Photo via the ACLU
"While some federal officers had already been in the streets, we now have additional militarized special ops officers occupying the streets of downtown Portland, bent on inflicting pain and terror on people who believe Black Lives Matter.
Federal agents, including those from Trump’s Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, are terrorizing the community, threatening lives, and relentlessly attacking protesters demonstrating against police brutality.
Militarized federal agents have flouted court orders protecting the rights of protesters from local law enforcement attacks, used sharpshooters to maim people, and deployed military tools and tactics — including sonic weapons and tear gas. Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland have been shot in the head with kinetic impact munitions, swept away in unmarked cars, and repeatedly tear gassed by federal agents. These government-issued weapons are funded with our tax dollars.
Even more, federal agencies appear to be doubling down on these harsh tactics, saying they will not leave the streets of Portland and will take their disturbing practices nationwide. DHS, and its sub-agencies Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, already have a well-known history of abusing human rights and a documented disregard for human life. Now, they are using federal taxpayer dollars to militarize their agencies and ignore the bounds on their power.
This has to stop. We cannot sit idly by and accept this as the new normal — in Portland or anywhere else in this country. And we must not let federal or local law enforcement suppress or control what people know about their violent tactics by attacking journalists and legal observers. Public transparency is a baseline requirement for democracy and accountability.
Remember: Without people filming the police, the officers who murdered George Floyd would never have had to answer for his death." - ACLU Press Release, July 18, 2020
Read the full press release: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/522017880/a-constitutional-crisis-in-portland
Comments