Yahoo Finance 
Leaders Demand Investigation As Portland Protesters Snatched From Streets By 'Occupying Army' Of Police
Leaders in Oregon have demanded an investigation into “paramilitary assaults” against protesters in Portland by federal police, who have reportedly snatched demonstrators from the streets and detained them in unmarked vans.
The mayor of Portland has demanded US president Donald Trump remove federal law enforcement from the city, and the state’s US senators have also urged a probe into the actions of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) forces.
Protesters are continuing to gather in their thousands in the city, maintaining a presence almost two months after the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis.
HuffPost US reported that the furious reaction from leaders followed reports earlier this week that troops in military fatigues with “police” patches and no other obvious identification grabbed and detained anti-racism protesters in Portland.
The squads — which were dispatched by DHS — have been manhandling protesters since at least Tuesday, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. As yet it has not been made clear why Portland has been specifically targeted by the DHS crackdown.
Officers have reportedly been using the technique of grabbing protesters from the streets of the city since at least Tuesday.
Two protesters, Mark Pettibone and Conner O’Shea, told Oregon Public Broadcasting they were chased by an unmarked minivan early Wednesday morning as they were heading home after peacefully demonstrating. Pettibone did not escape.
“I am basically tossed into the van,” he told OPB. “And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn’t see, and they held my hands over my head.”
He said the officers did not identify themselves or state the reason he was being detained, and only read him his rights after placing him in a cell. Asked if he would waive those rights to answer a few questions, Pettibone declined and requested a lawyer. He said he was released after about 90 minutes.
The whole ordeal was “terrifying,”...
