WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Virginia Rep. Don Beyer (D) joined other Democrats in the house in introducing the Law Enforcement Identification Act, which would require uniformed federal officers to wear plainly visible identification while policing First Amendment Assemblies.
The bill comes as a response to the use of unidentified Bureau of Prisons crisis management teams as part of federal security efforts in Washington, D.C., during the Justice for George Floyd protests last week. It would bring requirements for federal law enforcement in line with D.C. police, who are already required by District statute to wear enhanced identification while policing First Amendment demonstrations.
The legislation was introduced by a number of representatives from the DMV. Joining Beyer were D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly and Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, and Maryland Congressmen Jamie Raskin and Anthony Brown, all Democrats. The bill is the House companion to an identical bill in the Senate introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
“It is unacceptable for federal officers policing constitutionally-protected peaceful protests in our nation’s capital to refuse to identify themselves,” Beyer said Thursday. “We do not have secret police in the United States of America. The lack of identification left city authorities, protesters, and residents in the dark about who these armed officers in their community last week were, who gives them orders, and what their use of force guidelines are.”
Read the full text of the bill below:
WUSA9 reported extensively on the use of unmarked federal law enforcement during protests last week. The officers – who wore no identification and had either blocked or removed insignia – repeatedly refused to identify themselves to media and citizens, and would only say they were with the “Department of Justice” when asked. The Bureau of Prisons eventually acknowledged that the officers were members of their special operations resource and crisis management teams.
The BOP told CBS News in a statement that the officers weren’t wearing marked clothing because they were “serving a broader mission.”
The use of unmarked officers in the nation’s capital prompted more than 120 members of the House to send a letter to Attorney General William Barr – who was overseeing the federal response to protests in D.C. – demanding that he restore the identifying information to their uniforms.
“Attorney General Barr deployed what can fairly be described as a secret paramilitary force against citizens protesting in Washington, D.C.,” Rep. Raskin said in a statement Thursday. “This is a scandal. How can our constituents know whether individuals purporting to enforce the law are actually authorized to do so and by whom if they’re not wearing any identification?”
Virginia’s Rep. Wexton called it an “irresponsible an dangerous action” that escalated an already tense situation, and said the “use of anonymous enforcers to quell civil unrest is a tactic of autocratic leaders.”
The unmarked officers also prompted a Twitter feud between Mayor Muriel Bowser and President Donald Trump after the mayor sent the White House a letter demanding it move the officers and other military personnel out of the city.
Bowser said the federal response to the protests was “inflaming demonstrators and adding to the grievances of those who, by and large, are peacefully protesting for change.”
On Sunday, the president ordered the roughly 5,000 National Guard troops brought to D.C. from around the country to officially withdraw, saying everything was “under perfect control.”