Oregon sues as Portland protests continue
PORTLAND, Ore. — An aggressive federal campaign to suppress unrest in this city appears to have instead rejuvenated its movement, as protesters gathered by the hundreds late Friday and into Saturday morning — the largest crowd in weeks.
Federal officers at times flooded street corridors with tear gas and shot projectiles from paintball guns, while demonstrators responded by shouting that the officers in fatigues were “terrorists” and chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.” Protesters in Portland have gathered for more than 50 consecutive nights.
While the protesters have repeatedly decried the city’s own police tactics, Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as police commissioner, and other leaders have united in calls for federal agencies to stay away. City commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty went to join protesters gathered outside the Multnomah County Justice Center downtown, saying the city will “not allow armed military forces to attack our people.”
“Today we show the country and the world that the city of Portland, even as much as we fight among ourselves, will come together to stand up for our constitutional rights,” Hardesty said Friday.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum was seeking an order to stop militarized federal agents from arresting people.
Demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality have happened every day in Oregon’s largest city since Minneapolis police killed George Floyd on May 25. President Donald Trump has decried the disorder, and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf blasted the protesters as “lawless anarchists” during a visit to the city.
“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Wheeler said Friday.
Rosenblum late Friday sued Homeland Security and the Marshals
Service in federal court. The complaint says unidentified federal agents have grabbed people off Portland’s streets “without warning or explanation, without a warrant and without providing any way to determine who is directing this action.”
Rosenblum said she was seeking a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.”
“The current escalation of fear and violence in downtown Portland is being driven by federal law enforcement tactics that are entirely unnecessary,” she said in a statement.
Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the injury of one protester, who appeared to have been shot in the head with a less-than-lethal weapon outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland.
The administration has enlisted federal agents, including the U.S. Marshals Special Operations
Group and an elite Customs and Border Protection team based on the U.S.-Mexico border, to protect federal property.
But Oregon Public Broadcasting reported this week that some agents had been driving around in unmarked vans and snatching protesters from streets not near federal property, without identifying themselves.
Gov. Kate Brown said in an interview that she believed the protests were starting to ease before the federal officers came into the scene. She said she asked Wolf to keep federal agents off the streets but that he rejected the suggestion.
Wheeler, the mayor, said he got the same response. But he said he believes that the unified local response could change the federal tactics and keep federal officers off the streets.
“I can’t recall a single instance where we have had federal, state and local officials all in alignment, saying the presence of federal troops in our city is harmful to our residents,” Wheeler said.
On Friday night, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil outside the Justice Center, which is sandwiched between two federal buildings, including a courthouse, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Across the street, dozens of other protesters entered two recently closed city parks after dismantling chain-link fencing that blocked access.
Federal agents emerged from an office building next door and used impact munitions, stun grenades and tear gas to clear the area, the news organization reported. It said its journalists did not observe any incident that might have prompted the use of the weapons.
Federal officers deployed tear gas again just before midnight after a few protesters placed dismantled fencing in front of plywood doors covering the entrance of the federal courthouse.
Early Saturday, Portland police declared the gathering unlawful, saying protesters had piled fencing in front of the exits to the federal courthouse and the Justice Center and then shot off fireworks at the center.
Federal officers and local police then advanced simultaneously on the demonstrators to clear the streets, making arrests as protesters threw bottles and pieces of metal fence at police, the Portland Police Bureau said.