DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus ‘It was like being preyed upon’: Portland protesters say federal officers in unmarked vans are detaining them

‘It was like being preyed upon’: Portland protesters say federal officers in unmarked vans are detaining them

Federal customs officials said Friday that their agents had detained a demonstrator in Portland, Ore., in a widely seen video circulating online that showed two men in apparent military garb taking a young man wearing all black into custody, defending the apprehension by describing the man as being suspected of attacking federal agents and property.

This defense came as federal authorities were under criticism for their tactics from elected officials, civil rights activists and demonstrators, including one in Portland who described being “terrified” during a similar encounter.

In a statement on Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that its agents had taken the action in the video and that they “had information indicating the person in the video was suspected of assaults against federal agents or destruction of federal property.”

When the agents approached him, CBP said, “a large and violent mob moved towards their location. For everyone’s safety, CBP agents quickly moved the suspect to a safer location for further questioning.”

The agency also disputed suggestions that they were operating only as unidentified federal agents.

“The CBP agents identified themselves and were wearing CBP insignia during the encounter,” CBP said in its statement. “The names of the agents were not displayed due to recent doxing incidents against law enforcement personnel who serve and protect our country.”

A similar encounter left Mark Pettibone, a 29-year-old demonstrator, shaken, he told The Washington Post in an interview.

Pettibone said he was scared when men in green military fatigues and generic “police” patches jumped out of an unmarked minivan early Wednesday. Pettibone said that when several men in fatigues approached him, his first instinct was to run.

He did not know whether the men were police or far-right extremists, who frequently don military-like outfits and harass left-leaning protesters in Portland. In his account, the 29-year-old said he made it about a half-block before he realized there would be no escape.

Then, he sank to his knees, hands in the air.

“I was terrified,” Pettibone said. “It seemed like it was out of a horror/sci-fi, like a Philip K. Dick novel. It was like being preyed upon.”

He was detained and searched. One man asked him if he had any weapons; he did not. They drove him to the federal courthouse and placed him in a holding cell, he said. Two officers eventually returned to read his Miranda rights and ask if he would waive those rights to answer a few questions; he did not.

Almost as suddenly as they had grabbed him off the street, the men let him go. The federal officers who snatched him off the street as he was walking home from a peaceful protest did not tell him why he had been detained or provide him any record of an arrest, he told The Post. As far as he knows, he has not been charged with any crimes. And, Pettibone said, he did not know who detained him.

His detention, which was first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting, and videos of similar actions have raised alarm bells for many. Legal scholars questioned whether the detentions pass constitutional muster.

“Arrests require probable cause that a federal crime had been committed, that is, specific information indicating that the person likely committed a federal offense, or a fair probability that the person committed a federal offense,” Orin Kerr, a professor at University of California at Berkeley Law School, told The Post. “If the agents are grabbing people because they may have been involved in protests, that’s not probable cause.”

During a video news conference Friday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler twice called the federal police in his city President Trump’s “personal army” and said that he is joining a chorus of Oregon’s elected officials in sending a clear message to Washington: “Take your troops out of Portland.”

This is part of a coordinated strategy out of Trump’s White House to use federal troops to bolster his sagging polling data, and it is an absolute abuse of federal law enforcement officials,” Wheeler said. “As we were starting to see things de-escalate, their actions last Saturday and every night since have actually ratcheted up the tension on our streets.”

Federal officers from the U.S. Marshals Service and Department of Homeland Security have stormed Portland’s streets as part of Trump’s promised strong response to ongoing protests. Local leaders expressed alarm at news of Pettibone’s detention and echoed calls for the feds to leave that have grown stronger since Marshals Service officers severely wounded a peaceful protester on Saturday.

“A peaceful protester in Portland was shot in the head by one of Donald Trump’s secret police,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote in a Thursday tweet that also called out acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf. “Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media.”

Civil rights advocates suggested the Trump administration is testing the limits of its executive power.

“I think Portland is a test case,” Zakir Khan, a spokesman for the Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Post. “They want to see what they can get away with before launching into other parts of the country.”

Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, called the recent arrests “flat-out unconstitutional” in a statement shared with The Post.

“Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping,” Carson said. “Protesters in Portland have been shot in the head, swept away in unmarked cars, and repeatedly tear-gassed by uninvited and unwelcome federal agents. We won’t rest until they are gone.”

Nightly protests have seized Portland’s downtown streets since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in late May. For more than six weeks, Portland police have clashed with left-leaning protesters speaking out against racism and police brutality. Tear gas has choked hundreds in the city, both protesters and other residents caught in the crossfire. Protesters have spray-painted anti-police messages on the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center, which serves as the local jail and a police headquarters.

After Trump sent federal officers to the city, allegedly to quell violence, tensions escalated. The feds have repeatedly deployed tear gas to scuttle protests, despite a newly passed state law that bans local police from using the chemical irritant except to quash riots. On Saturday, federal agents shot a man in the face with a less-than-lethal munition, fracturing his skull. Local officials, from the mayor to the governor, have asked the president to pull the federal officers out of the city.

“I am proud to be among the loud chorus of elected officials calling for the federal troops in Portland’s streets to go home,” Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said in a statement shared with The Post on Sunday. “Their presence here has escalated tensions and put countless Portlanders exercising their First Amendment rights in greater danger.”

Pettibone says he was simply exercising his free speech rights on Wednesday when he was detained. He and a friend were walking to a car to drive home after a relatively calm demonstration in a nearby park. He said he did not do anything to instigate police that night, or at any of the other protests he had attended over the past six weeks.

“I have a pretty strong philosophical conviction that I will not engage in any violent activity,” he told The Post. “I keep it mellow and try to document police brutality and try to show up for solidarity.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night, and likewise did not answer questions from Oregon Public Broadcasting. The Marshals Service told the radio station its officers had not arrested Pettibone and said the agency always keeps records of its arrests.

Trump has cheered harsh tactics by officers in Portland, and the acting Homeland Security secretary has vowed to keep federal forces in Portland until local leaders “publicly condemn what the violent anarchists are doing.”

“We’ve done a great job in Portland,” Trump said at a news conference on Monday. “Portland was totally out of control, and they went in, and I guess we have many people right now in jail. We very much quelled it, and if it starts again, we’ll quell it again very easily. It’s not hard to do, if you know what you’re doing.”

Yet the scene on Portland’s streets late Thursday reflected a different reality.

Protesters once again filled the streets in downtown, defiantly moving fencing meant to keep the crowd away from the Multnomah County Justice Center. And once again, federal officers launched tear gas into the protest.

As police, both local and federal, have responded to demonstrators with increasing force, the protests have grown more unwieldy and determined. Neither side appears ready to surrender.

“Once you’re out on the street and you’ve been tear-gassed and you see that there’s no reason — the police will claim that there’s a riot just so they can use tear gas — it makes you want to go out there even more to see if there can be any kind of justice,” Pettibone told The Post.

Emily Gillespie in Portland contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated incorrectly that a video circulating online showed Customs and Border Protection personnel detaining Mark Pettibone. The identity of the protester in that footage remains unclear.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/17/portland-protests-federal-arrests/

So Trump has sent in more jackbooted unmarked thugs to Portland riots, without them being requested or asked in anyway. They are snatching people off the streets and putting them in vans to disappear them... Nobody has a clue what they are doing, who they are, who's orders sent them there.

Those protesters are anything but peaceful. They are criminals.

That doesn't justify unmarked goons coming in uninvited and meddling in the state's business. Just listened to the mayor say they shot somebody in the head and have made things that were getting better much worse.

#1 A majority are peaceful
#2 It's still not legal to detain anyone without cause and in unmarked vehicles without announcing themselves.

This is against the Constitution. But people will ignore it.

This isn't even a slippery slope. We fell off the cliff.

screw the feds.

its funny how these guys in portland are considered criminals, but the same loser ass conservatives will praise those nut bag right wingers storming government buildings around the country, calling them patriots.

screw maga hatters. im not coming together with any of those fake hypocrites.

shout out to those guys on the west coast turning up. these jack booted thugs need to get their asses kicked.

Screw the protestors in Portland w/all their violence and destruction of property.

