
in Newark, to 45 years in prison,
but most recently, she was assigned last week
to a lawsuit filed against Deutsche bank
by numerous investors.
With that lawsuit,
alleging that the bank made materially false
and misleading statements regarding the bank's business,
operational and compliance policies,
and failed to properly monitor customers
that the bank itself deemed to be high risk,
including among others,
the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
All right, and so now with all of that said,
this is why a lot of people,
especially this morning,
were pointing out past cases were a potential motive.
Others are now talking about the case
the suspect brought forward himself.
Though, of note,
authorities have still not yet identified a motive
and are still looking to see
if she may have been the target,
if it was directly related to her.
According to ABC news,
she has received threats in the past
with authorities looking into whether
or not those threats are tied to this.
We also had Francis "Mac" Womack,
the mayor of North Brunswick,
who was also good friends with the family, telling ABC,
"As a judge, she had threats from time to time,
but everyone is saying
that recently there had not been any,"
but ultimately that is where we are
with the story as of filming.
Of course, one of the biggest things I want
to get across is this is still a developing situation.
We'll obviously keep our eyes on it,
but for now, we have to wait and see.
But from that, before we jump into our big deep dive today,
also, just so everything we talk about today
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The first bit of awesome today is, if you didn't see it,
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Then Meet Arnold,
who gave us What If the World's Population Increased by 10,
then we've got the trailer for "The Weight of Gold,"
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Entertainment Weekly gave us
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Wired gave us a hacker explaining a concept
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If you want to see the full versions of everything
I just shared, the secret link of the day,
really anything at all, links, as always,
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And then let's try to talk about Portland.
There's a lot to this story.
There's a lot of moving parts.
So let's try to break down the situation
and hit on some of the key highlights and major points.
So all of this, of course, started back in May,
where like in other cities, across the country,
you had protesters in Portland taking to the streets
after the killing of George Floyd, and since then,
the protests in Portland have continued
for over 50 days now.
While many of these protests,
especially during the day, have been peaceful,
plenty of others have become violent.
According to reports,
protesters have set fires engaged in vandalism,
thrown objects at police, among other things.
Police have also, at times, responded with force,
reportedly clashing with the protesters frequently
and sparking claims of police brutality.
Last month, local police reportedly fired tear gas
at protesters, but the governor then signed
a law prohibiting them from firing tear gas at protesters,
unless they declare a riot, and the thing with these is
while the demonstrations have kept going,
they did eventually start to slow down at one point.
But then, on June 26th,
we saw president Trump signing an executive order
to protect federal monuments, statues, and memorials.
And under that,
Trump also directed the department of Homeland Security
to create a new task force to enforce this order,
and on July 1st, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
Chad Wolf issued a statement announcing the creation
of PAC, the Protecting American Communities task force,
and shortly after that,
the HS and members of that task force,
as well as US Marshals, were deployed to Portland,
and while, under Trump's executive order,
the agents are simply supposed to protect federal property,
they have continually clashed violently with protesters,
frequently firing tear gas at protesters,
this despite the ruling prohibiting Portland police
from doing so in the same instances.
The feds have also reportedly
been firing munitions at protesters.
Last Saturday, Marshal Service Officers shot
a peaceful protester in the face with so-called less
than lethal munitions, and also prompting a lot of outrage
after photos and videos of that incident circulated online,
showing the man in the street, bleeding from his head.
Also, according to reports,
he was hospitalized with a skull fracture,
but the situation really started to gain national attention
back on Thursday when Oregon Public Broadcasting,
or OPB, began reporting
that unidentified federal law enforcement agents
in unmarked vehicles have been grabbing protesters
off the streets since at least July 14th,
with OBP saying that both personal accounts
and multiple videos posted online show
the officers driving up to people,
detaining individuals with no explanation
of why they are being arrested, and driving off,
with one now viral video seeming to show two men
in camo coming up to a protester on the street,
grabbing them and then moving them into a car,
and while from the video,
it's hard to see if they had any identifying agency
on their uniform, other than just the word police,
we've also now seen people sharing pictures,
saying that the uniforms and a patch
on their arms match those of a picture
of Customs and Border Patrol agents in Portland shared
by CBP commissioner Mark Morgan,
and that video was also very similar to an account given
to reporters by a man named Mark Pettibone.
In his account,
he told reporters that he and a friend were walking home
from a demonstration around 2:00 AM on a Wednesday,
when, all of a sudden,
an unmarked minivan pulled up in front of them,
and several armed people in camouflage
and body armor got out with him telling The Washington Post,
"I was terrified.
"It was like being preyed upon."
And while his friend was able to escape, he was not,
with him going on to tell OPB,
"I am basically tossed into the van.
And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn't see
and they held my hands over my head,"
going on to say the agents, who never identified themselves,
"drove him to a federal courthouse
and placed him in a holding cell."
Eventually two officers went
to the cell and read him his Miranda rights.
They asked if he would waive his rights
and answer some questions.
He declines, asks for a lawyer.
