A federal helicopter that has monitored nightly protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, was not seen Saturday evening after an online group urged activists to point lasers at “cop copter” aircraft.
Rose City Counter Info, a platform for the Portland area that espouses “anarchist and anti-authoritarian perspectives,” earlier this week posted an invitation for what it called a “laser party” on Saturday. Participants were told to go to “a park, field, or some other public place” to “unleash your beam” at 9 p.m. local time.
The post broadly mentioned targeting the “federal regime,” presumably referring to ICE and U.S. Border Patrol operations in Portland, specifically, the ICE building on Macadam Avenue, where demonstrators have regularly gathered to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and Border Patrol, told Fox News it was taking the matter seriously.
“Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a federal crime. This is incredibly dangerous for the aircraft personnel and for the public’s safety,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Antifa domestic terrorists WILL NOT overrun our cities. We will bust their networks and bring every one of them to justice.”
Another organizer in Portland is using a much lighter touch to protest ICE.
“Operation Inflation” provides inflatable costumes to demonstrators to challenge the notion that the city has devolved into chaos. On Saturday, the line of characters included Pikachu and Patrick Star from “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
“If you’re going to make it silly and say that we’re evil, we’re going to make it silly by showing how evil you are,” Brooks Brown, of Vancouver, Washington, told NBC News this week.
