Some environmentalist groups along with other Leftist organizations (like the ACLU) are now taking to the courts to try to force the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stop using teargas and other chemical weapons to halt the unrest in Portland, Oregon citing environmental risks. This lawsuit is nothing more than a way to assist the ongoing rioting and looting in Portland and other cities too. The teargas and other chemical-based methods used by police in Portland obviously worked. But the Left wants to put police at a disadvantage at every opportunity to continue the campaign of violence and destruction.
Environmental groups sue DHS over use of tear gas in Portland
By Darryl Coote
Oct. 21 (UPI) — A coalition of environmental, public health and social justice groups in Oregon has sued the Department of Homeland Security over its use of tear gas and chemical weapons to quell protests in Portland, accusing the federal agency of creating “potentially grave health and environmental hazards.”
Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon on Tuesday in an Oregon district court, the lawsuit accuses the DHS of breaking environmental law when its agents of Operation Diligent Valor deployed an “unprecedented amount of dangerous chemical weapons” to disperse protests against police brutality and racial inequality.
The complaint accuses the federal agency of deploying the chemical munitions without preparing an environmental assessment and an environmental impact statement as mandated for major federal actions by the National Environmental Policy Act.”
In short, NEPA required Defendants to consider the potentially severe environmental and human health impacts of Operation Diligent Valor, but they did not do so. And they continue to abdicate that responsibility to Plaintiffs and the public,” the lawsuit states.
Operation Diligent Valor was deployed July 4 to Portland in a bid to protect federal buildings amid months-long protests that erupted in response to the police-involved killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
The plaintiffs Neighbors for Clean Air, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, Cascadia Wildlands, 350PDX and Willamette Riverkeeper said in the lawsuit that the chemical weapons and tear gas used during the operation have “infiltrated” nearby residences, buildings and parks and may have permeated the city’s vegetation.
PHOTO CREDIT: Fires and teargas at the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse rioters tried to raid July of this year By Tedder – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92544504
Green Jihad 