Law enforcement officers have used sharpshooters to maim people, swept protesters away in unmarked cars, and brutally attacked journalists, legal observers, and medics.
By Abdullah Hasan
Day after day, night after night, protesters have been taking to the streets since the police killing of George Floyd. Led by local Black activists and grassroots groups, they’re chanting, singing, shouting, kneeling, marching, and even laying on the ground to demand justice for the many Black lives that have been taken by police. Everyone — from parents, grandparents, kids, and more — are showing up.
But Donald Trump from day one has expressed extreme hostility towards the Black Lives Matter movement. He has called on NFL owners to retaliate against players who dared to kneel in protest, said it was “terrible” to ask why Black Americans are still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country, compared police killing and injuring Black people to golfers who “choke,” and has called for law enforcement to “dominate” protesters demanding that our legal system 
value Black lives. He has even encouraged police to abuse people in their custody.
As the movement and calls for change gain broader support from more Americans and people around the world, protesters are being met by even more brutality — in many cases by the same police departments whose racism and brutality they are protesting. Police and federal agents are spreading fear and panic in communities, threatening lives, and relentlessly attacking people simply exercising their First Amendment right to protest police racism and brutality. Law enforcement at all levels haven’t even spared U.S. military veterans, journalists, legal observers, and medics. This assault on the First Amendment has only escalated tensions, and emboldened white supremacists to spread terror and hate.
The ACLU is taking to the streets, legislatures and courts nationwide to demand an end to police violence and accountability for rights violations. Here is just a partial running list of federal and local law enforcement abuses against individuals exercising their First Amendment rights in Portland, Oregon:
- Federal agents with the U.S. Marshals Service brutally attacked and gassed U.S. Navy veteran Christopher David, who went to the protest to oppose police brutality and ask federal agents why they weren’t upholding their oath to the Constitution. The ACLU of Oregon is now suing on his behalf.
Our client Christopher David, a US Navy veteran, asked federal agents in Portland why they weren’t upholding their oath to the Constitution.
They beat and gassed him in response.
He’ll now have to get his answer in court.
- Unidentified federal agents in military-style uniforms abducted ACLU of Oregon client Mark Pettibone from a sidewalk, then forced him into an unmarked minivan and drove him away for no apparent reason. The agents were later identified as belonging to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. Pettibone explains how he “still [hasn’t] fully come to terms with what it means that I was kidnapped by [his] government.”
- DHS officers violently attacked Nichol Denison, a U.S. Air Force veteran and member of the Portland “Wall of Moms,” while she was attending a Black Lives Matter protest. Without any warning, officers began launching cans of tear gas at her and other women beside her through gaps in the fence. Denison was hit repeatedly and was then struck far more forcefully in the head by a tear gas cannister that appeared to have been thrown from in front of her. She suffered a three-inch gash that was gushing blood, had to be taken to the VA hospital, where she received 11 stitches.
- Without warning and for no reason whatsoever, federal officers shot James McNulty, who was attending a protest for the first time, four times: three times with rubber bullets and one time with a pepper ball. At the emergency room, McNulty learned that one of the munitions that struck him in the back had not only gone through his clothes, but pieced his skin, fat layer, and at least one layer of muscle.
- Maureen Healy was attending a Black Lives Matter protest with her child when, without warning, federal officers began firing flash bangs, impact munitions, and tear gas cannisters into the crowd. Healy began to turn and run, but was hit in the head with a projectile that felt metallic and the size of a small can. She started bleeding profusely and called for help. While some volunteer medics attended to her injuries, federal officers continued to fire tear gas into the area, forcing them all to move.
- Federal officers shot Donovan LaBella, a 26-year-old protester, in the head with impact munitions. At the time LaBella was shot, he was standing across the street from the Hatfield Courthouse protesting while holding a music speaker above his head. He suffered severe injuries, arriving at the hospital in critical condition with a skull fracture. He subsequently underwent facial reconstruction surgery for his injuries.