Yeah, they should be run over and killed on theIr own city streets by superior white folks. Pffft trump supporters.

#1 The peaceful ones should start turning in the violent ones, because the violent ones destroy their message.

#2 The police can hold anyone for 72 hours without charges. I'm sure the feds can too. They held the guy while checking his identity and mirandized him.

#1 The good cops should start turning in the violent cops because the violent ones destroy their message.

Fixed it. No justice no peace.

I don't think anyone would disagree with this.

Wish that was true, good cops aren’t doing it?

Can anyone who seems to advocate this show where there was any violence in the protests the day this happened? You see, by and large the vast majority of these protests ARE peaceful. We have them in Nashville every day. No violence, no looting, nothing. But they don't receive the kind of press and attention as riots that have spawned out of some protests.

So what people are now doing is trying to lump every protestor, every protest into criminal acts. The criminal element that existed early on certainly gave those on the right the ammunition to use against the cause. But those on the right spreading lies and disinformation like trying to claim that the word protest is always directly tied with criminals is a lie being perpetrated to somehow make them feel better about opposing a stop to police brutality.

It is not legal to hold him and not tell him why he is held and to not identify themselves.

And it's on the cops to prove who the violent ones are, not the protesters. Innocent until proven guilty, right? Now it's guilty by association.

You are saying wearing a mask is against someone's rights, but indiscriminately arresting people who COULD be associated with protests is ok?

Don't let them suck you in. The protests in Portland were peaceful at the time these things happened. There was no violence or criminal activity taking place at the time.

What we are seeing is illegal intimidation to silence the message. A constitutional right to peaceful protest being infringed up. The criminal element has taken over our government .

Maybe, I don't disagree with you about those destroying property, but what about the ones that are merely exercising their right to peacefully protest.... do you want them to be rounded up and taken into custody? That seems to be happening as well...

He's been having a melt down lately. Just let him go.

In the article, it say they thought he was a suspect in violent protests, destruction of federal property, and an attack on federal employees. They took him into custody, mirandized him, and asked if he'd answer questions, which he refused. After confirming his identity, they let him go. Seems fairly textbook.

If the cops thought they had the right guy, they should have taken him into custody. Once they find he's nit that guy, they should release him, which they did.

I'm not sure what your "innocent until proven guilty" comment is about. Cops don't determine someone's guilt or innocence before arresting or detaining them. They arrest or detain suspects. The then accuse them, the district attorney charges, and the court system determines guilt. An arrest does not mean guilt.

I always try to be very direct in what I say, unless I'm being sarcastic. I also don't write between the lines, so reading between the lines of my posts only finds your opinion. I never even mentioned masks, so I don't know how that got into your reply. Also, the article states they detained the guy under a certain suspicion. That means it wasn't indesciminate.

So they are wearing no identifying clothing to indicate who they work for. No badges with their names on them. And you're just fine with that?

They've stopped wearing name tags because they're being doxed. I'm not sure I've ever seen a law where they have to identify themselves. Seeing as the cops, federal agents, etc. have to protect their families and homes from protesters that try to terrorize their families now, I don't have a problem with it. Maybe the protesters should wear name tags to make it fair.

It's very odd that some of the things you seem to support are in direct opposition to the things you say you're against.

I haven't contradicted myself at all. What would you be referring to?

Just in general. Small government. States rights. You know, the things that keep the federal government out of your life.

Now it seems you advocate the federal government send in their own law enforcement that the local government neither wants, needs nor asked for.

From the article.

Federal customs officials said Friday that their agents had detained a demonstrator in Portland, Ore., in a widely seen video circulating online that showed two men in apparent military garb taking a young man wearing all black into custody, defending the apprehension by describing the man as being suspected of attacking federal agents and property.

If the feds are going a federal criminal, they have that right. They don't have to be invited or approved.

So your assertion then is that as long as they make accusations that excuse their behavior that makes it okay?

Did you happen to notice they did not say what it is they claimed he actually did? When and where were those federal agents or property attacked? What was the description of the suspects who made the attacks?

It seems that you are quick to buy into the federal governments vague accusations when in most cases you question such things.

