The Federal Protection Service will not use its command center starting Saturday night, according to Portland police.
During Friday night’s protests, Portland officials and other law enforcement officers, including those from federal agencies, worked together to respond to the dispersed crowds, Portland police said in a statement. Federal officials worked under their own supervision and direction, according to the statement.
Seven people were arrested after protesters fenced in a fence and blocked the federal justice center, blocked streets, refused to disperse, and threw projectiles at officers, police said.
The United States Attorney for the District of Oregon requested an investigation into the incident involving federal authorities.
The request is specifically directed at Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel who have been caught in multiple videos arresting protesters and placing them in unmarked SUVs.
Ongoing protests in Portland
Protesters in Portland have been protesting racial inequality and police brutality for the past 50 nights, US Attorney Billy J. Williams said in a statement. Federal authorities have protected the United States Courthouse Mark O. Hatfield and, at times, the interaction between protesters and the police has turned violent. Last weekend, a protester was seriously injured after the man was shot in the head with impact ammunition.
The Oregon Governor and Portland Mayor demanded the withdrawal of federal officials, and a US senator joined them in condemning the arrests.
“Authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters,” US Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat representing Oregon, tweeted.
Merkley also tweeted a video of that arrest showing two masked and camouflaged individuals wearing generic “police” patches, detaining a person dressed in a black suit and placing them in an unmarked van before leaving.
The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has admitted to being one of the agencies involved in the arrest of protesters.
“Violent anarchists have organized events in Portland over the past few weeks with the deliberate intention of damaging and destroying federal property, as well as injuring federal agents and agents,” the agency said in a statement to CNN. “These criminal actions will not be tolerated.”
The statement said CBP officers suspected the person seen in the Merkley video tweeted “attacks on federal agents or destruction of federal property,” and that they moved the person to a safer location for questioning after seeing “a large crowd and violent. ” move towards “them”. CNN was unable to independently verify what happened before or after the video was recorded.
Portland Mayor: “It’s not the America we want”
CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan tweeted that the agency will continue to arrest “violent criminals who are destroying federal property.” He also said that CBP personnel are clearly marked as federal officials and have unique identifiers.
“You will not see names on their uniforms because these same violent criminals use this information to attack them and their families, putting both of them at risk. As Acting Commissioner, I will not let that happen!” Morgan tweeted.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler demanded Friday that President Donald Trump send federal agents home.
“This is not the America we want. This is not the Portland we want,” Wheeler said at a press conference. “We are demanding that the President withdraw these additional troops that he sent to our city. He is not helping to contain or reduce the situation, he is obviously having exactly the opposite impact.”
Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, who visited the city on Thursday, defended his officers’ actions and said in a tweet: “DHS officers were assaulted with lasers and frozen water bottles by violent criminals trying to shoot down federal property. 2 officers were injured. “
“Our men and women in uniform are patriots,” he said in another tweet featuring uniformed officers who appeared to be similar to those shown in the video earlier in the week.
In addition to federal prosecutor Williams’ call for an investigation, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a complaint in federal court Friday against DHS. The lawsuit asks a judge to declare the actions of federal officials illegal and a court order requiring federal officials to identify themselves and their agency before arresting someone in Oregon, and prohibits them from arresting someone without cause. probable or a court order.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown described the arrests as “a blatant abuse of power by the federal government” in a tweet Thursday.
Brown tweeted that he told Wolf “that the federal government should remove all federal officials from our streets.”
“His response showed me that he is on a mission to provoke confrontations for political ends,” he tweeted. “It is putting both Oregon residents and local law enforcement at risk.”
CNN’s Geneva Sands contributed to this report.
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