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Portland Occupied by Unidentified Police
The title speaks for itself.
Trump-ordered federal agents have been allegedly deployed to Portland, Oregon to quell violent Black Lives Matter protests. In a recent Tweet, Senator Jeff Merkley posted a video of police in military-like gear detaining a protester in an unmarked minivan. The protestor does not appear to have engaged in any violent actions before the video was taken. Other than having the word “Police” on their uniforms, the officers in the video were not identified.
Another video shows the use of pepper spray, tear gas, and a baton on a protester in a white Navy sweatshirt. The protestor appears to be unaffected by the baton but reacted when sprayed with pepper spray. At the end of the video, this protestor raised two middle fingers to the police. Unfortunately, these encounters with federal police don’t seem to be a coincidence. Mark Pettibone, a Black Lives Matter protestor, was “tossed into the van” with his beanie pulled over his face as a means of disorienting him.
Like the protests at Lafayette Square, tear-gassing began before curfew and in the absence of any form of violent escalation. The use of unmarked vehicles, poorly-marked police, and chemical weapons on protesters is a situation that one would never imagine happening in America.
