For a number of reasons. Firstly, OSP answers to Oregon’s executive exclusively, they can't be co opted by any other authority, unlike the NG- which can be federalized, legally, and in very short order.
Secondly, the undercover fed goons are working in small units, assaulting and kidnapping nonviolent protesters, OSP is perfectly capable of arresting small groups in unmarked vans, and they don't have the issues of supremecist sympathies that Portland PD has, (not sure that PPD is still operating under the federal consent decree that bound it for the last decade or so, but they were for quite a while).
Setting the stage for a state/federal conflict, especially over issues of racial justice is something the ‘Lost Cause’ types have been salivating over for decades. They want a rematch because they really, really think they can win this time. They're wrong, of course, they're in even less of a position to take on the rest of the country than they were the first time, but try to tell morons that they're morons and see how far you get.
I don’t know it, but our governor being a woman, a Democrat, something in the neighborhood of liberal and having dealt much more successfully with the pandemic than Hair Furor has may all be factors in why the maladministration chose to run this little piece of provocative theater in Portland rather than Seattle and its ‘autonomous zone’. They feel safer going after someplace run by a woman, it allows them to exercise, and attempt to exorcise, their feelings about women. And they assume it's a soft target.
There is undoubtedly a confluence of diverse motivations to pull this right now. I'd bet money that Miller and his white supremacist cronies have their filthy hands in the mix somewhere, considering that the supremacists and the militias have been jonseing to start this second civil war and they don't have a lot of time left to manage it.
It is also both a distraction from the tsunami of other bad news dogging Hair Furor and a test run for seeing how much they can get away with by just ignoring the laws and norms until something stops them. They really need to fetch up against something solid that doesn't move. And soon.
I personally don't have a great deal of confidence that Brown will do anything this decisive, she's a lawyer and a long time public servant, they generally herd animals, not bold leaders, but even former Republican Steve Schmidt has advised that she call OSP and shut this down, and if nothing else, he knows the types she's up against in this.
They want to play army and have no consequences. They're bullies who want easy ‘victories ‘ against unarmed civilians that they're pretending are vicious enemies. They want to feel tough and in control.
Sending real troops against them, (aside from being dangerous as hell on several levels), dignifies their delusions of adequacy, whereas having cops throw them in jail for a few days or weeks while their bosses wrangle some form of legal excuse for their actions isn't the valiant fight they're yearning for. It would make them feel like thugs arrested for assault and kidnapping, not warriors in a noble endeavor. Personally, I'm in favor of this. They're bullying brat kids with authority they haven't earned and power they can't use responsibly and only have through unlawful means.
::sigh:: It's late, I'm on a tablet in a friend’s driveway, so I haven't drafted this or put it together well, but I did think it should go out there to be chewed over for the weekend.
Stay safe, everyone.