A group of racial justice protesters has settled with the federal government in a lawsuit accusing past law enforcement officers President Trump of using excessive force to protect a federal courthouse in 2020.
The settlement requires the federal government to compensate plaintiffs for injuries they suffered at the hands of federal agents, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said Tuesday.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the ACLU of Oregon for details on the specific compensation amounts.
The plaintiffs included three military veterans, a college professor, several Black Lives Matter activists and a man who said officers grabbed him off the street for no reason while he was steps from the federal courthouse in Portland.
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Police use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse protesters during riots in Portland, Oregon, on September 5, 2020, sparked by the killing of George Floyd. (AP)
“We are proud to have represented our courageous clients,” Kelly Simon, legal director of ACLU of Oregon, said in a news release. “They suffered serious injuries as a result of the unlawful, aggressive actions of federal law enforcement, and it is just and fair that they be compensated. Thank you to our clients and all the people who stood up for black lives and against government tyranny. The ACLU of Oregon will stand with you again and again to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and fairly by government.”
Thousands of demonstrators in Portland and across the country took to the streets for months in 2020 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. The demonstrators sometimes clashed with police, and militarized federal officers were ordered to Portland to stop the riots.
The lawsuit accused federal agents of exceeding the limits of their authority, making illegal arrests and using tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray in trying to stop the riots. Nearly all claimants claimed they suffered physical injuries and some were treated in hospitals.
Federal agents launch tear gas at a group of demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, on July 26, 2020. (AP)
Video showed Marine veteran Christopher David, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, being beaten outside the courthouse by an officer with a baton and another officer pepper spraying him in the face. David suffered two broken bones in his hand during the protest.
The lawsuit alleges that then-acting Homeland Security Director Chad Wolf did not have the authority to send more than 100 agents to Portland because he was improperly assigned. Wolf abruptly resigned in 2021 — shortly before Trump was set to leave office — saying he was forced out by “recent events,” including court rulings finding that his appointment is unlawful.
A federal investigative report later found that militarized federal officers did not have proper training or equipment and that there was no plan to respond to protests without help from local police.
Rioters throw fireworks at police officers during a protest against police brutality near the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, on December 31, 2020. (Getty Images)
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Local police arrested hundreds of protesters in three months, and federal agents arrested nearly 100 during the height of the demonstrations.
“It shocked the conscience that this level of violence was used against veterans, mothers and other nonviolent protesters. The way our own government treated us was contrary to everything we had learned in the military,” prosecutor and veteran Nichol Denison said in the news release.
This was one of them multiple lawsuits the ACLU of Oregon has filed a complaint against the federal government on behalf of protesters and other groups, including journalists and legal observers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
