Tag: oregon

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Project Veritas Challenge to State Law Blocking Secret Recording

The Supreme Court has decided against hearing an investigative journalism organization’s First Amendment-based challenge to a decades-old Oregon law prohibiting most secret recordings of oral conversations.

Undercover journalism group Project Veritas had argued that the state’s conversational privacy statute violated the First Amendment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 9–2 in January that the law did not violate the group’s free speech rights.

The Supreme Court dismissed the petition in Project Veritas v. Vasquez without comment in an unsigned order on Oct. 6. No justices dissented.

The respondents were sued in their official capacities. One is Nathan Vasquez, district attorney for Multnomah County, Oregon; the other is Dan Rayfield, attorney general of Oregon.

In its April 7 petition, Project Veritas described Oregon’s audio recording law as “a national outlier” because it requires that “anyone in almost any conversation [be informed] that their words are being recorded.”

This requirement “severely hampers modern investigative journalism” and undermines the First Amendment “by effectively prohibiting the use of today’s most powerful reporting tools—discreet audio recordings,” the petition states.

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Portland Antifa DECLARES WAR on U.S. Military — Calls for Mass LASER Attack on Helicopters Over Portland ICE Facility This Saturday, October 11th

The radical Antifa militants infesting Portland have issued a brazen call to arms: a coordinated “laser party” aimed at blinding and potentially crashing U.S. military helicopters patrolling the skies over the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

Independent journalist Andy Ngo reported the blog’s announcement and said organizers urged participants to converge at different vantage points across the city and “unleash your beam at the cop copter.”

According to the announcement:

YOU’RE INVITED: LASER TAG!

Every night for weeks we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us. The only limit power knows is our refusal to submit.

This Saturday, October 11th, at 9pm you are invited to fight back. All you need is a laser. Leave home – they can see where the laser is coming from. Go to a park, a field, or some other public place, and once the clock strikes 9 unleash your beam at the cop copter. Mask up. Coordinate with friends to throw a laser party!

Let’s take back the night together! It won’t take many of us to ground the helicopters!

Every night for weeks we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us. The only limit power knows is our refusal to submit. This Saturday, October 11th, you are invited to fight back. All you need is a laser. Leave home – they can see where the laser is coming from. Go to a park, a field, or some other public place, and once the clock strikes 9 unleash your beam at the cop copter. Mask up. Coordinate with friends to throw a laser party!

Let’s take back the night together! It won’t take many of us to ground the helicopters!

The spread of accessible acts of resistance, scattered around the city, can cause significant disruption while being difficult (if not outright impossible) to control. Actions that aim at destroying the capacity of our enemies to enforce control in simple and concrete ways can make more daring actions possible.

The Portland Police also use aerial surveillance to target protests and usually have one of their Cessna spy planes in the sky. In 2020 and 2021, PPB used the plane to target specific protesters for arrest. Let’s blind all the eyes in the sky!

During the uprising in Chile in 2019, lasers were used to take down a police drone. It is unlikely that a single laser would have much effect, but many working together can clearly blind cameras and sensors or even force the drone down to earth entirely.

Lasers have the clear downside of being easily traced back to their source, especially from the air. If enough lasers are pointed at the aircraft, we think it will not be able to safely stay in the air for long enough to continue to pinpoint the source for law enforcement, and numbers will make it difficult to focus on a single person. Be ready to dispose of the laser if you need to – wear gloves and clean it with alcohol in case you have to toss it in a hurry. Consider taking precautions to keep DNA off of it as well.

Besides, lasers just look cool!

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Oregon National Guard Chief Brig. General Vows to “Protect Protesters” Targeting ICE Facilities — Disobeying a Lawful Order from the Commander-in-Chief

Oregon National Guard Chief Brigadier General Alan R. Gronewold is facing mounting backlash after declaring his troops would be tasked with protecting protesters at federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, a direct contradiction to the orders of President Donald Trump.

The week-old remarks, made before an Oregon Senate subcommittee, resurfaced on social media this week as a federal appeals court weighs whether Trump can deploy the Guard to Portland to quell ongoing anti-ICE protests.

