Oregon DOJ Launches Criminal Probe Into Violence by Trump-Deployed Feds–‘These Tactics Must Stop’
Common Dreams – By Jake Johnson – Saturday July 18, 2020
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum on Friday announced a criminal probe into violence committed against peaceful protesters by unidentified federal officials who President Donald Trump deployed to Portland earlier this month to quash Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Rosenblum also said her office is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protection Service, and their agents for violating “the civil rights of Oregonians by seizing and detaining them without probable cause” after video footage showed federal officials in combat fatigues snatching protesters off the streets and throwing them into unmarked vehicles.
“These tactics must stop,” Rosenblum said in a statement. “They not only make it impossible for people to assert their First Amendment rights to protest peacefully. They also create a more volatile situation on our streets. We are today asking the federal court to stop the federal police from secretly stopping and forcibly grabbing Oregonians off our streets.”
“The federal administration has chosen Portland to use their scare tactics to stop our residents from protesting police brutality and from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement,” Rosenblum continued. “Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening. If this can happen here in Portland, it can happen anywhere.”
Video source: www.youtube.com
Posted by Teri Perticone
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