‘Wall of Moms’ sues Trump administration for ‘gassing, beating, and kidnapping’ protesters in Portland
Wall of Moms and several Black Lives Matter protesters who say they were “gassed, maimed, and brutalized” by federal agents in Portland sued the Trump administration on Monday for allegedly exceeding its legal authority during its highly controversial crackdown in the city.
The lawsuit claims that the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies violated legal limitations on federal law enforcement as well as the First and Fourth amendments to the Constitution when they sent officers with no identification to confront peaceful protesters and even whisk some of them away in unmarked rental cars.
The complaint was filed by Protect Democracy on behalf of protesters, a group known as Don’t Shoot Portland as Wall of Moms, a newly formed group of women who have been standing between protesters and officers during recent demonstrations.
“I fear for my personal safety every night I go out there, but I know that what we’re doing is right, and what the federal agents are doing is wrong,” Bev Barnum, who organizes Wall of Moms, said in a statement.
The plaintiffs also accuse DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf of “unlawfully serving” in that role because he was never confirmed by the Senate.
Protect Democracy, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, claims Wolf’s agents and other federal officers have “gone far beyond permissible law enforcement conduct” and have chosen to intimidate peaceful protesters by “gassing, beating, and kidnapping” them.
“Thousands of protesters in Portland are engaged in peaceful, creative efforts to defend Black lives and dismantle white supremacy and state violence,” said Teressa Raiford, founder of Don’t Shoot Portland.
“But all we see on the news are confrontations with law enforcement and protesters being gassed, maimed, and brutalized,” she said in a news release. “Portland police have long engaged in aggressive tactics and violence against protesters, and adding federal agents to the mix has done nothing to improve the situation.”
Protesters have been taken to the streets of Portland and other cities across the country since the caught-on-tape death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died at the hands of four white Minneapolis officers on May 25. The incident fueled a wave of largely peaceful demonstrations against racism and police brutality.
The Trump administration claims the officers who were sent to Portland are tasked with protecting federal buildings and cracking down on violent protesters. Their presence in the city has angered local and state authorities, with Mayor Ted Wheeler calling it “an unconstitutional occupation.”
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