During an appearance last week before the Oregon Senate’s Veterans and Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee, General Gronewold attempted to reassure state lawmakers about what the National Guard’s role would be if federalized under Title 10 orders.

“I don’t want to speculate on what level of training they will receive or what they will be authorized to perform as far as rules for the use of force. The Title X headquarters will provide that training to them.

It is my understanding, however, that protective crowd control will be one of the things they’re trained on, and I will provide my advice to the Title X commander. The Oregon National Guard men and women serve two purposes: one, to defend America, and two, to protect Oregonians.

So, by serving in this mission, they will be protecting any protesters at the ICE facility. That’s my desire.

Now, to answer your question — “full force” is not a doctrinal term that the Army uses, so I’m not sure exactly what that means, and I don’t want to speculate as to what level of force they will be allowed to use.”

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Desperate: Dem Sen. Claims Trump STAGED Portland Antifa Riots To Justify Crackdown

A Democratic Senator openly claimed Tuesday that the Trump Administration faked violent clashes between Antifa thugs and ICE officers in order to justify a federal surge.

Senator Jeff Merkley says that Trump “staged a fake riot” in order to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Merkley claims that peaceful protesters were marched three blocks and then confronted with “a line across the road, accompanied by “professional videographers.”

The Senator alleges that pepper balls, flashbangs sounding like gunfire, and tear gas were used, creating the appearance of a riot.

To be clear, he is suggesting that the Antifa leftists themselves are ACTORS.

“Of course when you put teargas everybody moves,” Merkley said, adding “It looks as if there is some kind of riot going on.”

He charged that the exchange was “Totally fake,” asserting that “This was first time I know at least in my lifetime that federal government has faked A RIOT in order to try and justify if you will the insurrection act being invoked.”

Yeah, because Portland is really a peaceful utopia where leftist agitators never cause any trouble.

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Trump blocked from deploying National Guard in OR but can federalize troops, court says

 The 9th Circuit Court has granted an administrative stay on a temporary restraining order that had blocked the federalization and deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard members.

The administrative stay follows a Tuesday order from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek telling guardsmen to demobilize and go home.

Wednesday’s order from the 9th Circuit judges keeps the Guard under federal control but blocks their deployment until the panel of judges can rule more broadly on the Trump administration’s request to overrule a district judge’s order that blocks the Guard’s deployment in Portland.

Arguments on the federal government’s appeal are scheduled for Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

The initial restraining order, issued on Oct. 4, was in response to a memorandum from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorizing the deployment.

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Antifa’s quiet alliance with Portland police is the story the media is missing

The city of Portland, Oregon is no stranger to being in the national spotlight due to the city’s strong Antifa presence. While they have made headlines this past summer for what Antifa was doing outside of the ICE facility in the southern portion of the city, the Portland Police Bureau has on been the receiving end of scathing criticisms because of what they are not doing.

The Portland police’s inaction to enforce basic laws outside of the ICE facility has been a growing problem, not just for the federal agents assigned to work and protect it, but also the residents of a low-income apartment complex just across the street. The city was taken to court over the issue by some of the residents, but the judge ruled the local cops are not obligated to do crowd control outside the federal building.

With the judiciary on their side, Antifa continued their siege of the courthouse, mainly at night. That changed this past week with the deployment of Oregon National Guardsmen being officially requested, on orders from President Donald Trump. If the city and state are not going to do its part, then the federal government will. This move by the War Department predictably angered the local radicals and they redoubled their efforts.

Antifa mostly blamed conservative reporters, namely Katie Daviscourt of the Post Millennial, for “falsely” portraying what they are doing in order to spur the military to be activated. Which is not the case.

But facts do not matter to these anarcho-communists. So they attacked Daviscourt and got away with it, all thanks to the Portland Police Bureau. Daviscourt followed her attacker, pointed her out to an officer, but the officer just let the suspect go. This was all caught on video.