The problem is a bad apple ruin the lot.

If you are protesting peacefully, yet people around you aren't, you kind of get mixed in.

You are a smart guy. You can understand how that happens.

Only often what actually happened is the rioting, which I think the vast majority of people know is wrong, didn't happen until the end of the protests at night. And the vast majority of the protests had no violence at all. For some reason all you have to do is add a burning car and all of the attention focuses on you.

We have been having them on a daily basis here in Nashville and still do. But there isn't any violence to report so you never hear about them except on the local level. There were peaceful protests being carried out all across this nation. Yet the focus was only on the violence.

You do realize your "one bad apple" analogy works the same way with police brutality as well, right? Only as we saw with George Floyd, bad apples often hang out in groups.

why did they send border patrol, though?

i dont get that.

They are still law enforcement agents. They aren't restricted to arresting illegals entering the country.

If things are stretched thin, you do what you have to do.

You were in the Army. You worried about Army MP's as an example. Not that you were a bad guy, just saying.

You are wrong if you don't think the Navy Shore Patrol couldn't arrest you if you were acting up.

They might have to turn you over, but the arrest would still be binding.

An Army Judge wouldn't throw out the charges because you were arrested by a Navy Shoreman.

They work together.

j/c:

Here is a link to a search page that has many articles and videos about the situation in Portland. People can make up their own minds as to whether or not that has been violence and destruction of public property. You don't have to take my word for it. Or Pit's word, either. Look for yourself. Rocks, knives, ball bearings, molotov cocktails, glass jars, etc were hurled at police and government buildings. But yeah, they are so peaceful and law-enforcement are the bad guys. Fires have been started which have damaged public property. They're so peaceful. Pffffttttt......the left and their lies.


https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=riots+in+portland

As they should be branded criminals! They are not protesters but anarchists and they need to be brought to their knees like the psychopaths they truly are.

Does that break down the few days before Trump sent the goons in?

For people whose political stand has always been about states rights, they seem eager to see the federal government step in when it suits their political desires.

So many things to unpack on with this thread - not the least of which is the Savior in Chief who wants to lump everyone and everyone from 'the left' into one category and call them all liars, extremists and state they are all for violent protests.... Others claiming that all protests in Portland are violent and that there is NO peaceful protesting or peaceful protesters .... ugh

I'd be interested to hear more from Portland assuming he has the inside skinny on what exactly is happening on the ground -with a realistic insight that isn't filtered through a Fox or MSNBC lens .....

But it appears you have 'agents' running around randomly picking up US Citizens without any identification or explanation. And apparently - because some people are willing to have other people's rights trampled on because graffiti is so egregious - this is all acceptable in America 2020... and it's also ok that one guy was shot in the head for ?? Not doing much of anything.

Then you have the issue of whether - when the Mayor and Governor are actively telling the Federal Govt they do not want ANY assistance .... it's okay for Trump/Barr to send in the goons so they can score political points and make head lines to appeal to their base. Note, the federal agents are making the situation worse and not better .... so go figure.

The actual film footage of the incident shown a man holding a boom box over his head. That's all he was doing when he was shot with a "non lethal" round which had him in critical condition.

GOOD!

un·wield·y

difficult to carry or move because of its size, shape, or weight.

de·ter·mined

having made a firm decision and being resolved not to change it.

Maybe those two words do not mean what you think they mean?

so all these conservatives, who are always whining about rights and freedoms, are cool with unidentified federal agents throwing protestors into unmarked cars and taking them where ever, but wearing a mask is somehow considered tyranny and government overreach....

this is why i have fun ruthlessly mocking you conservative/right wingers. because you absolutely deserve it.

They're all about the constitution and states rights until they disagree with people about something.

That was back to the quote of the article by Emily what's her face so take it up with her!

I was bolding that both local and federal police are standing against this protest, and not as the gist of the opinion would suggest, (from the longer, wordier, filled with propaganda article), are the feds doing it in spite of the local authroities' wishes.

You only call it propaganda because you don't like what it says.

It was a quote you pointed out in your post, not mine.

They weren't unidentified, they didn't take them "where ever", and the wearing of masks is a different subject.