Federal officers in Portland unloaded crowd-control weapons on protesters because another federal officer accidentally tear-gassed them, according to testimony in court on Wednesday.
According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, Portland Police Commander Franz Schoening testified in court during a trial questioning the legality of President Donald Trump's orders to deploy the National Guard to the city. Schoening said "federal officers on Oct. 18 barraged protesters with crowd control munitions — not because of any violence but because another federal officer accidentally shot tear gas onto the roof of the [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] facility."
"The types and amounts of force being used by federal officers is disproportionate to the level of criminal conduct or violence we’re seeing down there," Schoening told the court, adding he believed that federal officers have, in fact, contributed to unrest in the area.
Trump's move to deploy troops to Oregon in response to protests at an ICE facility has triggered an avalanche of further litigation.
Initially, the deployment was blocked by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee. This decision was later overruled by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that was itself dominated by Trump-appointed judges. However, this week, the full court agreed to rehear that decision en banc, putting Immergut's order back in place for the time being.
The use of force against peaceful protesters by the Trump administration has generated growing outrage, not just in Portland, but also in Chicago, which has seen a massive federal presence for weeks. In one such incident, Pastor David Black was shot in the head with a pepper ball while praying outside an ICE facility.