The officers then responded by ending the interview
and releasing Pettibone, and according to his account,
they wouldn't tell him why he had been arrested
or provide him with any record of his arrest.
Also, when talking to the OPB,
he said he regularly attended protests,
but couldn't think of anything he had done
that would make him a target of law enforcement, adding,
"I just happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk
in downtown Portland at the time.
And that apparently is grounds for detaining me."
All right, and so with all of that,
there had been a ton of backlash from state
and local leaders who have called on Trump
and Wolf to take the feds out of Portland,
many of whom said they never wanted them there
in the first place, but Trump sent them anyway,
like Portland mayor Ted Wheeler,
who is also the Police Commissioner,
calling the federal response irresponsible,
demanding that the feds stay inside federal buildings
or leave the city.
Others like Mike Reese,
the sheriff of the county Portland's in,
also accusing the feds of making the situation worse,
calling the federal response a significant setback
in the efforts to ease tensions.
Those comments were also echoed by Senator Jeff Merkley,
who accused the agents of making the situation worse,
saying in a tweet on Thursday
that the shadowy forces have been escalating,
not preventing violence.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown,
also accusing President Trump
of deploying the federal officers
for his own political gain,
writing in a series of tweets on Thursday,
"This political theater from president Trump has nothing
to do with public safety.
The president is failing to lead this nation.
Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets
of Portland in a blatant abuse of power
by the federal government,"
with her also taking aim at Wolf, writing,
"He is on a mission to provoke confrontation
for political purposes.
He is putting both Oregonians
and local law enforcement officers in harm's way."
Senator Ron Wyden also making similar comments,
referring to the feds as Donald Trump's secret police,
adding, "Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing
the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on
the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well
with right-wing media."
But on the other side of this,
we've seen Wolf and the DHS blaming state
and local officials for failing to act.
In a highly charged press release issued on Thursday,
Wolf claimed that it was the local leaders,
not the feds, that were making the situation worse,
also defending their presence in the city,
arguing that some of the protesters
have been destroying the federal courthouse,
which is federal property, and saying,
"A federal courthouse is a symbol of justice,
to attack it is to attack America.
Instead of addressing violent criminals
in their communities,
local and state leaders are instead focusing
on placing blame on law enforcement
and requesting fewer officers in their community.
This failed response has only emboldened the violent mob
as it escalates violence day after day,"
and adding, "This siege can end if state
and local officials decide to take appropriate action
instead of refusing to enforce the law.
DHS will not abdicate its solemn duty
to protect federal facilities and those within them,"
with him also on to describe the, quote,
"lawless destruction and violence"
that has happened over the last six weeks,
in a list where he uses
the phrase violent anarchist 72 times.
Also, very notably on Thursday,
Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli
confirmed to NPR that yes,
federal agents had used unmarked vehicles
to pick up people in Portland,
saying they did this to keep officers safe away from crowds,
and to move detainees to a safe location for questioning,
and going on to say,
"The one instance I'm familiar with,
they believe they had identified someone
who had assaulted officers or the federal building there,
the courthouse," with him also noting
that that person ended up being innocent and added,
"I fully expect that as long as people continue
to be violent and to destroy property,
that we will attempt to identify those folks.
We will pick them up in front of the courthouse.
If we spot them elsewhere,
we will pick them up elsewhere," and adding,
"That's standard law enforcement procedure,
and it's going to continue
as long as the violence continues."
Customs and Border Protection
also released a statement on Friday,
confirming that they had detained someone, saying,
"CBP agents had information indicating the person
in the video was suspected of assaults
against federal agents or destruction of federal property,"
though, notably, they did not say
what video they were referring to, with them also adding,
"The agents had identified themselves
and were wearing CBP insignia at the time," but meanwhile,
the US marshals have not responded
to requests for comments from the media.
And so while we've seen
the Trump administration firmly saying they will ignore
the demands of local leaders and keep the feds in Portland,
the protests have now grown and evolved in response
to these agents staying in their city.
According to reports, upwards of 1000 people showed up
to demonstrations this weekend,
marking the largest crowds that the city has seen in weeks,
and with that, we saw a number of viral moments.
For instance, in one situation, we saw a wall.
A mother is forming a human shield between the protesters
and law enforcement officials.
They then stood their ground for a few hours
until the feds began using tear gas
and flash bangs to break up the crowd.
In another notable moment, we saw a Navy vet,
Chris David, calling out a group of federal officers,
this reportedly after they rushed a line of protesters,
knocking them to the ground, David then walks up and says,
"Why are you not honoring your oath?
Why are you not honoring your oath to the constitution?"
They then beat him with a baton
and sprayed chemical irritants in his face.
We later learned that because of this interaction,
his right hand had been broken in two spots.
Now, along with these instances,
we also have some instances of protesters becoming violent.
For example, on Saturday, Portland police declared a riot
after the police union building was broken into
and lit on fire.
There were some protesters tearing down fencing
around the federal courthouse,
federal police responding with tear gas,
local police then announcing they had arrested four people
for charges related to rioting
and interfering with a police officer.