- Mac Smiff was attending a Black Lives Matter protest when federal officers shot him on the right side of his face with an indelible hard-cap paintball, just below the line of his helmet and just above a face mask he was wearing. The impact of the shot and resulting shock caused Smiff to fall to the ground. Smiff was partly blinded by the paint in his face and had a large contusion on his head. He received treatment from the volunteer medics, who told him that he may have suffered a concussion.
- Duston Obermeyer, a decorated USMC veteran with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and a co-founder of the “Wall of Vets,” was attending the Portland protests for the first time when, for no reason, a federal officer tried to strike Obermeyer. An officer pointed an automatic weapon in Obermeyer’s face while another officer shot him at point-blank range with an orange chemical irritant. One of the officers also struck Obermeyer in the face and chest with a baton. The gas was severely debilitating, and it took Duston days to recover from the gassing.
- Portland police tear-gassed reporters Alex Zielinski and Blair Stenvick of the Portland Mercury, many other journalists and legal observers, and physically assaulted and arrested KBOO reporter Cory Elia, even though he identified himself as press.
- Police hit freelance journalist Sergio Olmos with a truncheon and threatened to tear gas him because he was recording them. His press pass was clearly visible. Police also attacked journalist Donovan Farley with a wooden bat and sprayed him in the face with tear gas or pepper spray while he was trying to walk away from them. He had identified himself as press and was filming several police officers kneeling on a protester’s neck, Derek Chauvin-style.
- Portland police slammed reporter Beth Nakamura of The Oregonian in the back with a truncheon. She had her hands up, press pass in hand, and was saying “press, press.” The officer responded: “I don’t give a fuck.” The same day, police ordered reporter Zane Sparling of The Portland Tribune to leave an area where they were enforcing a dispersal order against protesters. Sparling responded that he was media. The officer responded: “I don’t give a shit! Go!” He then shoved Sparling into a wall, and another officer shot a crowd-control munition at his heel.
- When the police noticed journalist Brian Conley using his camera to record their action, officers launched at least one flash-bang grenade directly at him. He was nowhere near any protesters and there was no other target at which the police could have been aiming. The police later charged at him after telling him that it did not matter if he was media. Conley fell over while running away and only narrowly avoided a traumatic head injury.
- Portland police repeatedly sprayed large groups of protesters with tear gas from all sides in what is known as a “kettling” or “killbox” military strategy. Killboxing protesters cannot disperse them. Its sole purpose is to inflict pain and suffering.
- Portland police have bull-rushed crowds of people, shoving protesters to the ground, and hitting them with clubs and other instruments. They continue to do this night-after-night.
- Federal agents too have been deliberately attacking journalists and legal observers at protests, even after a court issued a temporary restraining order barring them from such unconstitutional attacks. A federal agent shot reporter Jonathan Levinson while he was trying to take a photo. As Levinson looked back and forth between his camera and the agent, trying to focus his lens, he saw the agent raise his weapon, deliberately point it at him, and fire several rounds. Levinson was wearing an OPB press pass with his name, his photograph, the OPB logo, and the word “MEDIA.” He was also wearing a helmet that said “PRESS” in large letters on the front and back and carrying two professional cameras with large, bulky lenses.
- A federal agent also shot journalist Brian Conley when he was trying to video an arrest. Conley yelled that he was press, over and over. Suddenly, without warning, federal agents shot him multiple times with impact munitions in his chest and his foot. An agent also threw a tear-gas canister directly at Conley, where it exploded above his head. He was carrying a large Micro Four Thirds camera with a telephoto lens and external 20W LED light mounted on it and was wearing a photographer’s vest that said “PRESS” on it as well as a helmet that said “PRESS.”
- Federal agents shot clearly-marked reporter Rebecca Ellis and separately prevented her from documenting their dispersal of protesters.
- Federal agents shot clearly-marked legal observer Haley Nicholson in her chest, just above her heart, from four feet away. Impact munitions should not be used at distances of less than 15 feet or above the waist.
