White House: 3 Federal Officers Likely Permanently Blinded By Portland Protesters

[Nevilledog]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/07/24/white-house-3-federal-officers-likely-permanently-blinded-by-portland-protesters/

TOPLINE The White House said Friday three federal agents have likely been permanently blinded by rioters pointing lasers “directly at their eyes” amid increasingly tense standoffs in Portland, Oregon, which have led to injuries on both sides.

KEY FACTS

Defending the controversial presence of federal forces in Portland, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany took aim at “so-called peaceful protesters” during a press briefing, listing the injuries to Department of Homeland Security agents deployed earlier this month to quell ongoing Black Lives Matter protests.

“A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails, another federal agent was shot by a pellet gun leaving a wound deep to the bone and tragically three federal officers were likely left permanently blinded by the rioters,” said McEnany, who also accused protesters of barricading officers inside the courthouse and launching fireworks at them.

So far, reports have focused on the many injuries to protesters hit with tear gas for 10 straight nights, as well as flash-bangs and less-lethal munitions.

According to the Freedom of Press Foundation, feds have reportedly injured at least 30 journalists since arriving in Portland, and last week, a protester was shot in the head with impact munition, suffering a fractured skull.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was caught in the crossfire on Wednesday night, explaining it was “hard to breathe” when he was tear-gassed after a meeting with protesters outside the courthouse.

McEnany responded to Wheeler’s accusations that federal officers’ responses were an “egregious overreaction,” calling the Democratic mayor “appalling” for “[standing] in the middle of a riot while violent protesters attacked a federal building.”

Mayor Wheeler’s office told Forbes it has no comment regarding the officers’ injuries.

*snip*

I'm gonna call bullshit on this. This is made up justification to hurt protesters. Show me some fucking medical records.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. Considering the many injuries

Of many protesters and tear gas clouds everywhere a few officers getting hurt collateral damage. They could follow the Constitution and tell trump to fuck off.

Where are the medical records?

No records, fuck off you fucking gestapo thugs.

[Midnight Writer]

2. I am skeptical. "Likely" permanently blinded? My bullshit detector is ringing.

[Mariana]

3. I don't believe it, either. Let's see some evidence. nt.

[agingdem]

4. Medical records would be nice but corroborating video would be better

and maybe some eye patches would be ok, too...all of the "blinded federal agents" bullshit is coming from Brainless Barbie the pseudo press moron and she never lies..

[roamer65]

5. Trump lies.

[lettucebe]

6. I've heard nothing on local news so agree with your BS call

[Progressive Jones]

7. War Is Hell. nt

[tonedevil]

8. Need a GoFundMe for laser pointers. /nt

[scarytomcat]

21. if we had known we could have used laser pointers in Iraq

Might have changed everything

[Hortensis]

9. BS and "projection" detectors both flashing lights. 8 protesters

were reportedly (WaPo confirmed) partially blinded by rubber bullets on May 30 during the marches, and that's likely inspired this. I don't see reports of similar injuries since the outcry in the first half of June.

However, if anyone was wielding a laser and managed to shine the beam into anyone's eye -- no matter who the victim is -- sufficient to cause damage, I would hope the criminal is identified, convicted, and sent to prison. The protesters I support do not march with weapons and intent to cause injuries.

[intrepidity]

10. Clearly they need another layer or two of protective gear

snowflakes

[BGBD]

11. Bullshit

You can't get lasers in the United States with more than about 5 milliwatts of power, and that's not enough to damage your eyes unless you stare at it for several seconds, maybe even 10 seconds. Which you physically can't do because of your blink reflex. There is generally no real risk to your eyesight at this power level.

So yeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on three people being blinded by laser pointers.

[jorgevlorgan]

12. Well I guess that makes nearly killing peaceful protesters okay

Understood!

[Takket]

13. 3 blinded???

First of all that is a bizarrely coincidental injury for three people to share. And second anything that happens to them is the fault of drumpf for using those people to wage war against civilians and not expecting us to fight back.

[soothsayer]

14. Maybe they won't be able to fire on peaceful protesters now

Or at least they can’t aim directly at them to make their weapons more lethal.

[malaise]

15. 150,000+ dead Americans plus 4.3million infected

That is all

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

16. Add mine to the voices calling RWBS on this.

Rs lie as easily & nearly as frequently as they breathe. Also, projection.

[Patterson]

17. They knew what they signed up for.

[radius777]

18. Alt-right 'accelerationists' are doing most of the violence

in these riots, all of a sudden lone white guys with hammers and backpacks show up, then are gone as fast as they came.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism
A far-right, white nationalist adaption of the term surfacing during the 2010s eschews the focus on capitalism of the prior variants, to instead refer to an acceleration of racial conflict resulting in a white ethnostate.[8]

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/06/02/riots-white-supremacy-and-accelerationism/
Accelerationism is the idea that white supremacists should try to increase civil disorder — accelerate it — in order to foster polarization that will tear apart the current political order. The System (usually capitalized), they believe, has only a finite number of collaborators and lackeys to prop it up. Accelerationists hope to set off a series of chain reactions, with violence fomenting violence, and in the ensuing cycle more and more people join the fray. When confronted with extremes, so the theory goes, those in the middle will be forced off the fence and go to the side of the white supremacists. If violence can be increased sufficiently, the System will run out of lackeys and collapse, and the race war will commence.

[Demsrule86]

19. I don't buy it...and if they didn't occupy Portland illegally in my book, they would be just fine.

[oasis]

20. "3 bllinded cops"? Bullshit. Hasn't happened anywhere else in 60+ days.

The Trumpiods have zero credibility.