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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Threatens Democrat Mayor and Police Chief Face-to-Face She’ll QUADRUPLE Federal Agents If They Don’t IMMEDIATELY Crush Antifa Outside ICE Facility

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivered a blistering ultimatum to Portland’s Democrat Mayor, demanding immediate action to rein in the violent Antifa mobs besieging the city’s ICE facility, or face a surge of federal agents.

“No more political games,” Noem told Jesse Watters, describing a meeting with local law enforcement and the mayor in which she demanded a bigger buffer zone, open streets, and concrete security measures so officers and nearby residents could be safe to come and go.

When she says the mayor failed to give her the commitment she expected, Noem told Watters she warned him she would “cover him up with more federal resources”, specifically, four times the current federal presence, if Portland didn’t act.

She said federal CBP and ICE officers have been doing the heavy lifting to remove violent offenders and keep the facility safe — while city leaders have been “playing politics.”

Noem made clear she’s tired of local officials prioritizing optics over public safety.

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Oregon Governor Tina Kotek Claims Federal Agents in Portland Are Antagonizing Protesters

Oregon’s Democrat Governor Tina Kotek is blaming federal agents for the ongoing unrest in Portland, saying that these agents are escalating the situation by antagonizing protesters.

It makes no sense, but Kotek has to say this. If she told the truth, she would come under attack from the crazy leftists who put her in office. She has to defend them even if it means denying reality.

The radical left has been tearing the city apart since 2016. Everyone has seen countless videos of it for years now. Kotek is telling the rest of America not to believe their own eyes and ears.

Partial transcript via PBS:

This is not a war zone. We don’t have a challenge here in terms of managing lawful demonstrations outside the ICE building.

And I believe that they are looking back at information from 2020 and assuming this is the same. Look, lawful demonstrations happen in the city of Portland outside of this facility. It is being managed. What I’m seeing and what we’re seeing and what the mayor is seeing on the ground is an escalation from the agents who are protecting the building, trying to antagonize those protesters who are there.

And I would like to de-escalate the situation. We don’t need a military intervention. And let’s remember the federal judge agreed with that argument, not once, but twice. The federal government has not made a compelling case, based on the evidence on the ground, that there is an actual problem as it relates to being an insurrection or a rebellion or whatever they think this is.

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J.B. Pritzker Cries “Trump’s Invasion”, Gavin Newsom Warns “America Is on the Brink of Martial Law”, After President Trump Orders Texas National Guard Troops to Chicago and Portland

President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the deployment of four hundred Texas National Guard troops, with the consent of Gov. Greg Abbott (R), to Illinois and Oregon to protect ICE agents and federal facilities under violent siege by Antifa and other leftist terrorists in Chicago and Portland.

The orders federalize about 2,000 Texas National Guard under Northern Command, authorizing their deployment to “Illinois, Oregon and other locations throughout the United States,” with an initial deployment of 400 troops to Portland and Chicago.

The move follows Trump ordering California National Guard troops to Portland after a federal judge on Saturday blocked Trump from deploying the Oregon National Guard. Oregon, California and Portland went to court Sunday night to fight the new California orders.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) flipped out earlier Sunday when he learned Trump, who had already federalized the state guard to protect Los Angeles in June, sent California National Guard troops to Portland, calling the orders “appalling” and “un-American.”

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Judge again blocks deployment of National Guard troops to Oregon, this time from any state

A federal judge on Sunday night issued a second temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Oregon, this time from any state, The Associated Press reported, as protests in the state’s largest city continued.

The judge’s ruling came after the Trump administration ordered 400 members of the Texas National Guard to deploy to several states, including Oregon, as well as 300 from California. Both states then asked the judge to block the Trump administration’s moves.

During a hastily called evening telephone hearing, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut granted a temporary restraining order sought by the two states.

Immergut, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, seemed incredulous that the president moved to send National Guard troops to Oregon from neighboring California and then from Texas on Sunday, just hours after she had ruled the first time.

“How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she questioned the federal government’s attorney, cutting him off.

“Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she said later. “Why is this appropriate?”

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