Trump unleashes 'the beast' to clamp down on protesters: Analyst

US President Donald Trump has unleashed "the beast" to crackdown on anti-racism protesters demonstrating following the brutal police killing of George Floyd, an American political commentator says.

In recent days, media outlets covering anti-racism protests across the United States reported numerous instances of heavily-armed forces with no insignia, taking part in the Trump crackdown of demonstrators.

Unidentified armed men in DC spark fears of secret force to quell protesters

The appearance of unidentified armed men in military-style uniforms has prompted concerns that the US is deploying a secret force to quell the protesters.

In an interview with Press TV on Tuesday, former congressional staffer Rodney Martin described the black tactical units, who lacked specific identifiable insignia and name tags as "the beast of the American system".

Martin said the heavily-armed troops, who were tactical units from the Federal Bureau of Prisons along with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and several other federal law enforcement agencies, had been a source of concern for many of the demonstrators.

"[I]t's fully understandable why people would be very apprehensive about seeing what are de facto shock troops on the streets of the United States," he said, adding, "the psychological intent was indeed accomplished in that people were rightfully scared."

Martin said the federal agents were brought in by Trump to crackdown on the protesters after the Pentagon resisted sending in regular troops,

It was "a desperate move on the part of the administration and that they were just grabbing anyone they can get from within their jurisdiction because the military leaders in the Pentagon were resisting. We now know that there was a tremendous shouting match between the White House and the Pentagon about deploying US troops," Martin said.

The American political commentator said resorting to such divisive tactics by the Trump administration to crackdown on the anti-racism protesters was "sad'. "[T]his escalates tensions and further divides the country, and it is sad."

He described the deployment of troops as "the greatest hypocrisy".   

"I hearken back to how many times the United States has criticized other countries when these types of situations have erupted and now you see the greatest hypocrisy of all in the United States, hammering, literally hammering, its own citizens and wanting to deploy its own military that is used in war," Martin noted.

"We are now seeing the beast of the American system fully unmasked," he concluded.

In the meantime, hundreds of rights groups in the US and across the globe, have voiced concern about Trump's brutal crackdown on the protesters.

Rights groups say recent brutal US police killings of unarmed black people, as well as the American security forces use of brutal tactics against protesters, violate major international human rights treaties and demanded that the right to peaceful assembly and protest be protected.

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