Now leading into the weekend on Friday,
we saw the Oregon Department of Justice announce
that the State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
would soon be filing a lawsuit.
That is in response to the accusations
that people were being taken off of the streets
and put into vans by unmarked police officers,
the Oregon DOJ saying that federal authorities overstepped
their powers and injured or threatened peaceful protesters
on the streets of downtown Portland.
Later that same day,
we also saw Rosenblum filing that lawsuit
against a number of agencies, including DHS,
customs and border protection,
the US Marshal Service and the Federal Protection Service,
that lawsuit also listing 10 unknown individuals known
as John Does one through 10 as defendants,
and regarding them, Rosenblum says,
"On information and belief,
John Does one to 10 are employed
by the United States government
in a law enforcement capacity.
They have made it impossible for them
to be individually identified
by carrying out law enforcement actions
without wearing any identifying information,
even so much as the agency that employs them."
All right, but overall,
what we saw with this lawsuit was the accusation
that these agencies are engaging
in unlawful law enforcement tactics,
noting, "Federal law enforcement officers,
including John Does one to 10,
have been using unmarked vehicles
to drive around downtown Portland, detained protesters,
and place them into the officer's unmarked vehicles,
removing them from public without either arresting them
or stating the basis for an arrest since
at least Tuesday, July 14th."
The lawsuit itself also directly mentions Pettibone
and his testimony.
It then goes on to state that it is not just him,
adding that other citizens
in Portland have been detained, quote,
"without warning or explanation without a warrant
and without providing any way to determine
who is directing this action,"
going on to claim that these agencies are injuring citizens
by taking away their ability to determine
whether or not they're being kidnapped or arrested,
and they are noting that if you're being kidnapped, you,
of course, will be able to engage in self defense.
However, if you're being arrested,
that could amount to resisting arrest,
but right, to be clear, you wouldn't know.
So that's why, with this lawsuit,
you have them asking for federal agents to be required
to identify themselves and their agency
before making an arrest, and also for them to be required
to give an explanation as
to why they're detaining someone for an arrest.
Now, in addition to this lawsuit,
you have the Oregon DOJ also seeking
a temporary restraining order to prevent federal authorities
from unlawfully detaining people in the state.
Notably, it's not just Oregon's DOJ.
On Friday, we saw the
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon filing
a lawsuit against the DHS
and the United States Marshal service,
this, in an attempt to block federal law enforcement
from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest,
or using physical force against journalists
and legal observers, with Kelly Simon,
the interim legal director of Oregon's ACLU saying,
"This is a fight to save our democracy.
Under the direction of the Trump administration,
federal agents are terrorizing the community, risking lives,
and brutally attacking protestors,
demonstrating against police brutalities.
These federal agents must be stopped
and removed from our city."
Now with these lawsuits,
there have also been a lot of questions
about how much authority agencies like the DHS have.
Also, what kind of authority do they have?
And to look at that,
we have to look back to why the DHS was created, right?
And if you're unaware, it was formed after 9/11,
and its job was mainly to handle national security threats
from abroad as well as border secure.
And now ever since Trump took office,
it's largely carried out his immigration policies.
However, with Portland,
its presence has been more focused on law and order.
For example, some of the agents deployed
in Portland are part of a group known as BORTAC,
which is basically border patrol's equivalent
of a SWAT team, and very notably,
it is a highly trained group that is normally tasked
with things like investigating drug smuggling organizations,
as opposed to protesters and cities.
So situations like that have now raised questions about
whether it is overstepping local law enforcement.
I mean, we even have Portland's deputy police chief saying,
"I don't have authority
to order federal officers to do things.
It does complicate things for us."
However, on the other side of this,
you have Trump arguing that Portland police have failed to
adequately respond to the protests, but of note there,
according to an internal DHS memo dated from Thursday
and obtained by the New York Times,
those federal officers have also not been trained
in riot control or mass demonstrations,
but still despite that, yesterday,
we saw a DHS spokesperson saying that the missions
of the federal agents were, quote,
"aligned with their appropriate training"
and claiming that the officers received
"additional training for the deployment and the city"
to assist the federal protective service.
But also to go back to that memo regarding if we could see
this kind of response in other cities, it states:
"Moving forward, if this type of response is going
to be the norm, specialized training
and standardized equipment should be deployed
to responding agencies."
And as of this morning,
we're seeing reports that something like that might be able
to happen very soon,
this coming alongside reports that claim DHS
is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents
in Chicago this week.
We've also seen Trump indicating he would like
to increase federal presence in US cities,
which, depending on what happens in Chicago,
he might already be doing.
Also this morning,
we saw Republican Senator Rand Paul denouncing
the Trump administration's use of federal agents
in Portland there, Paul tweeting,
"We cannot give up liberty for security.
Local law enforcement can
and should be handling these situations in our cities,
but there is no place for federal troops
or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will."
But ultimately that is where we are
with this story right now.
Obviously we're gonna have our eyes on this.
And with this, I do want to pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts on all this?
And that is where I'm going to end today's show.
I appreciate you liking the video, sharing it,
being a part of the conversation in the comments down below.
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