Federal cops ‘instigating’ confrontations with protesters outside ICE building, Portland police official says in court

A Portland Police Bureau assistant chief said in court recently that federal police were “instigating” some of the clashes between officers and protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland.

Other records reveal police were aware of — and concerned about — potential excessive use of force by federal police as early as mid-June. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson recently called on the Department of Homeland Security to investigate federal officers’ use of force against nonviolent protesters captured on video and published by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The protests at the building began in early June in response to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown across the country. They peaked that month but have continued ever since, with major flare-ups in July and early September.

The sometimes disruptive demonstrations have upset and aggravated many residents who live near the ICE building, including Cloud Elvengrail, who sued the city in July, accusing it of failing to uphold city noise ordinances. Portland Police Bureau Assistant Chief Craig Dobson made the statements about federal officers in sworn testimony in Elvengrail’s suit.

On July 25, when Dobson was testifying, Elvengrail’s attorney, Thomas Rask, asked the assistant chief how the Portland Police Bureau decides whether a crowd constitutes an unlawful assembly and whether the protesters’ political point of view plays a role.

Dobson said he considers “actions,” not the protesters’ message, when deciding how and when to enforce the unlawful-assembly law, and that he has to take in the totality of what is happening on the ground.

In the case of the ICE protests in June, when Portland police were on the scene, he had to weigh the actions not just of the protesters but of the federal police as well, Dobson indicated.

“It makes it extremely difficult for us to deal with, as the folks that are on the other side of this fence have been, night after night, actually instigating and causing some of the ruckus that’s occurring down there,” Dobson said.

“Okay. So it’s your testimony ICE is creating the problem?” Rask asked.

“I’m saying that they’re not following best practice,” Dobson replied.

The Portland Police Bureau declined to answer questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive asking how, exactly, the bureau believes federal officers aren’t following best practice in dealing with crowds, saying it did not have additional comment beyond what’s in the official record.

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Dobson is the assistant chief of operations at the bureau. That means he oversees officers across Portland’s three police precincts. He took the job in January, after four years as commander of Central Precinct and six months as interim assistant chief. He reports to Deputy Chief Chris Gjovik, who reports directly to Chief Bob Day.

The mayor’s office declined to comment. DHS did not respond to a request for comment. Federal police have arrested more than two dozen people during the months of protests, including a woman who was accused of throwing a knife at officers and threatening them with another knife.

The ICE facility is in the midst of a $4.6-million fortification project, KGW reported this week.

Meanwhile, the City of Portland issued a notice of violation last week, alleging that ICE breached its conditional land use agreement by repeatedly holding detainees longer than 12 hours and by boarding up its first-floor windows. The notice of violations could theoretically lead to the facility’s closure, depending on how ICE responds.

During the ongoing protests, Portland police have refrained from enforcing city noise ordinances and largely avoided managing the crowds after public backlash in June, when they made multiple arrests and at one point helped federal agents clear a barricade put up by protesters.

Dobson’s statements highlight one of several points of tension between local and federal police. Portland police have said they don’t assist federal agents because state law bars the bureau from aiding immigration enforcement and also bars it from working with law enforcement agencies that violate state crowd-control laws.

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Since late June, Portland police rarely have been seen near the ICE building and the demonstrations against the federal agency.

That has left federal officers largely on their own to deal with protesters usually numbering in the dozens every night, blasting music from large speakers and shouting offensive messages into megaphones.

Nightly confrontations between demonstrators and federal police have resulted in numerous allegations of federal police using excessive force against peaceful protesters. At least two people who say they suffered injuries have filed paperwork indicating they intend to sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson recently called on Trump administration officials to investigate federal police actions captured in video footage and published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, such as a DHS agent repeatedly hitting a demonstrator in the upper body and face with a shield and then knocking down a woman who had her back turned to him.

The Portland Police Bureau’s current approach to crowd control is to identify the people who appear to be intent on committing crimes and removing them, Dobson also explained in his testimony. Another part of the strategy is to build and maintain rapport and dialogue with protesters, called the Elaborated Social Identity Model.

During a protest that grew to 450 people on June 12, federal agents “acted independently during the event, occasionally leaving the building and firing pepper balls into the crowd,” Commander James Crooker wrote in a summary of events that night. “This independent action made it challenging for PPB to fully utilize the ESIM with the crowd.”

“The most impactful issue, which was not in the control of PPB, was observing federal partners firing on the crowd without any apparent warning,” Crooker added. “This directly impacted our ability to engage with the crowd, and had an immediate negative impact on the tone of the event.”

In a timeline of events that Crooker sent to Chief Bob Day, Crooker said federal agents’ firing on protesters without warning “enraged” the crowd, which began “pulling out makeshift shields and throwing things at the agents who fired on them.”

Two days later, June 14, another Portland police commander described a situation where federal agents appeared to panic about the protest outside their walls. The bureau received “multiple frantic calls” from federal employees saying the building had been barricaded, that a federal officer had received a head injury, that there was an intruder in the facility and that there was a fire at the building gate.

“Phone calls are animated, with little actionable information, inaccurate information, and when I asked questions the FPS (Federal Protective Service) agent disconnected,” Commander Franz Schoening wrote in a timeline for Chief Bob Day.

The building had not been fully barricaded, police later learned, and the officer with a purported head injury only had abrasions.

When federal agents used force against protesters that night, it made it difficult for the Police Bureau to arrest people.

“Once the riotous conduct had dissipated, we transitioned to a strategy of developing (probable cause) to make arrests,” Commander Franz Schoening wrote in his summary of the protest. “Due to FPS rapid transition to crowd control munitions based on what appeared to be low level crimes, it was challenging to carry this strategy out.”

Portland police eventually were able to arrest two people, which proved “somewhat effective in de-escalating the event,” Schoening wrote.

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Portland police also indicated federal officers appeared to use force indiscriminately.

“At 9:08 PM, a Federal officer on the roof appeared to fire pepper balls into the crowd, the reason for this was unclear,” Crooker wrote in a summary of protests June 23.

Crooker declined to comment when reached by phone.

The next day federal officers asked for an ambulance to help a detained protester who lost consciousness after he was hit in the head with a gas canister, records show. That same day, June 24, Chief Day told Portland city councilors that the bureau was stepping back from managing the protests.

“It would be my preference that they be able to manage the building themselves and be able to handle that,” Day said. “I also would hope that they would be able to do that in a manner that doesn’t escalate the situation.”

The Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Zaeem Shaikh contributed to this report.