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Damage to an ICE vehicle took place during a demonstration much smaller than recent large-scale street protests. Demonstrators on social media were sharply critical of the police response July 1 to a call from federal agents about a crowd blocking the exit to a federal building parking area.
Eugene police now say they are reviewing a complaint about damage to an unmarked vehicle belonging to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding to questions about the role of city police if protesters interfere with ICE activity.
The disclosure of the vehicle’s owner Wednesday night corrects a previous police statement that the vehicle was leaving the federal building in downtown Eugene and sustained damage but did not belong to ICE. A police spokeswoman Thursday said damage to the vehicle took place on a city street, falling within the city’s jurisdiction.
The original police statement, released within hours of the Tuesday, July 1 protest, emphasized a hands-off approach with protesters: “Eugene police officers did not engage with any protesters and left the scene as soon as they determined no additional criminal activity was occurring,” the statement said.
Yet angry accounts from some involved in the protest activity sharply criticized Eugene police, describing officers as effectively helping ICE transport detainees, despite police pledges to the contrary.
A post on a public Facebook group’s page for “activist-oriented events” states that “our presence today also sharpened the contradictions of local law enforcement’s role in facilitating ICE’s work. TRANSFER TODAY COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT BACKUP FROM THE EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT.”
Kaleigh Bronson-Cook, who said she took part in the protest, estimated that about a dozen protesters attempted to block the exiting vehicle that sustained damage. Bronson-Cook said she was with a group of about 40 protesters, but said she was not among the dozen who surrounded the vehicle.
Bronson-Cook said the vehicle at times lurched forward, estimating that it took about a minute before it cleared the protesters.
“They drove through the crowd of people. Luckily nobody was hurt,” Bronson-Cook said.
Police did not directly clear a path for the vehicle, she said, but their presence can’t be described as neutrality.
“They’re responding to the system calling them in for support, the federal police and ICE,” Bronson-Cook said. “They’re not on the side of the people, or immigrants.”
The activist Facebook post references video and images. A link posted elsewhere purporting to have been taken at the demonstration appears to show Eugene police officers speaking with an unidentified person at a parking lot away from the federal building.
Eugene police, in their statement after the protest, said that they were “contacted by federal agents regarding demonstrators blocking the entrance and exit of the driveway of the federal building and interfering with the staff ingress and egress to and from the facility.”
Police then arrived and “assessed the scene” before leaving, according to their statement, only to return after another call from federal agents about “criminal mischief” and also an “unlawful entry incident” involving someone climbing a fence.
The report about the damaged vehicle “was taken off-site to avoid any disruption to the ongoing demonstration,” according to the Eugene police statement.
The clashing perspectives follow a discussion between Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner and a citizens’ advisory group, the city’s Police Commission, at a June 12 public meeting.
At the meeting, Skinner responded to a question from the 12-member commission about interactions between his agency and ICE protesters.
Skinner has long said Eugene police would not assist with immigration enforcement, and he repeated that during the meeting, citing state laws restricting the use of local police in enforcing immigration law
Asked specifically by Commissioner Sean Shivers about the police response to protesters around ICE activity, Skinner said: “I’m assuming what you’re thinking would happen was that we would show up and remove protesters so they (ICE) could do their job. So how is that not using city resources in the interest of them enforcing immigration?”
Skinner went on to say, “If we use city resources … that better allows the federal government to engage in their immigration enforcement, we are complicit.”
Jensina Hawkins, chair of the Police Commission, in a text message Thursday said that, in her opinion, two photos and a short video from the demonstration “do not conclusively demonstrate that EPD actively assisted ICE.” She added that she is “open to receiving other perspectives.”
Hawkins said she was only speaking for herself, not the entire commission.
“I have seen no evidence of Chief Skinner not fulfilling the assurance he made (to the) Police Commission,” Hawkins said.
The July 1 demonstration — like recent peaceful gatherings that drew much larger crowds — involved colorful signs and chants protesting the stepped-up enforcement of federal immigration laws under President Donald Trump.
Protesters first assembled outside the Lane County Courthouse, where they heard a rallygoer using voice amplification describe the expected time of an ICE transport. Following the demonstration, a social media post on the “activist-oriented events” Facebook page referred to interfering with such transports of detainees, named in the post as “community members.”
“We won’t stop every transfer, but we made them change tactics on the fly to get the community members out of the building,” the post said.
Melinda McLaughlin, a Eugene police spokeswoman, said in an email Thursday the driver of the damaged vehicle reported “she had been surrounded by several suspects from the front, driver, and passenger side of the vehicle who punched, kicked, and pushed on the front of the vehicle, with some attempting to obstruct her view from the windows with large pieces of cardboard.”
The reported damage included the words “f— ice” graffitied on a door and a small dent to the vehicle’s hood, as well as broken clips off of a side panel and scuff marks to a rear bumper, according to McLaughlin.
“It is investigated in the same manner as any other similar incident. We have an obligation to treat everyone equally,” McLaughlin said.
