Federal agents fired tear gas at protesters again and made arrests when several hundred people demonstrated in downtown Portland late Wednesday and early Thursday, hours after state leaders announced that federal agents would soon leave the cityCBS Portland affiliate KOIN-TV reports.
It was the 62nd consecutive night of protests there.
Gov. Kate Brown said early Wednesday morning that all Customs and Border Protection officers and ICE would leave Portland and be replaced by the Oregon State Police starting Thursday. But Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the agents would stay “until we are certain that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked.”
Federal agents issued their first warning of the night shortly before 11 p.m., warning people to leave the fence around the courthouse alone or face possible arrest. A few minutes later, they began to deploy tear gas and crowd control ammunition.
Some people could be seen climbing the fence and re-leaving at around 11:30 pm Federal agents fired another round of tear gas and stun grenades, but a large crowd remained smashed against the fence, undeterred.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Federal authorities declared an illegal assembly around 11:40 pm and asked “peaceful protesters” to leave the area.
At one point, some protesters with American flags and veterans with placards came face to face in a silent confrontation with federal agents.
Christine VanOsdol was one of the vets who refused to move when officers approached. She said she is a veteran of the US Army Desert Storm and a doctor of occupational therapy.
“I am here to defend the Constitution of the United States and for the right of people to freedom of expression and to defend here and ask for better from our leaders,” he told KOIN. “This is heartbreaking”.
Air Force veteran Jiri Rivers told KOIN that seeing federal agents on the streets of Portland interacting with protesters “fills him with anger.”
At approximately 12:30 a.m., officers held someone face down on the ground and handcuffed him before dragging him through a garage door at the rear of the court building, KOIN says. Moments later, they arrested a second person around the corner, leading them through a garage door on the north side of the building.
Around 1 a.m., a Seattle man received at least two less lethal rounds on his legs, at least one of which was embedded in his shin, reports KOIN.
At 2 a.m. there were only about 100 people left in the area near the courthouse. People in the crowd occasionally jumped over the fence or threw things on it, causing additional discharges of officers’ pepperballs.
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