US federal agents reverted to using tear gas in an attempt to disperse a large crowd of protesters outside federal court in the city of Portland, Oregon, after several fireworks were fired at the building during a Black Lives Matter rally.
Thousands of people gathered Friday night on the streets of Portland hours after a US judge rejected Oregon’s request to restrict the actions of federal agents during protests that rocked the city and confronted the local officials against the Trump administration.
A few hundred people, most wearing masks and many helmets, gathered near a fountain before marching to the Hatfield Federal Courthouse, where federal agents were stationed.
Starting at 9 p.m. (04:00 GMT Saturday), the crowd pressed shoulder to shoulder, filled the area and spilled onto the streets as they sang “Black Lives Matter” and “Feds go home” to the sound of the drums.
As the night wore on, protesters shook the fence surrounding the pitch and fired several fireworks at it. Minutes later, federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump fired tear gas into the crowd to stop the riots.
Agents have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent.
Federal agents arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice in Portland [John Rudoff/Anadolu]
Legal challenges
The fighting in Portland has further inflamed the nation’s political tensions and triggered a crisis beyond the limits of federal power as Trump moves to send U.S. officials to other Democrat-led cities as part of his new strategy for reelection of “law and order” after the coronavirus collapsed the economy.
Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state’s attorney general alleged in his lawsuit that some people had been taken off the streets in unmarked vehicles.
Federal District Judge Michael Mosman said the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the lawsuit was “very unusual with a particular set of rules.”
Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents; not for injuries that have already happened, but to prevent injuries by future federal officials.
That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not demonstrate its validity in the case, Mosman wrote.
Legal experts who reviewed the case before the decision warned that the judge could dismiss the case.
“The federal government acted in violation of the rights of those people and probably acted in violation of the constitution in the sense of exercising powers reserved to the states, but just because the federal government acts in ways that exceed its authority does not mean the state has an injury, “said Michael Dorf, professor of constitutional law at Cornell University.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat who received tear gas this week when he joined protesters, said the federal presence is exacerbating a tense situation and has repeatedly told them to leave.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf denied that federal agents were inflaming the situation in Portland, saying Wheeler legitimized criminality by joining the protesters, whom Trump has called “anarchists and agitators.”
.