- Federal agents deliberately sprayed toxic chemicals into the faces of multiple clearly-marked legal observers, including Bruce Knivlia and Kat Mahoney, at point blank range. They were all clearly identified in blue ACLU vests and green NLG hats. They also shot photojournalist Kathryn Elsesser, who was also clearly marked with “PRESS” on her helmet.
- Daniel Hollis, a videographer for VICE News, was wearing a helmet with the word “PRESS” on it and operating large, professional video-recording equipment when federal agents launched a barrage of munitions at Hollis and the members of the press around him, hitting Hollis near his groin and in his lower back.
- Federal agents and Portland police have also brutally attacked protest medics treating injured protesters and individuals. ACLU of Oregon clients Christopher Wise, Savannah Guest, and others have suffered numerous injuries from law enforcement deliberately firing rubber bullets, tear-gas, pepper spray, batons, and flash bangs at protest medics providing aid.
Police and the president’s militarized federal agents are brutally attacking volunteer street medics in Portland.
We’re witnessing similarly alarming and dangerous tactics being deployed in Kenosha, Wisconsin as people take to the streets to demand accountability and transformational change within the police and sheriff’s departments. This comes after police attempted to murder Jacob Blake by shooting him seven times in the back, fraternized with heavily-armed white supremacist militias during protests, and then let a white man who shot and killed two protesters walk away from the scene of the shooting.
There are multiple reports of law enforcement in unmarked vehicles with tinted windows and officers making arrests in Kenosha without identifying themselves or wearing insignia to identify their law enforcement agency. Kenosha police have also indiscriminately fired chemical and other weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and pepper balls at protesters. We’re also receiving reports of protesters being arrested for violating curfew, and having possessions, like their cell phones, confiscated and not returned to them.
Notably, all of this is taking place in a county that has a history of severe racial disparities in policing; Black people in Kenosha County are 6.9 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people — almost double the national racial disparity in such arrests.
This is a fight for our democracy. The answer to protests over police brutality cannot be more brutality. We are unleashing the full firepower of the ACLU to defend our rights — in Portland, in Kenosha, and nationwide. We won’t be silenced.
Abdullah Hasan is the Communications Strategist for the ACLU
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There’s also protester/rioter/anarchist violence that the mainstream media and the democrats won’t talk about.
So basically you didn’t even read the article, just read the headline, whipped out your “both sides” commentary, and finished your coffee.
KO, I think DS is on to us 😉
LOL, I’m on to them too.
They don’t seem to like it.
So Don, you only want to hear one side of the story?
I read the ONE-SIDED article. I’m offering some balance. Democrats and the leftist media are trying to portray the cops as the bad guys while the poor little picked on leftist BLM, ANTIFA and other anarchists create mayhem.
yeah, someone could write on article from the ‘conservative’ point-of-view regarding prioters, and the article would be just as true and accurate. Lasers, bricks, milkshakes, gas, fireworks, even guns. List of examples.
Checkma . . . . . I mean STALE-mate. Seemingly a permanent state of affairs as long as each side demonizes the other’s extremists and ignores their own.
What about the white supremacist / right wing militia violence, much of it instigated by off duty and even undercover police? This is well documented (my son has sent my many links with videos showing this)? The amount of violence by legitimate protesters is quite small relative to the actual protests, and Biden has come out several times condemning the violence that has occurred. The bottom line though is that we cannot shut down the large scale of legitimate protests for the small number of violent incidents.
BTW, where were you during the Charlottesville demonstrations? Were you the front line calling for suppression of the neo Nazi groups present there fomenting violence?
Only when his party decided it was politically advantageous because Biden’s numbers were plummeting. Up to then Biden was hide and silent. Kamala Harris was even advocating for bail donations to get the arrested rioters released that were in custody.
Well that settles it then.
There’s an implication in this statement that articles on here are worth reading in the first place.
So why are you still reading them?
You’re assuming I did.
