SALEM, Oregon (AP) – The Navy veteran is passively in Portland, Oregon, amid tear gas. One of the militarized federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump hits him with full force. With both hands. Five times.
Under the assault, Christopher David, 53, looks like a redwood tree, impervious to shock. But in a video filmed by a journalist, another officer, in green military camouflage, helmet, and gas mask, sprays David in the face with what appears to be pepper spray.
The video of the Saturday night incident went viral. This has been reported by news media in the United States and worldwide.
Federal police beat protesters with baton, use pepper spray and tear gas outside courthouse in Portland pic.twitter.com/VX2xTVaaYq
– Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) July 19, 2020
Today, David, who suffered two broken bones in his hand, is a reluctant symbol of the protests taking place in the largest city in Oregon and the federal response to it. Militarized officers from a handful of agencies have been using tear gas, flash blasts, pepper spray, “less lethal” impact weapons and other ammunition to disperse crowds.
“It is not about being beaten up. It’s about refocusing on the original intent of all these protests, which is Black Lives Matter, ”David said in a telephone interview Monday with The Associated Press.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has deployed officers to Portland, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident that David recounted. DHS said in a statement about Saturday night’s events that some of the protesters were “violent anarchists” who had thrown objects at federal officials, including fireworks and paint bags, and attempted to barricade officers inside the building. federal.
Some acts of vandalism, including graffiti, have occurred in the Portland protests, now on its 53rd day, and federal authorities say they have responded to protect property and help restore order. A protester was arrested after allegedly assaulting a federal officer with a hammer.
But people peacefully protesting police brutality and racism, including a county commissioner and religious clergy, have been targeted by riot ammunition. A protester was hit in the head by impact ammunition, breaking bones in his face and head. Some were snatched from the streets by federal officials and put into unmarked vehicles.
David, a graduate of the US Naval Academy and a Navy veteran, was so disturbed by what he had heard that he arrived at a protest site outside the federal building in downtown Portland on Saturday night.
He put on a sweatshirt with “Marina” emblazoned across his chest and a Navy cap, thinking that federal officers would be, like him, a military veteran. He thought they would listen as he reminded them “that you swear an oath to the Constitution; you do not swear an oath to a particular person.”
“What they were doing was unconstitutional,” said David. “Sometimes I’m concerned that people take the oath of office or the oath to the Constitution, and it’s just a set of words that don’t mean anything. They don’t really feel the weight of those words in their hearts.”
There was no talk. Federal officers, with all their tactical equipment, left the federal building.
“They ran out on this phalanx, and then they collided with a group of protesters at the street intersection and shot them down. They went out to fight, ”David said. An officer pointed a semi-automatic weapon at David’s chest, he said, and the video shows another pushing him back as he tried to speak to officers.
“I took a couple of steps back, straightened up, and then stood there with my arms by my side,” David recalled.
An officer started hitting David with the stick. When he doesn’t fall or flinch, another officer sprays him in the face. David then steps back a few steps while making an obscene gesture.
“They are thugs and thugs,” said David. “I couldn’t tactically recognize anything they were trying to do that was remotely related to crowd control. I thought it was a gang of guys with sticks. ”
David will need reconstructive surgery with pins and plates on his shattered ring finger. A bone in his hand was also broken.
He will not protest again.
“My ex-wife and daughter would kill me if I did that. They are so mad at me for doing it in the first place because they beat me up, ”he said. “I am not a redwood tree. I am an overweight 53-year-old man. ”
