The mayor of Portland, Oregon has demanded that President Donald Trump remove militarized federal agents he deployed to the city after some detained people on streets far from federal property they were sent to protect.
'Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,' Mayor Ted Wheeler said at a news conference on Friday.
'Over the past week, President Trump has used our city as a staging ground to further his political agenda, igniting his base to cause further divisiveness,' Wheeler said. 'Mr. President, federal agencies should never be used as your own personal army.'
Thursday night marked the 50th straight night of unrest in Portland, with protests frequently spilling into violent demonstration, statues toppled, and fires lit in the streets. On Thursday, a crowd outside the Southeast Precinct threatened to burn the building down, but was dispersed.
Protesters gather during a demonstration in Portland on Thursday. Federal officers deployed tear gas and fired less-lethal rounds into a crowd of protesters late Thursday
Police stand as protesters gather during a demonstration, Thursday in Portland. The mayor of Portland, Oregon has demanded that President Donald Trump remove federal agents
Police gather as protesters gather during a demonstration in Portland. Federal officers deployed tear gas and fired less-lethal rounds into a crowd of protesters late Thursday
'Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,' Mayor Ted Wheeler (above) said at a news conference
Trump has vowed to 'dominate' the protesters with federal agents, and on July 12 a video showed a federal officer shooting a protester in the head with a nonlethal munition, resulting in a skull fracture.
There have been reports that federal agents dressed in fatigues are patrolling the streets in unmarked vans, grabbing and arresting protesters on sight.
Democratic Governor Kate Brown said Trump is looking for a confrontation in the hopes of winning political points elsewhere. She said it also serves as a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic, which is causing spiking numbers of infections in Oregon and the nation.
Brown's spokesman, Charles Boyle, said Friday that arresting people without probable cause is 'extraordinarily concerning and a violation of their civil liberties and constitutional rights.'
The ACLU of Oregon said the federal agents appear to be violating citizens' rights, which 'should concern everyone in the United States.'
'Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street we call it kidnapping,' said Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. 'The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered.'
Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests so far, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Thursday. Some have been detained by the federal courthouse, which has been the scene of protests. But others were grabbed blocks away.
'This is part of the core media strategy out of Trump's White House: to use federal troops to bolster his sagging polling data,' Wheeler said. 'And it is an absolute abuse of federal law enforcement officials.'
Protesters disperse as tear case is deployed during a demonstration in Portland on Thursday
Protesters move barricades as they try to establish a new autonomous zone on Thursday
One video showed two people in helmets and green camouflage with 'police' patches grabbing a person on the sidewalk, handcuffing them and taking them into an unmarked vehicle.
'Who are you?' someone asks the pair, who do not respond. At least some of the federal officers belong to the Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that its agents had information indicating the person in the video was suspected of assaulting federal agents or destroying federal property.
'Once CBP agents approached the suspect, a large and violent mob moved towards their location. For everyone´s safety, CBP agents quickly moved the suspect to a safer location,' the agency said. However, the video shows no mob.
In another case, Mark Pettibone, 29, said a minivan rolled up to him around 2 a.m. Wednesday and four or five people got out 'looking like they were deployed to a Middle Eastern war.'
Pettibone told The Associated Press he got to his knees as the group approached. They dragged him into the van without identifying themselves or responding to his questions and pulled his beanie over his eyes so he couldn't see, he said.
'I figured I was just going to disappear for an indefinite amount of time,' Pettibone said.
Pettibone said he was put into a cell and officers dumped the contents of his backpack, with one remarking: 'Oh, this is a bunch of nothing.'
After he asked for a lawyer, Pettibone was allowed to leave.
Graffiti is seen in a public restroom in Chapman Park across from Justice Square in Portland
Protesters have gathered in the public plaza and want to establish an 'autonomous zone'
'Authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters,' Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a tweet.
U.S. Attorney Billy Williams in Portland said Friday he has requested the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General investigate the actions of DHS personnel.
In a letter Friday, Oregon's two senators and two of its House members demanded that U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf immediately withdraw 'these federal paramilitary forces from our state.'
The members of Congress also said they'll be asking the DHS inspector general as well as the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate 'the unrequested presence and violent actions of federal forces in Portland.'
'It's painfully clear this administration is focused purely on escalating violence without answering my repeated requests for why this expeditionary force is in Portland and under what constitutional authority,' Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said.
On Thursday night, federal officers deployed tear gas and fired non-lethal rounds into a crowd of protesters.
Protesters in Portland, Oregon, clashed with federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security this week as agents deployed tear gas and fired less-lethal munitions at residents. Pictured: a fountain in Portland damaged during Black Lives Matter protests on Thursday
Protesters gather outside the East Side Police Station in Portland, Oregon, after holding Black Lives Matter protests non-stop for the last seven weeks
Posts on social media called for residents to join the CLAT movement and camp out in front of the Pioneer Courthouse in protest of police brutality
Wolf visited Portland on Thursday and called the demonstrators, who are protesting racism and police brutality, 'violent anarchists.'
Wolf blamed state and city authorities for not putting an end to the protests. But Portland police said Friday they wound up arresting 20 people overnight.
At least two protests occurred Thursday night, one near the federal courthouse and the other by a police station in another part of the city.
Police told protesters to leave that site after announcing they heard some chanting about burning down the building. Protester Paul Frazier said Friday the chant was 'much more rhetorical than an actual statement.'
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell told reporters Friday that his officers are in contact with the federal agents, but that neither controls the others' actions.
'We do communicate with federal officers for the purpose of situational awareness and deconfliction,' Lovell said. 'We´re operating in a very, very close proximity to one another ... so it´s important for us to know if they're going to take some type of action and it´s important for them to know if we're going to take some type of action.'
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon on Friday added the federal government to a lawsuit it filed earlier to halt the use of crowd control measures, including tear gas and rubber bullets, against journalists and legal observers at protests in Portland.
'The lawsuit is one of many the ACLU will be filing against federal authorities in Portland for their unconstitutional attacks on people protesting the police killing of George Floyd,' the group said.
Tensions have escalated in the past two weeks, particularly after an officer with the U.S. Marshals Service fired a less-lethal round at a protester's head on July 11, critically injuring him.
The protests following the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis have often devolved into violent clashes between smaller groups and the police. The unrest has caused deep divisions in a city that prides itself on its activism and progressive reputation.
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