A crowd gathered outside the home of Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, to protest the recent and controversial arrest of protesters in Portland, Oregon. This is what you should know.
A protester in Alexandria holding an Abolish DHS sign outside the home of Acting DHS Director Chad Wolf. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
A group of protesters in front of Chad Wolf’s house in Alexandria. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
Protesters gathered at the home of acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf on Sunday. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
Protesters walked Sunday to the Alexandria home of DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
A protester’s coronavirus focused on the poster Sunday. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
Protesters gathered in Alexandria on Sunday to express anger at the way DHS treats Americans in Oregon. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
A poster of protesters in Alexandria outside the home of Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf. (WTOP / Andrea Cambron)
WTOP / Andrea Cambron
A crowd gathered outside the home of Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, in Alexandria, Virginia, on Sunday afternoon to protest the recent and controversial arrest of protesters in Portland, Oregon.
The group also continued to shed light on police use of force in the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and how communities have treated other minority communities.
ShutDownDC organized the protest on Facebook. The group holds Wolf responsible for unidentified federal agents who forcefully detain protesters and use chemical deterrents such as pepper spray and tear gas to disperse crowds.
Protesters gathered outside the home of Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf this afternoon @WTOP pic.twitter.com/zmEO4dwAGi
– AndreaCambronWTOP (@AndreaC_atWTOP) July 26, 2020
As part of a national call to action, the group met at Wolf’s home in Alexandria, demanding that National Security troops be withdrawn from all cities.
Grassroots Alexandria’s Jonathan Krall said human rights abuses in Portland should never have happened.
“DHS’s behavior is extremely concerning,” he said. “There should be due process. There should be no people picked up without paperwork. There shouldn’t be people picked up without documentation of what’s going on. “
Krall said he wants transparency within the police departments, especially the police force in Alexandria, where he lives.
“They don’t give receipts to the people they arrest and question, and we would like to see that change,” Krall said.
The crowd marched through the quiet neighborhood singing “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace.”
On the ShutDownDC Facebook page, the group calls for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be repealed and all persons detained by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office to be released.
The protest remained peaceful, and activists called on other community members to unite to defend black and minority communities against the actions of the Trump administration.
Protests in Portland have recently intensified due to the use of force by officers in the crowds. Earlier this week, Trump threatened to send federal agents to more cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, and Kansas City.
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