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Some observers are concerned that the national conversation about federal overreach in Portland has overshadowed the Portland Police Bureaus brutality against protesters

As the federal deployment of secretive law enforcement proved violent in the Trump administrations crackdown on protests, activists stressed that these officers behavior was largely familiar.

On July 22, as Mayor Ted Wheeler engaged in tense conversation with protesters walked from City Hall to the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse, a protester stepped in front of him and, without words, poured a bag of spent tear and crowd control munitions at his feet.

Minutes later, the crowd pressed in around Wheeler, and chants of Ted shot us too drowned him out as he tried to speak during his listening session. Less than an hour after that, the crowd chanted Youve been doing this for months, Ted and Youre just like them as he discussed being tear-gassed with national media.

Whenthe national spotlight was on the presence of federal officers in Portland and as many local elected officials also condemnedthese officers behavior some activists saidbrutality by local law enforcement wasgetting pushed out of the conversation.

Danialle James, a longtime Portland community activist and part of Dont Shoot Portland, said Wheeler, who is Portlands police commissioner, has unleashed a lot of violence on Portland, and that his response to protests set the groundwork for what (federal law enforcement) can do to us.

This was unleashed on us long before the federal government got here, she said. Its important to remind folks that while local law enforcement is sitting back and just watching except for (a couple of recent) of nights they painted the picture for how terrible to treat folks here.

James said there is a danger in focusing too heavily on the actions of federal law enforcement agencies and not on the Portland Police Bureau because, she said, it stands to overshadow what we were going through before the feds even got to town.

She is not alone in this sentiment. A number of local journalists and activists have reported this from the ground.

Elliot Young, a professor at Lewis and Clark College, described a similar pattern in an opinion article for the Houston Chronicle.

As the national media focuses on the unconstitutional abductions of protesters from the streets of Portland and the nightly litany of assaults on protesters, the much longer and more persistent history of local police engaging in some of the very same attacks is lost, he wrote.

While the Portland Police Bureau and other local law enforcement agencies have not been reported to use snatch-and-grab style detainments, many say their conduct echoes the tone and tactics of the federal law enforcement agencies response to Portlnad protests.

Since the George Floyd protests erupted in Portland, the local police have been using tear gas, pepper spray and flash bang grenades to disperse crowds of peaceful protesters, Young wrote.

PORTLAND PROTESTS: Pain, arrests and trauma: 4 injured protesters share their stories

These tactics, also deployed by federal law enforcement agencies, have gotten both federal and local law enforcement sued a number of times by a variety of parties, including Dont Shoot Portland, the Wall of Moms and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.

The suits primarily focus on both federal and local law enforcements extreme use of tear gas, similar chemical agents and potentially deadly crowd control munitions, and their targeting of press, medics and legal observers.

When asked about parallels between the actions of local and federal law enforcement, Rosenblum told Street Roots, Im not here to say that local law enforcements response has been perfect. There have been serious allegations about their use of force and the targeting of journalists and legal observers.

She said that while there may have been some missteps by PPB, the federal law enforcement agencies who are not accountable to Portlanders or to Oregonians in general have deployed violence and tactics which simply have no place in Portland streets and I believe do go beyond what we have seen (from Portland police).

To Rosenblum, the issue is uninvited, unwelcome federal officers, pursuing illegitimate goals, through means that seem to be illegal. She said the tactics that theyre using to quell the protests are designed to scare people and have often been targeted at journalists, legal observers and even medics.

Stressing that Portland police are more accountable to Portlanders and Oregonians than federal agents, Rosenblum pointed to a 14-day restraining order preventing Portland Police Bureau from using tear gas.

In a June special session, the state Legislature banned the use of tear gas, but the bureau has dodged the new restriction by frequently designating protests a riot rather than an unlawful assembly. The states ban on tear gas excludes situations where police declare a riot.

Maybe we need to address the definition of a riot, Rosenblum said when asked about this. Maybe the definition of a riot is too broad.

A blanket ban on tear gas is among bills Oregon lawmakers will consider either during another special session in August or during the regular session next year.

Both federal law enforcement and Portland police have ventured into the streets, seriously injuring protesters while deploying immense amounts of crowd control munitions and riot control agents, beating protesters and making extensive arrests.

OPINION: Struck by a rubber bullet: My experience as a Black woman at a Portland protest

Since the start of George Floyd protests in Portland, the local police bureau has arrested arrested more than 460 people, according to The Oregonian. Analysis of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys press releases and reporting by The Oregonian revealed that throughout the protests, federal law enforcement officers have arrested a least 77 people.

Local reporting has also documented widespread brutality by both federal and local law enforcement.

STREET ROOTS INTERVIEW: Feds sprayed chemicals into eyes of retired ER nurse and veteran

But beyond operating similarly, reporting from The Oregonian has shown the two agencies have worked together throughout the protests. Following outcry about this cooperation, City Council on July 22 banned Portland police from working with federal law enforcement agencies.

However, the two have worked together as recently as July 26 to clear areas and make arrests, according to Department of Homeland Security press releases.

