Alex Padilla is one of California's two senators. That's him in the photo about to be wrestled to the ground and handcuffed after introducing himself at a press conference and saying he had a question for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

The question we have is what exactly do we call the guys who attack a United States senator without provocation, drive him to the floor, turn him face down, and truss him like he's the Guatemalan serial killed who moonlights emptying trash cans and busting suds at your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant.

We aspire to responsible journalism here, so tossing out epithets like "goon" and "brownshirt" and "thug" doesn't seem appropriate.

And calling them unidentified plain-clothes authority figures who assume without any documentation or public disclosure the right to assault anyone at any time for any reason seems cumbersome.

But you must agree, that's exactly what they are. 

Are such characters a feature of all "great" countries? Did we miss that history lesson?

Or are these guys the flowering of the police state Donald John Trump knows he must establish if he wants to stay on the tiger's back?