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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2020)
Page 2 September 2, 2020 B ack to S chool Teen Arrested in Harris Death Kceon Colbert, 19, was arrest- ed last week in Vancouver in con- nection with the shooting death of Shai’India Harris, an 18-year-old Portland woman who died on July 10 outside a home in the Lents neighborhood of southeast Port- land. He was being held in the Clark County jail pending charges. Police have not provided any information about the circum- stances of the shooting, or the relationship between Harris and Colbert. But a Facebook page en- titled “Justice for Shai’India,” op- The (AP) — The American Civ- il Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last week alleging agents sent by President Donald Trump to pro- tect a federal courthouse targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters used excessive force and illegal detentions to rob protesters of their freedom of speech and as- sembly. The lawsuit also alleges that the acting director of the U.S. Depart- ment of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, did not have the authority to send more than 100 agents to Port- land because he was improperly appointed. The federal agents ex- ceeded the limits of their author- ity, making illegal arrests and us- ing tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and other tactics to squelch the protests, the lawsuit alleges. “Our clients are individuals Almost all the plaintiffs allege physical injuries from getting hit by metal tear gas canisters, rub- ber bullets, pepper spray and oth- er chemical irritants. Some were treated at hospitals, where they got multiple stitches and received CAT scans to check for more se- rious internal injuries, the lawsuit says. A video of plaintiff and Navy veteran Christopher David’s en- counter with U.S. agents outside the Portland courthouse circu- lated widely on social media. It showed one agent hitting David with a baton and another dousing him in the face with pepper spray. David suffered two broken bones in his hand. The U.S. Department of Jus- tice has said it is conducting an internal review of the incident. Also among the plaintiffs are two groups that have organized protesters: the Black Millennial Movement and Rose City Justice. “Federal officers had no place and no right to further exacerbate our environment in our commu- nity with force and violence and brutality and there is real atten- tion that needs to be focused on the brutality from law enforce- ment,” said Shanice Clarke, of the Black Millennial Movement. The lawsuit is the third filed by ACLU in Portland since nightly protests began after the May 25 death of George Floyd, the Black man who died after a white Min- neapolis police officer pinned him by the neck. Two previous lawsuits tar- geted the federal agents’ actions against members of the press and legal observers and against street medics who treat protesters hurt by tear gas, pepper spray and rub- ber bullets. in the Oregon Republican Party has failed to gather enough signa- tures to recall Gov. Kate Brown. Republicans backing the latest at- tempt accused Brown of abusing her power in response to the coro- navirus pandemic. ALCU Sues Trump over Portland Response and organizations that gathered peacefully in downtown Portland to support Black Lives Matter after the killing of George Floyd and so many others at the hands of the police,” said Jeremy Sacks, an attorney working with the ACLU. “But they were met by violence from the federal police forces in- tent on squelching the protesters message and their Constitutional rights — all in aid of the presi- dent’s political agenda.” Plaintiffs include three military veterans, a college professor, sev- eral Black Lives Matter activists and a man who alleges he was snatched off a street blocks from the federal courthouse by uniden- tified agents for no reason. “I still haven’t fully come to terms with what it means that I was kidnapped by my govern- ment,” Mark Pettibone said in a statement. “People need to know what happened to me and the gov- ernment needs to be held account- able so that what happened to me doesn’t happen to someone else.” erated by family and friends, says Harris and Colbert were previous- ly in a relationship. Week Review A demonstrator is pepper sprayed shortly before being arrested during a Black Lives Matter protest at the U. S. Courthouse, downtown, on July 30. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 26 challenging the legality of the actions taken by U.S. agents sent by President Donald Trump to subdue protests in Portland. (AP photo) Claims gathering met by violent federal agents Kceon Colbert Free School Meals Extended Hall of Famer Coach Dies The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture announced Tuesday that school meals will be distributed free while students are learning from home at least through the end of the year. In Oregon, 100 schools and concerned community orga- nizations had signed a letter to USDA demanding an extension of pandemic waivers to distribute food in parks and other off- school sites to prevent wide-spread child hunger. John Thompson, the Hall of Fam- er basketball coach who turned Georgetown into a powerhouse and became the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1984, has died at the age of 78 .“Our fa- ther was an inspiration to many and devoted his life to developing young people not simply on but, most importantly, off the basket- ball court,” said a statement from Former Chief Investigated his family. Oregon’s police certification agen- cy was ordered Thursday to inves- Riot Outside Mayor’s Home Police declared a riot after pro- tigate whether retired West Linn testers turned violent outside Police Chief Terry Timeus should the northwest Portland home of retain his police certification after Mayor Ted Wheeler Monday eve- directing a wrongful arrest in 2017 ning. Wearing party hats to mark of a Black man in Portland at the the mayor’s birthday, members request of his fishing buddy. The of the group launched fireworks agency will be asked to determine and marched with a large sign that if Timeus violated the moral fit- read “resign.” Police said the pro- ness standard to be a police officer testers broke windows, burglar- in Oregon. ized a business, and lit a fire in an occupied apartment building. Sheriffs Won’t Help Portland A plan by the Gov. Kate Brown to use sheriff’s deputies from surrounding counties to help patrol Portland following the deadly shooting of a right- wing protestors, was sharply criticized by law enforce- ment officials who said it wouldn’t end the “cycle of violence” in the city that’s approaching 100 con- secutive nights of often-violent Black Lives Matter protests. TriMet Completes Track Work After 28 days of round-the-clock work, amounting to 672 hours of demolition, construction and test- ing, TriMet has reopened the top deck of the Steel Bridge. It marks the end of the biggest light rail Governor Recall Fails Again revitalization effort in 34 years to For the second time in two years, keep MAX service reliable.