Sending in the Feds?

In recent weeks in Portland and other cities there have been violent riots with assaults, vandalism, arson, and a few murders.   State and local officials have shirked their responsibility to stop the rioting and restore order.  A few have sided with the rioters. (People in the traditional media have ignored or played down the story, often with quite irrelevant claims that most demonstrators in most places have behaved peacefully. Most airliners flown on September 11, 2001 landed harmlessly, but that did not change  the newsworthiness of the story of the four which did not.)   The behavior of even those officials who did not has often been disgraceful.  People in those cities have a right to expect that their municipal and state governments will protect their lives and property, and that has not and is not happening. Several mayors and governors should be voted out of office at a minimum and, if possible, sued or prosecuted for gross and often willful negligence. 

There is a natural question of what should the federal government do in the streets of those cities.  While sympathizing with the decent people living there, I  think  the correct answer is not much yet. Things have not reached the point of an insurrection  against the United States.  The pathetic secessionist theatre in Seattle was a long way short of a Fort Sumter, and the riots are a long way from actual rebellion.  It is not time for martial law.

I think  it is fine for the federal government to send in forces sufficient to defend federal property in places where the local authorities refuse to do the job. I think it is appropriate for federal officials  to prosecute  rioters who violate federal civil rights and anti-terrorism laws. I think it is necessary for the feds to identify  and deal with the people and organizations funding and coordinating the rioting. However I do not think federal officers should be patrolling and pacifying the streets (unless their help is requested by state officials). In this country that is the job of state and local governments, and until things get far worse, it should be left  to them, feckless and remiss though they may be. 

The federal government has far too many cops, bureaucrats, snoops, and assorted enforcers as it is. We do not need a precedent for the feds taking over local police work.