ICE Agents Swarm And Drag Blind Man In Portland

At this point, it should be clear to the Trump administration that it has a police brutality problem over at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, the DHS is too busy lying and vilifying victims to justify the aggressive and often violent behavior of its ICE agents — violence that even people with disabilities are not immune to.

On Saturday, several ICE agents took into custody 36-year-old Quinn Haberl, a blind man who was on the side of the driveway to an ICE facility in Portland, by swarming around him and then dragging him off by his limbs. Footage of the incident was recently obtained by KOIN 6.

The footage shows Haberl was sitting close to a thick blue line on the ground, which federal agents drew to indicate when protesters were crossing onto the federal property. If protesters cross that line, agents can arrest them for trespassing. Haberl was accused of failing to move away from the line when commanded to do so, and, somehow, that’s supposed to justify an entire group of agents roughing up a blind man who, according to The Oregonian, stands all of 4-foot-6.

From KOIN 6:

That’s when the videos show several federal agents circling around Haberl before grabbing him by his limbs and carrying him into the ICE building before dropping him on his head.

They can then be seen dragging him past the gate with more agents getting involved, cuffing him as the man wiggles on the ground. One agent could be seen picking up Haberl’s white cane. 

Two men who saw the incident unfold Saturday night said Haberl is a joy to be around — usually dancing and having a good time while protesting outside of ICE.

“It was heartbreaking to see him being dragged the way he was,” one of the men said. “The visceral reaction was to just not continue videotaping and get the angle, but I just couldn’t keep it out. I had to keep him in frame. I had to keep him in frame and it just hurt my heart.”

The other man, Sterling Anderson, said it was shocking to witness. 

“You can see in the video where I’m very vocal, and then you can see my breath and my breath was taken away,” Anderson said. “It’s like, what threat does that man represent to, you know, agents of the state or property?”

Of course, the Department of Homeland Security — which has made a habit as of late of describing any migrant accused of being undocumented as a “criminal illegal alien” even when they have no criminal records and haven’t had their day in immigration court — had a different take on what happened to Haberl.

“This rioter was arrested after he blatantly disobeyed law enforcement orders to remain off federal property, obstructed law enforcement, and continued to block the driveway so vehicles could not enter or exit the ICE facility,” a DHS official told KOIN in a statement.

Really? A “rioter”?

So, now, all migrants accused of being in the U.S. illegally are “criminals,” and all protesters who allegedly fail to immediately comply with ICE commands are “rioters.”

You can tell that Trump administration officials have just grown accustomed to telling blatant, observable lies, because DHS told a news outlet Haberl is a “rioter” and then, in the same sentence, described offenses that do not in any way, shape, or form constitute rioting. In fact, according to Haberl, all he is being charged with is failure to comply. That ain’t what rioters get charged with.

(If anyone is confused about the difference, the more than 1,500 people President Donald Trump pardoned for crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — those were rioters.)

It’s worth noting that this isn’t Haberl’s first run-in with ICE agents. Not even the first within a week, actually.

From the Oregonian:

Last Tuesday night, in what he described as a mild act of civil disobedience, Haberl said he decided to remain seated along the line even as federal agents came out of the building to clear the driveway of people. They typically do this before vehicles enter or exit.

“I was going to hold my ground. I was not going to fight them,” he recalled thinking.

Soon after, video shows, a pair of federal agents yanked up Haberl, walked several feet along the sidewalk and then dropped him on the concrete as people shouted that the man they had carried off was blind.

“They just threw me to the ground,” Haberl said. “I almost hit my head on a cement wall.”

That didn’t stop him from taking up a spot along the blue line Saturday. This time, according to Haberl and video footage, he scooted off to the side of the driveway before agents emerged.

So, not only was he not a rioter, but video footage appears to indicate he was trying to comply with the blue line rule when he was approached by agents.

“They never yelled at me to move off the blue line. I moved off when somebody said they were coming out,” Haberl told the Oregonian. “My hands were at my sides. My feet were in front of me.”

Still, DHS maintains he was a “rioter,” and to emphasize that accusation, the department posted footage of Haberl at past protests — *checks notes* — saying really mean things to ICE agents.

In one clip shared by DHS, which, again, called him a “rioter,” Haberl can be heard saying to agents, “I hope somebody kills you guys,” and “we should give them the Medal of Freedom,” which may be bad, but it’s covered by the First Amendment, and it sure as hell isn’t an act of rioting.

Haberl, who was born with congenital glaucoma, said he believes it was his disability that caused him to be an ICE target in the first place.

“I think they wanted to make a point,” he said earlier this week. “So they picked the weakest person they could find and made a big show out of it.”

Haberl said he began showing up to protest at the ICE building about two-and-a-half weeks ago.

“I have friends that have been stopped outside, harassed by ICE, ordered to show their proof of citizenship just because of the color of their skin,” he went on to say. “I’m not against immigration reform. What I’m against is deporting people from this country because their only, quote, ‘crime’ is being here. That’s awful. I think it’s wrong. I think it’s a waste of money.”

Trump and his administrators have repeatedly described Portland as being “war-ravaged,” but they just don’t seem to be able to show any evidence of the city being ravaged by any observable war. That’s why protesters become “rioters” the second they get too loud or fail to immediately do what they’re told.

Another word for it is propaganda — specifically, government propaganda. And that’s something any person, whether they’re a U.S. citizen or not, can fall victim to.

SEE ALSO:

Donald Trump Is Lying About ‘War-Ravaged’ Portland

Trump Paints Portland As A ‘War Zone’ To Justify Federal Overreach

ICE Agents Swarm And Drag Blind Man, Who DHS Called A ‘Rioter,’ Despite Him Not Being Accused Of Rioting  was originally published on newsone.com