Late on Monday, a lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court of Oregon on behalf of numerous “women’s rights” groups and individuals against United States Cabinet Officials and United States government agencies seeking a declaratory judgment that would permanently bar the federal law enforcement agents in Portland from using tear gas, pepper spray, and other non-lethal impact munitions in dealing with the rioters wishing to destroy Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland — the same Courthouse where the lawsuit was filed.
The lead plaintiff — “shockingly” as this will be the title of the case going forward in news coverage — is “Don’t Shoot Portland”. At least that is an organization that actually exists, as it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit first organized in 2014. The second named plaintiff is “Wall of Moms” — an “unincorporated association” organized in July 2020. Again, I’m stunned — they must have lost the coin flip to see who would be listed first.
Among the named defendants are Attorney General William Barr, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, and several cabinet-level departments and lower-level government agencies.
The lawsuit was signed by an attorney named David O’Neil. O’Neil held several top DOJ positions during the Obama Administration, including Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, and Deputy Solicitor General, arguing three cases before the Supreme Court. He began his DOJ career as an AUSA in the Southern District of New York.
Contact information for each of the seven named Plaintiffs is listed as the law firm Perkins Coie, famous for having hired Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on President Trump for the Clinton Campaign.
There is no mistaking the politics at work here.
Democrat veterans of the Obama Justice Department want to make it impossible for federal law enforcement agents to defend the Portland Federal Courthouse against rioters.
The complaint is 48 pages long, and cannot be briefly described within the context of this article — we have video highlights from Monday to get to.
Among some of the noteworthy allegations are the following claims:
But Defendants’ statements, a recently revealed internal DHS memorandum, and the conduct of DHS officers on the ground far from the federal courthouse make clear that Operation Diligent Valor actually furthers a separate DHS policy: to intimidate and silence protesters because of their message. Because Defendants’ policy is not in furtherance of protecting federal property, their invocation of § 1315 is purely pretextual.
Don’t Shoot Portland’s mission is to support the Black Lives Matter movement by providing “mutual aid” to activists, organizers, and other individuals wishing to exercise their First Amendment rights to organize, protest, and create art for social change. “Mutual aid” is the voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources for the benefit of all involved. It is how Don’t Shoot Portland expresses its support for Black Lives Matter; it is the organization’s free speech.
This allegation seems to be wanting to put some distance between “Don’t Shoot Portland” and the Marxist “Black Lives Matter” organization by making clear that DSP supports the Black Lives Matter “movement” without referencing the BLM organization. We should watch closely how well they stick to that view.
Don’t Shoot Portland understands, based on scientific research that it facilitated, that tear gas is extraordinarily dangerous to deploy during a pandemic outbreak of a respiratory virus like COVID-19. Because of racism and its impact on economic and health disparities, Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color are more likely to develop, suffer, and face complications from COVID-19 than their white counterparts.
There it is — COVID-19 is more deadly for BIPOC and the use of tear gas on protesters affects those who are BIPOC than it does on white people. Not sure why that is a problem since about 95% of all the protesters seem to be young white adults between 18 and 30. I hope they stick with this one — it will be entertaining to see the science play itself out. Maybe DSP should sue the Chinese Communist Party for creating a virus more deadly to BIPOC people than ethnic Chinese. I want to see them get discovery from the CCP on their research.
Some of the allegations involve well-documented events — such as the first night “Wall of Moms” first appeared. There is a significant amount of video of how events devolved while they were there. The suit claims that WOM was doing nothing other than shielding young protesters as they were peacefully giving speeches, and that federal law enforcement agents used tear gas and other non-lethal munitions without any provocation. I’m 100% confident there are many, many video surveillance cameras in operation at the Portland courthouse — many likely added after the protests started. These events described in the complaint are all going to be readily documented via video. I have yet to find a video on YouTube or Twitter that shows the “Wall of Moms” protest having any federal agent response. Later that night, there were confrontations — but the “Wall of Moms” was gone and the rioters had taken over.
The Complaint is not so much a lawsuit as it is a political diatribe against policies that are opposed by left-wing militants because they are effective. Now we can add more members of the former Obama Department of Justice as Marxist sympathizers since they are not advocating for the interests of clients in this lawsuit, they are advocated for a political ideology.
The other counsel of prominence on the complaint is the Protect Democracy Project, a non-profit that opposes the policies of the Trump Administration. Ian Bassin is the President of PDP and was in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Obama Administration. The legal director of PDP is Justin Florence and another member of the Obama White House Counsel’s Office.
Besides Bassin and Florence, the other members of the Board of Directors of PDP are Emily Loeb, Cecilia Munoz, Ricki Seidman, and Sabeel Rahman — all established Democrat activists.
Enough of such nonsense. From the looks of the video, the lawsuit didn’t slow down the action on Monday night.
Here are some of the peaceful protesters — can they still be called peaceful now that they have moved from commercial fireworks to actual IEDs?
More high quality video of the explosion in Portland pic.twitter.com/K0rnZr3eBZ
— maria viti (@selfdeclaredref) July 28, 2020
Rioters threw a bomb at the front of the Portland federal courthouse. This wasn’t one of their usual firework explosives. #PortlandRiots #antifa pic.twitter.com/omCq0GtZMj
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 28, 2020
This Antifa militant is throwing IEDs, not fireworks at the federal courthouse. pic.twitter.com/WS6D4YaLuk
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 28, 2020
Federal agents disperse protestors to the sidewalk using tear gas, impact munitions, flash bangs, and pepper balls pic.twitter.com/o3uOWbsSc3
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 28, 2020
Far-left Democrat terrorists stop throwing bombs at the federal courthouse in Portland after federal law enforcement officers come outside with real guns, not the ones that shoot pepper balls.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 28, 2020
Federal officers come out locked and loaded with assault rifles in response to the IEDs being thrown at the federal courthouse. They’re not using them. pic.twitter.com/8GMyzPMMgy
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 28, 2020
Will be checking back later today to see if the Plaintiffs seek any form of immediate TRO or file for a preliminary injunction.
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