UWS Sen. Benjamin Pens Letter To Congress About Portland Protests

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A New York State Senator, whose district includes the Upper West Side and Harlem, led 66 of his colleagues in the legislature in writing a letter to Congress on the "abuse of power" that federal agents have shown during the recent protests in Portland, Oregon.

Sen. Brian Benjamin, along with Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens), was the driving force behind a letter that called on the New York Congressional Delegation to take action to "cease the federal lawlessness and unconstitutionality in Portland, and prevent it from being replicated anywhere else."

"The federal government has sent in riot squads in combat gear, they have abducted people off the streets and they have terrorized the people of Portland," Benjamin said in a statement. "We implore Congress to take steps to prevent these actions from spreading to anywhere else in the country, including New York."

Specifically, the letter from the 68 members of the New York legislature says that it has "little faith" that either the Department of Justice or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will conduct investigations into the action of the federal officers in Portland.

"Rather, we urgently call on you as our state's representatives in Congress, to take immediate action to curb this federal lawlesness in Portland and prevent it from being replicated in any other locations," reads the letter. "The Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security must be required to respect the law and prohibited from operating as an unrestrained and violent federal police force within our country's boundaries and in our cities."

To give context to the situation in Oregon, the federal government recently dispatched officers from the Department of Homeland Security to counteract protests going on in Portland.

Multiple reports came out of the city of officers not identifying themselves nor their agency when asked.

In one video clip that was shared repeatedly across social media, the officers in Portland were only identifiable by the word "POLICE" written in yellow on their chest. A protester who spoke to the Washington Post told the newspaper he couldn't tell whether he was being approached by law enforcement or by right-wing extremists.

The letter from Benjamin and other members of the New York legislature, signed by 32 state senators and 34 members of the Assembly, also called for an investigation into the presence and actions of the unmarked federal agents.