(Headline USA) Portland rioters who participated in the weeks of nightly disruptions during the summer and fall of 2020—including the vandalism and destruction of a federal building—have filed a new lawsuit against law enforcement alleging negligence and battery.
Despite the parallels with the Jan. 6, 2021, political protest at the U.S. Capitol—for which the main offense was also the vandalism of a federal building, although it lasted roughly four hours—it is likely that the disposition will be drastically different for the left-wing anarchists.
While the Justice Department has prosecutred more than 1,200 Jan. 6 political dissidents, few faced any serious political accountability in the Portland riots, and a massive payday likely looms from a settlement with the deep-blue municipality, following the trend of cities like New York and Denver.
In July 2020, “the federal government unleashed unprecedented and sustained violence and intimidation on the people of Portland,” the lawsuit said.
Protesters previously filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, federal law enforcement agencies and individual officers, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Many of the lawsuits relied on a type of claim that the U.S. Supreme Court has since gutted.
Tuesday’s lawsuit raises similar issues and involves the same injured protesters but was filed under a different federal legal theory, said David Sugerman, one of the attorneys involved.
It follows on the heels of a recent Biden administration settlement with separated families of illegal immigrants during the previous Trump administration in a lawsuit brought by the far-left ACLU and other activist groups
Despite the fact that the plaintiffs were in violation of the law themselves and that Trump immigration officials had a strong rationale for their actions, the Justice Department’s settlement seemed as much a political statement, and an effort to establish a legal precedent that could potentially kneecap future administration, as a valid concession of any culpability.
Thus, the end result was to advance open-border policies that supported the existing Biden agenda.
Likewise, the Antifa and Black Lives Matters activists—despite having clearly broken the law in their protests and brought upon themselves a law-enforcement response—are apt to be put on retainer once again through the DOJ settlement in case the Biden administration needs them to riot—or not to riot—during the 2024 election cycle.
“It’s about the next set of activists, the next set of protesters that come along,” rioter Nathaniel West told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
West, one of three plaintiffs named in Tuesday’s lawsuit on behalf of “at least 162 people” claims he protested peacefully for more than 40 nights and was exposed to tear gas and shot at with pepper balls for doing so.
“The First Amendment right is something that we have to constantly work to preserve,” he said. “… We’re really thinking about what it means to protest in America.”
Because the previous riots also occurred during Trump’s presidency, the current administration is more than happy to once again accept the blame.
A 2021 report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found agents lacked proper training or equipment to deal with riots and that there was no plan for operating without the help of local police, who were eventually ordered to stand down by the city. Agents also reported injuries.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