There’s an implication in your comment that articles on here are not worth reading. So, I searched “Oertel” on the site and got over 1,900 hits, sorted by date, going back only to late October of 2019. Seems to me you waste a hell of a lot of your time on things not worth doing.
As to your original comment, virtually all media—mainstream, left, middle, and centrist—have covered rioters and vandals far in excess of what their numbers would warrant, compared to coverage of overwhelmingly peaceful protests. It is true, however, that Trump does consistently dodge and deflect questions about police abuses, but readily comes to the defense of white supremacists (e,g., Charlottesville) and murdering vigilantes (e.g., Kenosha).
I didn’t realize that one could search that way, as I’m not seeing that kind of search feature.
Regardless, most of my comments were the result of repetitive challenges from others, regarding growth and development issues, as well as the oversized school district. (Which is ultimately related to that issue, as well.)
The latter really drew some heated exchanges, from others. You could really see the “investment” that some had in that status quo. That really surprised me, until I thought about the reasons for it.
But no, I still haven’t read this article. I did skim through it, and found it pretty worthless. Probably some truth in there, but I don’t have a dog in this fight.
That should read: “left, right, and centrist.”
I got cut-off, when trying to note that the comment above must be number 1,901 for me. And by adding this one, it’s now 1,902!
With 4 under an article that I still haven’t read. Though if you look at the thread, only one of those was not a result of me responding to others.
So if anyone wants to make it 5 (and 1,903 total), have at it. But if you choose to continue that, it might be you who’s wasting your time.
😉
Keep posting Ron. You offer some balance to the many one-sided Vanguard articles.
Some don’t seem to like that, but oh well.
The fact that you admittedly participate in discussions of articles you haven’t read explains a lot.
6, and 1,904.
But seriously, sometimes I jump right to the comments (by others). After skimming through the titles and articles.
Much of the time, the articles are repetitive, anyway. (Not this particular one, from what I can see.) But, I can already see that it’s quite biased.
Would you care to initiate 7, and 1,905? (But in doing so, this thread might become even less interesting than the article – if it hasn’t already.)
I’d suggest commenting on the article, instead. If you’re so inclined.
“Maureen Healy was attending a Black Lives Matter protest with her child when, without warning, federal officers began firing flash bangs, impact munitions, and tear gas cannisters into the crowd. ”
It doesn’t say how old her child is but I know I wouldn’t bring a child to a protest under current conditions.
My first thought too.
Free (government-provided) childcare, for those who want to go out to protest the government? 😉
7, and 1,905. And this one was my own “fault”.
Ron, you have over 12,000 posts on the Vanguard. I suggest you let this side topic go.
About as wise as bringing a kid to Burning Man
“Notably, all of this is taking place in a county that has a history of severe racial disparities in policing; Black people in Kenosha County are 6.9 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people — almost double the national racial disparity in such arrests.”
The cops in Kenosha have been notorious for at least 80 years that I know of. Located between Milwaukee and Chicago the cops in Kenosha have always treated minorities badly as a form of deterrence.
When Trump talked about how protestors were treated in the old days he might have been thinking about Kenosha unless he was thinking more about the days of the Zoot Suit Riots, Gone With The Wind or Emmitt Till. Of course some of you might think this is what making America Great again looks like.
My father and two friends, Allen Dorfman and Skinny Dugan, were arrested in Kenosha in the 1930’s when they were teenagers. They held them until his boyhood friend Allen Dorfman called his father and got them all out in about one minute. Connections matter in places like Kenosha.
If you want a wild life story look up Allen Dorfman. His death was portrayed in the movie “Casino.”
My brother and my cousin both contracted Polio in Kenosha in the early 1950’s.
When I was little my biggest fears were the Russians and Polio. Today the virus de jour has changed but Russians remain the same. As the French say “plus ça change, plus c’est pariel”.
The [edit] president or pervert in chief as I like to call him [edit] is trying to engender a race war to make his seizure of all governing powers seem legitimate. He and his nefarious supporters may get more than they’re bargaining for.