The damage being done to the human lungs by the harsh chemicals in tear gas is more than can be tolerated in an environment as dangerous as the one with SARS-CoV-2. The tear gas cause behaviors that result in RISK. They remove their masks and cough spewing potential contaminants into the air. The police in their use of these measures are spreading the virus. Enough. Stop.
July 24, 2020
By Dick Vanderheart
Law enforcement officers in Oregon (click here) would be banned from using tear gas, constrained in how they could use other crowd-control weapons, and required to prominently display their names and ID numbers, under bills that might be considered in a forthcoming special session.
Those proposals are included in concepts released in recent days by the legislative committee convened to take up police reforms in the state. They come as police use of force in Portland has become a national focal point, with federal law enforcement officers freely deploying tear gas and other munitions against demonstrators night after night. Many of the same crowd-control tactics have been employed by Portland police in protests that are now stretching into their ninth week....
Fighting the good fight.
July 28, 2020
By Rebecca Ellis
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon (click here) have asked a judge to hold federal law enforcement in contempt for allegedly violating an order that protected legal observers and journalists covering nightly protests against racism and police violence in Portland.
In a Tuesday filing, attorneys with the ACLU also asked a judge to order Chad Wolf, acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary, to appear before the court and explain why the federal officers deployed by the agency should not be sanctioned for violating the temporary restraining order.
Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon issued a temporary restraining order on officers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service sent to Portland to guard federal buildings.
The new restrictions barred federal officers from arresting, threatening to arrest or using physical force against someone who they should “reasonably know” is a journalist or a legal observer unless they have probable cause to believe that person has committed a crime. Under the order, journalists and observers were not required to follow orders to disperse nor could a federal officer tell them to stop documenting the protest....
