Lawyers in Portland, Oregon, are encouraging a judge to toss a lawsuit alleging that the city’s police force used excessive violence against antifa.
The city’s attorneys responded to complaints filed by three antifa protesters who claimed that police assaulted them during a summer 2018 outburst.
“That the city somehow condones or sympathizes with fascists is simply an outrageous claim that should be properly stricken,’’ Deputy City Attorney Michael Jeter argued to U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman. “It unnecessarily impugns the character of the city and its officers. It’s scandalous and has no business being in the lawsuit,” he continued.
The members of antifa, a militant left-wing group that has been known to assault political opponents and journalists, filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging specific actions from police. Plaintiff Aaron Anthony Cantu says he suffered a traumatic brain injury after police threw a flash-bang grenade near him, and co-plaintiff James Mattox accused law enforcement of firing rubber-tipped projectiles at him.
The suit reportedly describes Mattox “waving his anarchist shield, flipping off the officers and shouting profanities.” After one projectile failed to strike him, he shouted, “Look, you missed!’’ He says police then fired an additional projectile at him, striking him in the arm.
Lawmakers have frequently objected to antifa’s actions during the group’s often physical demonstrations.
Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Ted Cruz of Texas filed a resolution last year to categorize antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. The resolution said the group diametrically opposes First Amendment values of peaceful assembly and free speech. It also cites the physical assault on journalist Andy Ngo in Portland in late June 2019 and the threats antifa members have issued toward employees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Antifa is a terrorist organization composed of hateful, intolerant radicals who pursue their extreme agenda through aggressive violence. Time and time again their actions have demonstrated that their central purpose is to inflict harm on those who oppose their views,” Cruz tweeted in 2019. “Like any terrorist organization they choose to pursue their political ends through violence, fear & intimidation. They must be stopped.
“Antifa are terrorists, violent masked bullies who ‘fight fascism’ with actual fascism, protected by Liberal privilege,” Cassidy said at the time. “Bullies get their way until someone says no. Elected officials must have courage, not cowardice, to prevent terror.”
