Portland Mayor Tear Gassed - Chicago Activists Sue Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler reacts after being exposed to tear gas fired by federal officers while attending a protest against police brutality and racial injustice in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on July 22, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. State and city elected officials have called for the federal officers to leave Portland as clashes between protesters and federal police continue to escalate.
(Bloomberg) — The mayor of Portland, Oregon, was tear gassed by federal agents while standing at a fence near the city’s federal courthouse during another night of protest against the presence of agents sent by President Donald Trump. The Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler, didn’t leave his spot at the front while the protest raged on and demonstrators lit a large fire between the fence and the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, the Associated Press reported. It wasn’t immediately clear if federal agents knew Wheeler was in the crowed when they used the tear gas.
Black Lives Matter and several other civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent federal agents from patrolling the streets of Chicago. Citing claims that federal agents abused protesters in Portland, the groups said they fear they will be arrested or beaten without cause during their planned protests this weekend, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago. Portland protesters said federal agents didn’t identify themselves.

Read Also: Portland Police Association Office Set On Fire Amid Protests

Trump said Wednesday that the expansion of federal law enforcement in Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will address rising crime. The move sets up a showdown with state and local leaders, who have warned they will resist attempts to deploy federal agents in the way the administration did in Portland. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the agents coming to her city will aid in gun-violence investigations and that the city will challenge in court any deployment against protesters.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would remove statues and busts in the Capitol that honor individuals associated with slavery, the Confederacy and White supremacy. The measure, approved 305-113, would also commission a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice, to replace one of Roger Taney, author of a key Supreme Court decision backing slavery. Every Democrat voted in favor while Republicans split on the issue, 72 for and 113 against.

 

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