The actions of the Portland Police are once again gaining national attention after disturbing pictures emerged yesterday of officers placing sensory deprivation hoods and headphones on people who were peacefully protesting deportations by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
A group of about 50 protesters blocked the driveway at the ICE building on South West Macadam avenue yesterday afternoon in an attempt to prevent vans carrying detainees from leaving the facility. Five protesters from the End Deportations Now Collaboration bound their hands together with duct tape, formed a human chain and sat down in front of the gate.
When the protesters declined orders from Department of Homeland Security District Commander Luis Lopez to leave, Portland Police officers, presumably acting under orders from Lopez, approached two of the protesters and placed balaclava style hoods over their heads. The hoods were put on backwards so that the eye holes were towards the back, and the victims’ faces were completely covered. The police then put noise-cancelling headphones on their ears and began cutting the duct tape away.
The Portland Police Bureau initially claimed that they had used these extreme methods to protect the protesters from sparks and noise caused by the power tools they used to free them from one another. When it was revealed that officers had not in fact used power tools at all, but had cut through the duct tape with tinsnips, the bureau changed its story, admitting that “...the gear protects the protestors' faces and ears. It also prevents the protesters from intentionally causing themselves injury during the removal and/or falsely claiming injury to halt the cutting.”
After cutting three protesters from the chain, enough of the driveway was cleared that vehicles could begin exiting the facility.
According to police some people had been “trapped in their cars for more than an hour and a half”.
These actions raise many serious questions about Law Enforcement tactics and practices in Portland.
For example, why is ICE operating here at all if Portland is a sanctuary city?
Is it now commonplace for Portland Police officers to function as muscle for the Department of Homeland Security?
Who authorized these extreme tactics to be used on our people?
Who holds the police accountable when they mislead the public?
What recourse do we have to prevent these abuses by police officers?
It is increasingly difficult to get answers to these questions in a city with little to no transparency.
Yesterday, Willamette Week reported on the huge public records fees journalists and watchdogs must pay to access public records. When they asked for documents connected to an incident where police pepper-sprayed protesters, the mayor’s office told them it would cost $3,189 for a set of emails related to the event.
The KBOO news team had a similar experience when we asked for documents connected to police use of force, only we were told it would cost $5,000.
Mayor Wheeler’s office did not return our call for comment on this story.
--Jasmin Moneymaker