On January 16, 2018, the City of Portland filed their response to our class-action lawsuit on behalf of the people who were detained in a police "kettle" on June 4, 2017 in downtown Portland.
Mat dos Santos, ACLU of Oregon legal director, had this comment:
"The City of Portland’s response to our class action lawsuit is absurd. We'll see them in court.
Legal observers, members of the media, protesters, and bystanders alike were surrounded and detained in the kettle on June 4, 2017, and many more witnessed it. To deny it now is just plain wrong. The City simply cannot show that they had individualized suspicion that each of the 200-250 people detained in the street that day were breaking the law, as they claim in their answer. How could they?
Thankfully, this is not a case of a few protesters’ words against the words of the police. The incident was highly publicized on social media, livestreamed, and widely discussed in the media in the days following. While we are disappointed in the City’s disingenuous response, we remain steadfast in our belief that our clients will be vindicated."