Eight occupiers were arrested at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Portland on Wednesday morning after they tried to block a transport van from leaving the facility.
Federal officers arrived to shrieks of “f*ck you!” and immediately went to work moving the occupiers out of the van’s way. Noncompliant anarchists were shot with pepper spray and pepper balls. They also used a taser on one protester and tackled some of the more resistant occupiers to the ground. Federal police said activists, some of whom were wearing shields, were throwing objects at them.
“What is f*cking wrong with you , you f*cking scumbags!” one of the occupiers screeched. A deafening cacophony of “f*ck you’s” soon followed.
“Is that how you f*cking treat women?!” a woman bellowed. “Shame! Shame!”
In their own minds, these deluded and insane occupiers are heroes fighting for a just cause. But to most people, they just look like unhinged commie brats starring in mortifyingly bad street theater.
Here is video of the chaotic scene posted by the occupiers themselves:
Deportation bus leaving #OccupyICEPDX https://t.co/rHGIyr6EoA
— OCCUPY ICE PDX (@OccupyICEPDX) July 11, 2018
“This is what state oppression looks like,” Stuart Tanquist, a protester who recorded the arrests, told The Oregonian.
Robert Sperling, a Federal Protective Service spokesman, said officers “were hit with an unknown liquid and that a variety of objects were also thrown at them.”
Boards with nails were thrown on the ground — akin to an “ad-hoc tire spike,” he said.
Sperling said an officer also deployed an electronic control device — casually known as a Taser — on one protester.
According to the Portland Tribune, the occupiers said that they were trying to block the vehicle “because they believed a man, who was an undocumented immigrant, was being transported out of the holding facility.”
But Carissa Cutrell, an ICE spokeswoman, said that no detainees were aboard the bus at all. She told The Oregonian that it was “assisting ICE with security services.”
The eight occupiers were arrested on allegations that include failure to comply and obstruction. The agency said in a statement that “federal officers warned the protesters to leave the driveway multiple times.”
Since June 17, the Portland facility has been under siege by the anti-ICE agitators organized by Direct Action Alliance, a local antifa group and the Democratic Socialists of America. The occupiers succeeded in temporarily shutting the office down; then on June 28, federal officers clad in riot gear cleared them off of the property. They’ve been camped out nearby ever since.
Three protesters were arrested and two federal protective service officers were assaulted outside the ICE facility on Monday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The activists are calling for the abolition of ICE, and say that they will continue their occupation until the Portland office is permanently closed.
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