“Abolish ICE” agitators in Portland, Oregon, reportedly hurled racial slurs at black and Hispanic federal officers who were policing them for the past month.
According to Tuesday evening report in The Oregonian, agitators who have been occupying and camping outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Southwest Portland since June 17 reportedly called a black officer the N-word and also referred to him as a “blood traitor” and an “Uncle Tom.”
“These racial slurs have been directed at me throughout the entire length of the deployment,” the African-American officer reportedly wrote, according to email records The Oregonian obtained.
The outlet reported that an officer “who is a woman of Hispanic and Native American descent” was “called derogatory terms for Hispanic people” in addition to being called a “weak female” and “traitor.”
“I was berated for so long I can’t even remember everything that was told to me,” the female officer of Hispanic and Native American descent reportedly wrote.
Another officer reportedly complained that the “Abolish ICE” agitators, in addition to calling the officers Nazis, “yelled continuously that they hope we die, they hope our families die.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced on Monday that the agitators, who last month blocked ICE agents from going to work (at least eight were arrested), had to clear out by midnight the next day. A sign at the front of the camp reportedly said, “any attempt to dismantle this community is a declaration of war.” But by Tuesday evening, about a dozen agitators reportedly remained, as most of the agitators disbanded.
Residents living near the area said the “Abolish ICE” agitators made them afraid to walk down the street, with one anonymous resident reportedly saying, “It’s very noisy, people are acting very threatening toward residents, there are actually people coming from the camp and they’re urinating on the building.”
Another resident who lives near the ICE field office reportedly added: “I think that this all started for children, but then I think it got lost with the violence, the threats of violence, just the yelling and the screaming, the use of children is just wrong.”