Crackdown in Portland mounts as 18 people face federal charges over violent clashes in the city

Tensions continued to boil over in Portland Friday night as a new ‘Wall of Vets’ joined the Wall of Moms and Wall of Dads to protect Black Lives Matter protesters from the federal agents that have descended on the city under the president’s orders. 

Protests entered their 58th night Friday, with thousands of protesters gathering at the federal courthouse and Justice Center chanting ‘feds go home’. 

A new ‘wall’ of protesters joined Friday night – a group of military veterans who set up in front of the federal courthouse alongside the yellow-clad parents who have gathered every night this week. 

The Vets said they had gathered after footage emerged showing federal agents tear gassing and beating with a baton a Navy veteran who approached them and asked whether they felt their actions violated the Constitution.  

Hours earlier, authorities announced 18 Portland residents have been charged over the violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement this week and a US judge denied an order sought by Oregon’s top law enforcement officer to stop Trump’s men arresting demonstrators in the city. 

Oregon officials are demanding federal agents leave the city, with two members of the House of Representatives calling for the immediate resignation of Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf while several members of Congress wrote to him demanding to know why agents have also moved in to Seattle.

This came as Trump continued on his law and order rampage Friday as he warned he was ‘sending people to New York’ after troops have already been drafted in to Portland, Chicago, Seattle and Albuquerque – hours after he threatened Thursday that 60,000 troops are ‘ready’ to head to cities across the country. 

Portland has become the scene of a controversial crackdown by federal agents, sent in by Donald Trump to stop protests calling for an end to racism and police brutality. 

The courthouse has been the center point of protests for the last two months ever since the Memorial Day ‘murder’ of George Floyd.  

Friday’s protest grew larger still than the previous night’s when peaceful rallies had descended into a bloody showdown between a group of around 2,000 demonstrators and law enforcement outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse. 

The Wall of Moms were out in force again Friday night leading the way from the rally site to the Justice Center along with about 50 medical professionals dressed in blue scrubs. 

They headed for the federal courthouse where city workers were seen welding the wire screened fencing earlier in the day to reinforce the barrier for tonight’s protest.  

They were joined for the first time by the Wall of Vets, set up after Navy veteran Chris David was brutally hit with a baton by federal agents at a protest last week. 

The horrific encounter sparked outrage and led to the group of veterans forming and joining the current walls at the site. 

Marine Corps veteran and Wall of Vets organizer Duston Obermeyer, 42, told DailyMail.com he formed the group after David was ‘attacked’ by feds  

‘The group of veteran came together after we saw what happened to fellow veteran Chris David last week while protesting,’ he said. 

‘We formed the group via Twitter and we are out here tonight to show support.’

Obermeyer said he had gathered a group of 30 veterans ‘to show our solidarity with the protestors’.

‘We took an oath when we joined the military to defend the US constitution,’ he said. 

‘We stand in solidarity with the protesters tonight.’ 

The group formed a human barricade in solidarity with the Walls of Moms and Dads and vowed to protect the Black Lives Matter protesters from federal agents. 

Messages and icons outlining the purpose behind the protests were projected onto the Justice Center walls. 

An image of George Floyd’s face reflected on the side of the building while the message ‘Stop Disappearing People’ was in reference to claims feds have dragged protesters off in unmarked vehicles. 

Before night fell, at least 500 people gathered at a pre-protest rally at Tom McCall Waterfront park – a few blocks away from the federal courthouse.  

At the rally one of the organizers Jahdi Levvi, 31, repeated the group’s demands including to defund the Portland Police Department by 50 percent and use the monies to fund black communities, amnesty for all protesters and to get the federal police out of Portland.

Levvi told DailyMail.com the organizers had consulted with several local protesters and some of the leaders of the CHOP movement in Seattle to come up with the demands.

He said that ‘if they don’t’ meet all of them, they will keep protesting every night until they do.  

Oregon members of the House of Representatives are demanding Chad Wolf stand down from the helm of the DHS over his handling of the burgeoning crisis as local officials want the feds out of the city. 

Rep. Earl Blumenauer said Friday he sent a letter from him, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and 13 other representatives to Wolf accusing him of abusing his power and position to incite violence against protesters. 

In the letter, they blasted Wolf and called for his resignation.   

US prosecutors on Friday said 18 people have been arrested and charged over the escalating standoffs that have rocked the city this week.  

Five have been charged for alleged criminal conduct during a protest Monday night, ranging from assaulting a federal officer to trespassing on federal property and failing to comply with a lawful order.

Seven were charged over Tuesday night’s protest including damaging government property, arson and assaulting federal officers while another six were charged over Wednesday night’s protest – all for failing to comply with a lawful order. 

They made their first court appearances Friday, as a separate US judge denied efforts by Oregon to limit the power of federal agents in its largest city.  

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued the Trump administration last week over his law and order push in Portland, alleging federal agents have arrested protesters without probable cause, whisked them away in unmarked cars and used excessive force.  

She sought a temporary restraining order to immediately stop federal authorities from arresting people during the nightly protests.

It aimed to prevent injuries by federal agents in upcoming protests.

But US District Court Judge Michael Mosman denied the order Friday saying the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters.  

