July 23rd 2020

By Lauren Floyd

Daily Kos

Federal troops were shown on video using batons to push back a line of mothers linking arms to protect protesters Tuesday night in Portland. “Don’t shoot your mother,” they shouted as they were tear-gassed. Some were shot with less-lethal bullets, but the women who had formed a group dubbed Wall of Moms remained, according to The Washington Post.

They’ve been showing up for days at protests that have been ongoing in Portland since the death of George Floyd on May 25. A Black man, Floyd died in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. He had cried for his mother and told police he couldn’t breathe.

“When you’re a mom you have this primal urge to protect kids, and not just your kids, all kids,” Wall of Moms organizer Jennie Vinson told The Washington Post. “To see a grown man reaching out and calling for his mother — I think that was a transformational moment for so many of us. It’s like: What choice do we have but to do this?”

Portland protests took a violent turn in recent weeks when federal troops flooded the city’s downtown, some accused in a lawsuit of failing to identify themselves and detaining protesters without explaining why they were being arrested.

Stated in the lawsuit filed Friday by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum:

In one widely reported incident, in the early hours of Wednesday, July 15, MarkPettibone alleges that he was confronted by armed men dressed in camouflage who took him off the street, pushed him into a van, and drove him through downtown until unloading him into abuilding, which is believed to have been the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. Pettibone alleges that he was put into a cell and read his Miranda rights, but was not told why he was arrested, nor was he provided with a lawyer. He alleges that he was released without any paperwork, citation, or record of his arrest.

In another incident, Christopher David, a Navy veteran and protester, was shown in viral video Saturday being pepper-sprayed in the face and hit with a baton by officers in camouflage. “It isn’t about me getting beat up. It’s about focusing back on the original intention of all of these protests, which is Black Lives Matter,” David told The Associated Press Monday.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan told ABC News that agents who used unmarked cars to make arrests the following day were acting as part of an investigation into “violent instigators … I've been in law enforcement for almost three decades, the use of unmarked vehicles is a standard procedure, standard practice among every local, state and federal law enforcement agency in this country -- actually in the world," Morgan said. "It's nothing new."

Angie Noriega, a mother of two, told The Washington Post her 7-year-old daughter feared for her safety and begged her not to attend the Portland protest. “But we talked about that and I said, ‘Sometimes we have to be brave and do the right thing even when it feels scary,’” Noriega told the newspaper.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler told CNN Sunday that federal troops descending upon Portland streets "is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism." In one video shared on Twitter Tuesday night, an armed federal agent in tactical gear opened the door of an SUV and pulled the driver out despite both his hands being up.

Still, President Donald Trump doubled down on his stance in recent days that federal troops would remain in Portland. He said during a White House briefing Monday that "the police are afraid to do anything" in cities the White House described as “being terrorized by crime under governors and mayors that refuse to take action.” In that list, he included New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland.

MSNBC host Joy Reid tweeted Tuesday: “The Trump secret police never counted on facing this implacable, determined adversary: moms. Really pissed off moms...”

Posted with permission