A group of protesters against racism and brutality from Portland, in the state of Oregon, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Administration of US President Donald Trump for violently quelling the protests.
The protesters, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, for its acronym in English), have claimed that the security forces have used “indiscriminate” violent tactics against them. This is the third lawsuit of its kind filed against the government in recent weeks.
As they claim, hundreds of federal agents, dressed in camouflage uniforms similar to those used by the Army, have fired rubber balls, pellets and other types of “impact munitions” at them. In addition, they have accused the riot police of throwing pepper sprays in their faces, reducing them and beating them with batons.
Among them is Mark Pettibone, a 30-year-old man who was introduced last month by several officers in a van. He was held in federal court until he was released. At no time did they explain to him why he had been detained or released.
“I have not yet fully understood what it means for me to be kidnapped by my own government,” Pettibone lamented in a statement from the ACLU. “People should know what happened to me and the authorities should be brought to justice for what happened so that it does not happen to anyone else,” he said.
Christopher David, a Navy veteran, has joined the lawsuit after officers broke his hand by repeatedly hitting him with a baton, according to information from the Bloomberg agency.
Trump, for his part, has once again lashed out at what he considers to be a group of “anarchists and agitators” and has asked local Oregon authorities to confront the protesters in the face of a wave of protests that has lasted for months in the past. coronavirus pandemic frame.
The arrest of protesters such as Pettibone would have been carried out as part of the Trump Administration’s ‘Operation Courageous’ mission, which seeks to confront protesters who protest under the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’.
The ACLU had already filed similar lawsuits on behalf of journalists and doctors over the actions of federal police officers in the Portland protests.
