صراط عشق صراط عشق
The demonstration went on for hours until federal agents entered the crowd at around 2.30 am and marched in a line down the street, clearing remaining protesters with tear gas at close range.
The Federal Protective Service had declared the gathering as “an unlawful assembly” and cited that officers had been injured.
The protest drew various organized groups, including Healthcare Workers Protest, Teachers against Tyrants, Lawyers for Black Lives and the “Wall of Moms”.
As the crowd grew – authorities estimate there were 3,000 present at the peak of the protest – people were heard chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Feds go home” to the sound of drums.
Later, protesters vigorously shook the fence surrounding the courthouse, shot fireworks towards the building and threw glass bottles. On many occasions, such actions were met by federal agents using tear gas and flash bangs.
It was unclear whether anyone was arrested during the latest protest. The federal agents, deployed by President Donald Trump to tamp down the unrest, have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent.
Friday’s protest came hours after a U.S. judge denied the state of Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents’ actions in the city.
Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state attorney general sued to allege some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles.
The clashes in Portland have further inflamed the nation’s political tensions and triggered a crisis over the limits of federal power as Trump moves to send U.S. officers to other Democratic-led cities.
The legal action from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum accused federal agents of arresting protesters without probable cause and using excessive force. She sought a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians”.
UN Warns U.S. Against Excessive Force
The UN warned Washington against using excessive force against demonstrators and media in the United States on Friday, saying Trump’s deployment of unidentified officers increased the risk of human rights violations.
Responding to questions about violent clashes in Portland between federal forces and demonstrators protesting against racism and police brutality, a UN spokeswoman stressed that the right to peacefully assemble and protest must be protected.
“Peaceful demonstrations that have been taking place in cities in the US, such as Portland, really must be able to continue,” UN rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssel told reporters in Geneva.
People must be able to demonstrate, and journalists must be able to cover such protests, without “risking arbitrary arrest or detention, being subject to unnecessary disproportionate or discriminatory use of force or suffering other violations of their rights,” she said.
Protests raged in the U.S. after the killing of George Floyd, an African American man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25.
Reports have emerged of camouflaged federal officers snatching Portland demonstrations and taking them away in unmarked vehicles, spurring a fresh wave of rallies.
As crowds swelled this week in Portland, some of the most noticeable protesters are the so-called the ‘Wall of Moms’ and ‘PDX Dad Pod’ groups, self-described parents who have shown up each night since the weekend by the hundreds, wearing yellow T-shirts and bicycle helmets and ski goggles for protection and carrying sunflowers.
Early Thursday morning, the mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, was teargassed in the downtown area as he met with the protesters. He called it “an egregious overreaction on the part of the federal officers” and “flat-out urban warfare.”
Throssel said that the reports of unidentified officers making arrests were a particular cause for concern. She noted that such practices could “give rise to arbitrary detention and other human rights violations.