David Morrell, an attorney for the US government, called the motion ‘extraordinary’ and told the judge in a hearing this week that it was based solely on ‘a few threadbare declarations’ from witnesses and a Twitter video.

He also blasted the protests ‘dangerous and volatile’.  

The decision comes as Portland residents take to the streets for another night of demonstrations against racism and police brutality. 

This comes after federal agents clashed with about 2,000 protesters overnight Thursday, just hours after the Justice Department said it was investigating the use of force during demonstrations.   

The clashes erupted around midnight when authorities say some demonstrators tried to kick down the protective steel fence, which is reinforced by a barricade, that separated the protesters from law enforcement.

Protesters targeted the federal courthouse by launching fireworks and hurling trash they had set on fire over the fence.

Federal agents wearing fatigues lobbed tear gas canisters back at demonstrators, used flash bangs and fired pepper balls after declaring the gathering unlawful.  

Bloodied protesters, many who were helmeted and wearing face masks, were seen being treated by street medics during the clash. 

The clash came soon after the the Justice Department’s watchdog said it was investigating the use of force by federal agents in Portland during protests. 

Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office opened the probe after civil unrest escalated in the past week following claims of camouflaged federal agents using force and snatching people from the streets and putting them into unmarked cars.  

The Department of Homeland Security, whose law enforcement agents are facing fierce criticism for their actions in Portland, said its internal watchdog was also conducting a probe.  

Demonstrators and local officials see the deployment of the agents in Portland as a ploy by Trump to drum up a ‘law and order’ campaign as he faces an uphill re-election battle.  

Officials are pushing back against the federal agents, with a judge granting a temporary restraining order on Thursday that bans them from arresting legal observers and journalists at protests. 

While officials and residents want the feds out of Portland concerns are building in other cities where Trump has started sending in the troops.  

More federal agents were dispatched to Seattle Friday as Mayor Jenny Durkan blasted Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf saying he misled her about plans.

Durkan said Wolf had assured her the government had no plans to send federal agents to Seattle.

‘I don’t want to say I was lied to, but I think there was maybe semantics that weren´t forthcoming,’ Durkan said Friday.

She said she hoped to prevent Seattle heading the same way as Portland.

‘I cannot overstate it enough, what is happening is frightening to me,’ Durkan said. ‘It is frightening that you would use federal agents for political purposes.’

The agents sent to Seattle are on standby to help other federal law enforcement officials protect federal facilities in the city, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the plans. 

They were drafted in after businesses were vandalized in the downtown area and in the nearby Capitol Hill neighborhood. 

New York could be next on the list after Trump said Friday he is ‘sending people in to New York’ in the same way he has sent federal forces to Chicago and Portland. 

‘You look at what they’re doing to cities – every city is run by a liberal Democrat, and they’re going to hell,’ Trump told Barstool Sports.

‘We just sent people in to Chicago. We’ve sent people in to Portland.

‘We’re sending people to New York, to help out.’

Trump’s comments came 24 hours after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he had received reassurances from the president that federal agents were not being sent.  

‘He has suggested he would send troops to New York City – troops, federal agents, whatever,’ Cuomo said Thursday. 

‘I don’t believe there is any justification in doing that. There are not any federal buildings that need protecting.’

The governor – who has repeatedly clashed with the president amid the coronavirus pandemic – added that sending in federal troops would be ‘inflammatory’.

Chicago is also gearing up for a surge of federal agents after Trump threatened to send in the troops to help tackle an uptick in gun violence. 

Local officials, however, have warned they would draw the line at any Portland-style deployment.

‘We’re not going to allow the unconstitutional, state-sanctioned lawlessness we saw brought to Portland here in Chicago,’ Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on Twitter. 

Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Chicago Friday starting from Homan Square – dubbed Freedom Square.

The protest marked the four year anniversary of the occupation at the square outside police headquarters which lasted for 41 days and grew out of solidarity with Ferguson protests in the wake of the police killing of Michael Brown in 2016.  

The march came after protesters gathered outside the Chicago mayor’s house Thursday night as after she ordered the removal of the city’s Christopher Columbus statues – a move critics blasted as bowing to ‘violent nihilists’ and Italian-Americans branded a ‘betrayal’. 

Thousands of Black Lives Matter demonstrators took to the streets to march on Lightfoot’s house as night fell, demanding she defund the Chicago Police Department and turf federal agents out of the city. 

Chants turned from ‘f*** CPD’ to cheers of elation when someone announced over the microphone that the city would take the controversial Columbus monuments down from Grant Park and Little Italy.

A crane hoisted the Grant Park statue off its pedestal under cover of darkness early today, watched by a small crowd who cheered as it was driven away on the back of a truck, while the Little Italy statue also came down.   

News of the statues’ removal sparked yet more divides across the city, with protesters happy with the decision heading to Grant Park in the hope of watching the historic moment take place.

They were met by counter-protesters, including Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, who were outraged at the decision.  

Meanwhile, Trump on Thursday threatened to send in 60,000 additional federal agents into other American cities facing unrest. 

‘We’ll go into all of the cities, any of the cities. We’re ready. We’ll put in 50,000, 60,000 people that really know what they’re doing,’ Trump said in an interview with Sean Hannity. 

‘And they’re strong. They’re tough and we can solve those problems so fast.’