"Tear Gas Democracy"

A friend texted me from inside the chaos. What she described in Portland exposes what happens when federal agencies answer to no one; and why every American should be paying attention now.

Yesterday afternoon, my phone buzzed with a text that stopped me cold. Not because I don’t get texts; believe me, I get plenty, but because of who it was from and what she was describing.

Pam Hemphill. Yes, that Pam. A friend. Proof that despite the lies, the smears, and the modern sport of cancel culture, I didn’t lose everyone along the way. Some people stick around because truth still matters to them.

Once branded by the MAGA machine as “MAGA Granny,” now proudly and defiantly rebranded as PamTifa, Pam is a civilian; an American who refuses to accept what this administration stands for, and who decided that silence was no longer an option.

Pam was texting me from Oregon.

And what she told me should terrify every American who still believes the Constitution is more than a prop to be waved around at campaign rallies.

Pam is on the ground in Portland; not as a reporter, not as a politician, but as a citizen doing what too many people with power refuse to do: showing up, documenting, and bearing witness. She’s not posting from a safe distance. She’s standing in the tear gas. She’s hearing the screams. She’s watching federal agents in tactical gear treat peaceful protestors like enemy combatants.

One of those protestors was her friend.

Gassed. Beaten. Dragged away by ICE.

Let that sink in. Not detained after committing a crime. Not arrested for violence. Gassed, beaten, and taken for daring to stand outside a federal building and exercise a constitutional right.

Pam is shaken. She’s scared. And she’s reaching out because she knows exactly how this story goes when no one pays attention. We’ve seen the movie before. Minneapolis. Unmarked vans. Federal agents with no accountability. Same agency. Different city. Same playbook.

That’s why Pam is joining me today around 2 p.m. EST on Substack LIVE; to tell you, in her own words, what’s really happening in Oregon. Not spin. Not sanitized statements. Not secondhand summaries. The reality, from someone standing in the middle of it while the rest of the country scrolls past.

Because here’s the part that should make your blood run cold: what’s happening in Portland isn’t getting anywhere near the attention it deserves.

Over the weekend, thousands of demonstrators gathered outside an ICE facility in Portland’s South Waterfront. By every credible account; including the mayor’s, it was a peaceful protest. Families were there. Parents pushing strollers. People in wheelchairs. This was not a riot. This was civic participation.

And ICE responded by launching chemical agents into the crowd.

Witnesses described what appeared to be military-style launchers firing chemical agents into civilians. A former OregonLive reporter wrote about parents desperately trying to tend to their kids, people using motorized carts struggling to escape as others staggered backward, blinded and disoriented.

That’s the moment where any honest debate should end.

Because once you are gassing children, this is no longer about “security,” “order,” or “protecting federal property.” It is about power. Raw, unaccountable power deployed against civilians whose only crime was showing up.

This wasn’t a nighttime standoff. This wasn’t chaos spiraling out of control. This was broad daylight. Peaceful. Monitored by local police who made zero arrests. And still, ICE escalated.

Portland’s mayor didn’t hedge. He didn’t both-sides it. He demanded ICE leave the city. He said plainly that the demonstrators posed no threat, violated no laws, and endangered no one. He told ICE agents to resign. He accused the agency of trampling the Constitution and replacing legitimacy with shame.

That statement alone should have been national news.

Instead, it barely registered.

And while Portland was choking on tear gas, the Trump administration made its position unmistakably clear. The message wasn’t de-escalation. It wasn’t restraint. It was force. Be “very forceful,” they said. Any resistance would be met with “equal, or more, consequence.”

That’s not governance. That’s a warning shot.

What’s happening in Oregon is not an isolated incident. It’s a stress test. A trial balloon. A demonstration of how far federal power can be pushed when public outrage is muted and attention is elsewhere.

ICE is no longer just enforcing immigration law. It is being used as a domestic blunt instrument. A presence meant to intimidate. To deter protest. To normalize the idea that dissent comes with physical risk.

And if you think this ends in Portland, you haven’t been paying attention.

Pam Hemphill understands that. She’s not doing this for attention. She’s doing it because she’s watching something dangerous unfold in real time; and she knows silence is how it spreads.

If federal agents can gas children in Oregon without consequence, they can do it anywhere.

If peaceful protest is met with chemical weapons there, it can happen on your street.

And if you think this is someone else’s problem, history suggests you won’t think that for long.

So, join us later. Listen closely. And decide; before it’s your city next.

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