This relationship between federal and local law enforcement is not new. In June 2018, journalist Mike Bivins tweeted videos of the Department of Homeland Securitys Federal Protective Service making arrests and firing crowd control munitions at protesters opposing fascist groups.

The practice of federal law enforcement agencies snatching people up is also not new, activist Morgan Godvin and legal Scholar Leo Beletsky note note in The Appeal. They explain agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement,which has also participated in the federal response to protests,do this every day in communities of color.

The Portland Police Bureau and Homeland Securitys Customs and Border Patrol stressed that they have different goals in their responses to Portland protests. Portland police told Street Roots it works to manage events with the goal of life safety while not allowing criminal acts. Border Patrol told Street Roots its officers have been deployed to Portland in direct support of the Presidential Executive Order and the newly established DHS Protecting American Communities Task Force (PACT) to support the Federal Protective Service (FPS).

However, both President Donald Trump and Daryl Turner, the head of the police union, Portland Police Association, have used similar language in describing the need for law enforcement talking about a city under siege by rioters. The two have both also criticized Portlands elected leadership.

Neither Turner nor the Portland Police Association responded to Street Roots request for comment.

Meanwhile, many of Oregons elected officials have condemned the presence of federal law enforcement while mostly ignoring the actions of local police.

Gov. Kate Brown and Oregons Democratic congressional delegation Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader have published a combined 40 press releases on the conduct of federal law enforcement from May 28, when the protests started, to July 28, a couple of days before the federal officers began withdrawing from Portland.

None of them published any press releases about the actions of local law enforcement agencies during the same period of time.

Merkley and Wyden both responded to requests for comments for this article, but neither addressed Street Roots questions related to local polices behavior during the protests. Rather, both highlighted their recent work on national police reform legislation, including the Enhancing Oversight to End Discrimination in Policing Act.

Oregonians elected me to focus on the federal side, Wyden wrote. And thats exactly what Ive been doing by using all the tools available to push back against federal forces occupying our city uninvited, inciting violence and attacking peaceful protesters. Ending these abuses is my top priority.

Among state lawmakers, Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) strongly condemned Portland Police Bureaus violent and aggressive responses to protests, and in a marathon special session in June, Oregon legislators passed a number of police reform laws.

Among Portland elected officials, however, there was a split.

Wheeler, who did not respond to Street Roots request for comment, published a number of press releases condemning the actions of federal law enforcement agencies in Portland. He did not publish any criticism of the actions of local law enforcement, though he did once tweet that the Portland Police Bureaus targeting of the press was extremely concerning.

Commissioners Chloe Eudaly and Jo Ann Hardesty were the strongest voices on City Council against local law enforcements response to protests. Both have repeatedly blasted the actions of federal and local law enforcement officers for their brutality at protests.

Hardesty, a longtime community activist and police reform advocate, speaking on OPBs Think Out Loud, discussed her criticisms of Portland police in response to protests as well as a number of reforms she has been pushing. She did not respond to Street Roots request for comment.

Eudaly drew parallels between the federal forces behavior during Portlands protests and that of the local police.

The tactics being deployed by federal forces are nothing new to activists in Portland, who are accustomed to violent crowd control tactics by the Portland police, Eudaly told Street Roots in an email.

She stressed the importance of not losing sight of the fact the nation is in the midst of an outcry over police brutality against the Black community.

Many elected officials throughout our region recognize the need to transform our approach to policing and public safety, Eudaly said in her July 29 email, but that conversation has been overshadowed by this federal occupation. With yesterdays announcement of the Reimagine Oregon plan, and todays announcement of a withdrawal of federal forces from our city, the conversation is already refocusing on racial justice.

She said that while a significant amount control over the Portland Police Bureau has been bargained away by past Councils, the city still has control over its budget and position authority.

Thats not the case with the federal forces occupying our city, she said. Now that the federal government appears to be standing down, we need to get our own house in order.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who didnt respond to Street Roots request for comment, released a statement in which she condemned the actions of federal law enforcement officers and noted that policing is a part of a much larger system of oppression, but she stopped short of criticizing any aspect of local law enforcement agencies responses to protests.

Regardless of the actions and inactions of elected officials, all parties agree protests, which have lasted more than 65days will continue.

Federal law enforcement began withdrawing from Portland Thursday, July 30, and during the following two nights of mass, peaceful protest downtown, there was no obvious police presence and no conflict. It was a drastic change from nights of unrest leading up to the deployment of federal troops. It's yet to be seen how long Portland police will stand downas the protests continue to draw thousands of people to the city's center.

Meanwhile, James, who has been on the ground since the beginning of protests in Portland, said she is going to continue to hold Portland police accountable and exercise her rights. She has been supportive of Dont Shoot Portland founder Teressa Raifords mayoral write-in campaign.

STREET ROOTS PODCAST: Talking with Teressa Raiford of Dont Shoot Portland

Its important for us to speak out. Its important for us to be able to be out there and freely speak our voices, James said. So, my fight will continue in holding them accountable, and I look forward to that process.

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Portland police are no better than the feds, activists say - Street Roots News