Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who this weekend blamed President Trump for the growing violence in Portland and characterized the federal presence in the city as “political theater,” said at a press conference Wednesday that federal cops are “secret police abducting people.”
The Democratic governor said: “Let me be very clear with Oregonians, when I spoke with the director of the Department of Homeland Security last week, I told him to go home and take his federal troops with him. This is a democracy, not a dictatorship. We cannot have secret police abducting people into and putting them in unmarked vehicles. I cannot believe I have to say that to the president of United States. I know that Oregonians are outraged. American should be appalled. “
Her live comment followed a similar sentiment from earlier in the week as anger is building at federal officers over the deployment of tear gas and other tactics.
Trump sent federal law enforcement agents to the liberal city to quell violent demonstrations — a tactic he’s said he’ll use for other cities.
Far from tamping down the unrest, the presence of federal agents — and particularly allegations they have whisked people away in unmarked cars without probable cause — has given new momentum and a new focus to protests that had begun to devolve into smaller, chaotic crowds. The use of federal agents against the will of local officials has also set up the potential for a constitutional crisis, which could escalate if Trump sends federal agents elsewhere.
Federal forces were deployed to Portland in early July, and tensions have risen since: On July 11, a protester was hospitalized with critical injuries after a U.S. Marshals Service officer struck him in the head with a round of less-lethal ammunition.
Then, anger flared again over the weekend after video surfaced of a federal agent hitting a Navy veteran repeatedly with a baton while another agent sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. Richard Cline, principal deputy director of the Federal Protective Service, told reporters Tuesday that the officers are part of the Marshals Service and that the Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating.
Crowds in Portland had recently numbered fewer than 100 people but swelled to more than 1,000 over the weekend — and they’re once again attracting a broader base in a city that’s increasingly outraged.
Federal agents again used force to scatter protesters early Tuesday and deployed tear gas and rubber bullets as some banged on the doors of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse and tried to pull plywood off the shuttered entryway. The boarded-up courthouse, which has been a focus of protests, is now covered with graffiti.
Portland police said some protesters lit fires in the street and tried several times to set them at the courthouse doors.
State and local authorities didn’t ask for federal help and are awaiting a decision on a lawsuit seeking to restrain the federal agents’ actions. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in court papers that masked federal agents have arrested people on the street, far from the courthouse, with no probable cause and whisked them away in unmarked cars.
The federal government was sued again Tuesday by the Western States Center, two state representatives and others who argued that agents violated protesters’ 10th Amendment rights by engaging in police activities designated to local and state governments.
Federal agencies defended the actions in Portland. Some in the crowd this weekend used radio frequency jammers and shot pellet and airsoft guns to injure officers, according to the Justice Department. It’s also investigating “suspicious devices” outside the courthouse that could have caused “serious harm to those in the building,” spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.
Some of the demonstrators also tried to barricade federal officers inside the courthouse and set the building on fire, Kupec said.
In a news conference in Washington, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said agents have been assaulted with lasers, bats, fireworks, bottles and other weapons and “yet the city of Portland takes little to no action.”
Wolf said the agency has clear authority to protect government property and detain people suspected of threatening personnel or damaging that property. He disputed that unidentified agents have made arrests, noting they have the word “police” on their uniforms and that officers wear camouflage like they do when working on the border.
“These police officers are not storm troopers, they are not Gestapo. That description is offensive,” Wolf said.
He said federal agencies have made 43 arrests since July 4.
While U.S. authorities can enforce federal laws on federal property, state and local officials said the agents have operated beyond their jurisdiction. Constitutional law experts said federal officers’ actions are “unprecedented” and a “red flag” in what could become a test case of states’ rights as the Trump administration expands federal policing.
