(PORTLAND) - A federal judge in Oregon ruled Monday that he would continue to strictly limit federal law enforcement’s use of tear gas and other crowd control weapons on protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
Department of Homeland Security officers at the ICE building had an unwritten policy to use excessive force on nonviolent protesters, in part to chill their First Amendment rights, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon found.
The ruling also grants preliminary class certification, meaning the decision applies to all nonviolent protesters and journalists outside the Portland ICE building.
In the sworn interviews played in court, DHS officers demonstrated a lack of understanding about the First Amendment, passive resistance, crowd control tactics and their own agency’s use of force policies.
@ https://www.opb.org/pdf/ACLU_order_1773104324987.pdf
(a) No Enjoined Person may direct or use chemical or projectile munitions, including but not limited to kinetic impact projectiles, pepper ball or paintball guns, tear gas or
other chemical irritants, soft nose rounds, 40mm or 37mm launchers, less lethal shotguns, and flashbang, Stinger, or rubber ball grenades, unless the specific target of such a weapon or device poses an imminent threat of physical harm to a law enforcement officer or other person.
(b) No Enjoined Person may fire any munitions or use any weapons described in subsection (a) at the head, neck, or torso of any person, unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person.
(c) No Enjoined Person may use pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, or other aerosol restraint spray (collectively, "OC Spray"), unless the specific target of that weapon exhibits, at a minimum, active resistance (cont) In addition, no Enjoined Person may use OC Spray indiscriminately against groups of people where bystanders foreseeably would be affected. (cont)