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Wednesday • June 6, 2018
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Portland police corral protestors for mass detainment during an anti-Trump demonstration last year, not allowing them to leave until they handed over their IDs and were
photographed. The American Civil Liberties Union has been granted class action status to allow the nearly 400 people held during the June 4, 2017 protest to join an
ACLU lawsuit which claimed the police action violated the Constitution for detaining people without cause.
Unlawfully Held
Mass detainment during protest not justified
by d anny P eterson
t he P ortland o bserver
A controversial mass detainment by
Portland police of nearly 400 anti-Trump
protestors at a demonstration in downtown
Portland last year is now being hit on three
sides for not being legally justified.
The American Civil Liberties Union,
which earlier sued the Portland Police Bu-
reau, the City of Portland and Mayor Ted
Wheeler over the June 4, 2017 incident,
won a court decision last week that said
their lawsuit case can proceed as a feder-
al class action, meaning anyone who was
swept up in the crowd-control can now join
the lawsuit.
In addition, a Portland police over-
sight office determined in a report issued
last week that police had neither the legal
justification nor a Police Bureau policy to
support its decision to use the so-called
“Kettle” practice to surround people and
hold them as their IDs are seized and their
photos taken.
The Police Bureau, in response to the
city’s Independent Police Review report,
said it recognized the erroneous procedures
that it took in regard to the mass detention,
or lack thereof, and that additional police
training needs to be taken to correct it.
Police said they did corral protestors, take
their pictures, and ask for ID, but only after
people ignored repeated orders to disperse
or to investigate disorderly conduct.
The IPR report came the same day as
Oregon U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak
deemed the ACLU lawsuit could be joined
by others in class action.
“We expected and appreciate the court’s
decision,” ACLU of Oregon Legal Direc-
tor Mat dos Santos said in a statement. “We
just climbed one step closer to holding the
city of Portland accountable for violating
the constitutional rights of hundreds of
people.”
Four protests occurred the day of the
mass detainment, the lawsuit states: a
Trump Rally organized by Joey Gibson of
Patriot Prayer and three other counter-pro-
tests that included labor unions, a coalition
called Portland Stand United Against Hate,
and a self-described anti-fascism group
called Rose City Antifa.
The counter-protestors surrounded the
Patriot Prayer group as the antifascists,
clad in mostly black masks, clashed against
rows of riot police.
The demonstrations were during a sen-
C ontinued on P age 5