WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2020) Militarized US Federal forces have been "kidnapping" protesters in Portland, Oregon, and such practice should cause concern for everyone in the United States, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon interim Executive Director Jann Carson said in a statement on Friday.
"What is happening now in Portland should concern everyone in the United States," Carson said. "Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street we call it kidnapping. The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement related to the Portland situation, "We will never surrender to violent extremists on my watch."
The Portland Police Department said in a statement that several hundred protesters had unlawfully assembled near a federal courthouse and threatened to burn it.
President Donald Trump has criticized Democratic-run cities for allowing protests to get "out of control." The US president said he will make an announcement next week regarding federal response efforts to quell violence in US cities such as Portland, Chicago, and Seattle.
US media reported that the federal response has been limited to federal property so far.
One video circulating on social media shows federal agents in Portland detaining a protester and taking him away in an unmarked vehicle.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said on Thursday that he was aware Wolf and other DHS senior officials were in town, but wished that they were not. Wheeler added that he had not been invited to meet with them.
Portland, a stronghold for anarchist groups and far-left activists has been subject to protests and riots since the May 25 death of African American man George Floyd while in police custody, with businesses suffering millions of Dollars in losses from destroyed property and shoppers who stayed away, according to media reports.
