Press Releases

As President Trump threatens to send unidentified federal police forces to cities across America, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today cosponsored the Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act, led by Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici, both of Oregon. The bill would block federal paramilitary occupations in Portland, Oregon and any other American city, where heavily armed, unidentified federal forces have grabbed protesters off the street in unmarked vehicles and deployed munitions and tear gas against those exercising their First Amendment rights.

“What we are seeing in Oregon is an absolute violation of the constitutional right to free speech and an infringement on the protesters’ rights to freedom of assembly. These are the tactics used by authoritarian regimes and they have no place in our democracy. We cannot allow for this behavior to be normalized. Fascism has no place in America and these troops must withdraw,” said Pingree.

The Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act would:

• require individual and agency identification on uniforms of officers and prevent unmarked vehicles from being used in arrests; 
• limit federal agents’ crowd control activities to federal property and its immediate vicinity, unless their presence is specifically requested by both the mayor and governor;
• require disclosure on an agency website within 24 hours of deployments specifying the number of personnel and purposes of deployment; and
• make arrests in violation of these rules unlawful.

Pingree has also signed on to H.R. 7153, the Law Enforcement Identification Act, which would require uniformed federal officers policing First Amendment assemblies to visibly display identifying information. 

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