(Los Angeles) An official investigation was opened Thursday by the US Department of Justice into the highly controversial action of federal police officers in Portland, where clashes pitted law enforcement against police almost every night. anti-racist protesters.
Posted on 23 July 2020 at 20 h 15
France Media Agency
The mayor of Portland himself, Ted Wheeler, was sprayed with tear gas on Wednesday evening as he met thousands of people protesting in particular against institutional racism and police violence.
PHOTO BETH NAKAMURA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was sprayed with tear gas on Wednesday during a demonstration.
“I have not seen anything that justifies” this use of tear gas, he said, speaking of a “disproportionate reaction” from federal agents, whose deployment was ordered in certain cities of the country by President Donald Trump to, according to the latter, restore “law and order”.
Much more serious according to many American citizens or elected officials, numerous videos published on social networks over the past week show these federal agents in uniform, clad in military equipment, appearing from unmarked vehicles to question demonstrators.
The movement began more than fifty days ago, as elsewhere in the country, after the death of black forty-something George Floyd at the end of May under the knee of a white policeman.
The mobilization in Portland, traditionally very anti-establishment, has only grown since the arrival of federal forces in the city.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who oversees all internal Justice Department investigations, said in a statement Thursday that he had officially launched investigations into the events in Portland.
Still at the request of members of the Congress, a separate investigation was also opened on the intervention of the police on 1 st last June in Washington to disperse a demonstration that was held near the White House, an operation for which President Trump had already suffered a rain of reviews.
These investigations will “examine the role and responsibilities of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement officers in their response to protests and public unrest in Washington DC and Portland, Oregon, during the past two months, ”says Michael Horowitz.
The inspection will in particular review “the training and instructions” given to the police under the Department of Justice, their compliance with the rules governing their identification and their intervention, as well as instructions concerning “ the use of riot »ammunition, tear gas and general force.
“Rapid Deployment Force” 89184577
The investigators will coordinate with their counterparts from the Department of Homeland Security, whose services have also announced the opening of an internal investigation, said Horowitz.
Several legal proceedings have been launched by plaintiffs contesting the mobilization of federal forces in Portland, accused by some of behaving like paramilitary commandos by making summary arrests.
According to documents submitted to an Oregon court by the head of this “rapid deployment force”, these men in camouflage fatigues intervening in Portland would come from three contingents of the Department of Homeland Security: the Service Federal Protection Officer, Immigration Police (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP).
Members of the Marshals service, which reports to the Department of Justice and is responsible for protecting federal judges and courts, complete their staff, which amounts to 114 in total.
Elected officials welcomed the opening of investigations, demanding to shed light on the use of federal forces for according to them “repress, gas and strike peaceful demonstrators and American citizens exercising their right” to freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution.
“Congress will continue to defeat this rash government, but it is of the utmost importance that these independent general inspections get to the bottom of President Trump's use of force against his own citizens,” three officials write Democrats in a statement.
