(Los Angeles) Portland mayor Ted Wheeler on Sunday again called for the departure of federal law enforcement personnel deployed in the city in the northwestern United States, saying they were fueling the violence that have shaken the city for almost two months.
Posted on 19 July 2020 at 11 h 28
France Media Agency
“We have dozens if not hundreds of federal agents deployed in our city” and they are contributing to “seriously deteriorate the situation,” he told CNN.
“Their presence causes more violence and more vandalism, it does not help at all (to calm) the situation. They are not welcome and we want them to leave, “said the Democratic mayor.
PHOTO CRAIG MITCHELLDYER, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ted Wheeler
Federal agents have been dispatched to put an end to the demonstrations organized in front of the city court to protest against police brutality and racism.
The rallies, interspersed with clashes with the police, are regularly dispersed with tear gas.
Protesters also attempted to set fire to the town's Police Association headquarters overnight from Saturday to Sunday, police said on Twitter.
President Donald Trump defended this deployment of troops on Twitter on Sunday.
“We must protect federal buildings and our people,” he wrote, blasting local “missing” leaders who “have lost control over anarchists and agitators for months.”
The protests began after the death in late May of George Floyd, an African-American suffocated below the knee of a white policeman in Minneapolis.
Anger has redoubled after a series of arrests of protesters in the streets of the city by police, without providing a reason.
“People are literally kidnapped in unmarked rental vehicles,” said Ted Wheeler. “They do not know who puts them in the vehicles, (the police) do not identify themselves. In my opinion, it is unconstitutional. ”
Human rights activists and US politicians strongly denounced the arrests on Friday, and state prosecutor Ellen Rosenblum said she would press charges against the “fear tactics” of federal forces.
The Minister of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, acknowledged the arrests on Friday, explaining that they were carried out in the streets to protect federal agents and take demonstrators suspected of violence “to a safe place to be questioned” .
“We will arrest them in court, and if we locate them elsewhere, we will arrest them elsewhere,” he said on public radio NPR.
