A Photographer Says He's Traumatized By What He's Captured In Portland

[Nevilledog]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/portland-photographer-takes-picture-officer-pointing-weapon

Photographer Mathieu Lewis-Rolland was on scene at Monday night's anti–police brutality protests in Portland when he captured a striking image: a federal officer pointing their weapon directly at him.

The officer, like many currently in the city under orders from the Trump administration, is wearing a camouflage uniform, a helmet, and a gas mask as he stares directly at the camera.

The evening of violence left Lewis-Rolland extremely shaken. "I hadn’t seen the feds raise their guns like they did tonight," he told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview Tuesday. "I saw them pointing them at everybody and anyone, including me."

"Last night was the most horrifying thing I have ever experienced in my life," he said. "I got shot at, gassed more times than I can imagine."

*snip*

[Penn Voter]

1. Welcome to Putin's America! n/t

[MineralMan]

2. The uniforms and masks make it impossible to identify individuals

in that group of federal goons. No name tags. No nothing. They are anonymous, like Empire Storm Troopers. That is intentional. Faceless, nameless thugs.

[LastDemocratInSC]

14. A patch on his left shoulder: MNI

[TheRickles]

17. Good find - any idea what MNI stands for?

I didn't have any luck with a brief Google search - MNI is an international "targeted media" company, or Malaysian Newsprint Industries, or Montreal Neurological Institute, etc.

Any bloodhounds out there? Thanks.

[LastDemocratInSC]

19. There's another photo down thread, number 16 I think.

The shoulder patch there is ZT1. Maybe a unit number?

And that guy has a round "United States Marshal" patch just below the shoulder patch. The guy in the first photo also has the round patch but it's difficult to see.

[niyad]

21. Murderous nazi idiots?

[Ferrets are Cool]

20. 4 years ago, who would ever have thought that we would

come to this point in America MM.
This is so terrible that it takes someone much better than me to put it into words. All I can garner is anger.

[woodsprite]

26. My husband said that if I had told him it would go down like this, he never would have believed me.

I told him I tried, but he refused to listen to me and actually got quite angry with me.

[live love laugh]

3. They're DEFINITELY going to kill somebody. Operation Chaos. nt

[tblue37]

4. K&R for visibility. nt

[stillcool]

5. We're in trouble.

"I'm supposed to be taking pictures of music festivals and weddings this summer," said Lewis-Rolland. "Instead I'm having federal officers point AR-15s at my fucking face."

Good article...thanks!

[JudyM]

6. It's like little boys' paintball fantasies-come-true.

[Lochloosa]

7. It's not the first time.....

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. It's only a matter of time

[paleotn]

32. There's a pattern here....

Seems a segment of America still has a strong jackboot, fascist streak, to go along with their racism. Deplorables is way too light a term to describe them. Fucking sacks of shit seems more fitting. They need to be carved out of this nation like a cancer and destroyed.

[Grasswire2]

33. yeah, and they deceived America/themselves about keeping their guns.

They have always cried that they need their guns to keep the federal government from encroachment on locals.

BS.

I don't see any of them downtown with their long guns now.

[Lilaclady]

8. Gear

Can someone identify all the gear he’s wearing?

[delisen]

9. State-sponsored Terrorism ?

[FirstLight]

10. oh god...should I just go back to bed now?

I can't take much more of this... my stomach is in knots and my migraine just kicked back in.

We cannot let this become the new normal, Trump is pushing ALLLL the buttons for full out coup.

oh.my.god.

[Evolve Dammit]

12. This is a Putin playbook escalation.

[Mersky]

13. Wow. Captured in stills what it feels like watching the live feeds.

Regular folks under assault from an unwelcome force.

[Nevilledog]

15. Right? Had the same response.

[Mersky]

18. Is surreal and shouldn't be happening.

But it is. Shame on US Marshals for being used this way. ETTD.

[icymist]

16. Look at that watch this guy has! Looks expensive. Not the kind to take out beating citizens with!

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. Terrorism must pay better than it used to.

[niyad]

23. Patch under zti says United Staes Marshal.

[TheRickles]

28. That's bad news.

The marshals were supposed to be the ones who would escort Trump out of the White House in handcuffs....

Good photo, though. Very high resolution, so the USM patch is unmistakeable.

(I can't figure out how to upload my blow-up photo of the patch - anyone have any tips for uploading an image that isn't posted anywhere online and has no URL?)

[paleotn]

31. Go ahead, jackboot.

Pull the goddamn trigger. You piece of fucking shit!!

Federal law enforcement needs a thorough scouring when this is all over. These people need to spend the rest of their miserable lives shoveling shit.

[Hekate]

24. KnR

[woodsprite]

25. I take objection with him calling the guy an "officer". I'd say "mercenary". nt

[Stuart G]

27. It ain't over...let's wait for reactions to this story/picture...It won't be what Trump expects.

..That picture is worth more than 10,000 words

........U.S. Troops/Marshals pointed loaded guns at protesters, and shooting..

I believe Trump is in more trouble than ever...but we will see.
Trump ordered this, with armed weapons


That picture will get around everywhere.
,,,,,it will take time, but everywhere..pointing guns at protesters...& shooting..

[paleotn]

29. Horrible as it is...

it isn't stopping the protests. It's stirring them up even more, which may be Barr's point. If so, they're badly misreading the situation. At some point, someone is going to get killed by these nazi goons and this will be one more albatross around the necks of Donnie Two Hands and his Rethuglican minions in Congress. One more reason why they will lose large in November. God, they're stupid.

[SlogginThroughIt]

30. Using force to combat protests against excessive force

Using force to combat protests against excessive force is not going to work.

This is going to get really ugly.