Portland Episcopalian injured during peaceful protest at ICE facility

[Episcopal News Service] Laura Eckman, a member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon suffered minor injuries when standing in protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland on Oct. 4. She was there with her husband, Richard Eckman, a veteran of the Vietnam War. Both are 84.

The two were part of a peaceful crowd that had walked from a park in the Eckmans’ neighborhood to the nearby ICE facility to stand in protest, according to a text message sent by Eckman to her sister, Marjorie Sanders, who posted that message on Facebook.

In it, Eckman said that about an hour after the group began standing in protest, federal officers rushed out “in a phalanx” and knocked people to the ground, including the two of them. She also was hit in the head by a projectile. “Bleeding all over,” she told her sister, sending photos of a wound on her temple and a blood-stained blouse. The officials also sprayed the group with some kind of chemical, and because of the fog it created, she temporarily lost sight of her husband, who uses a walker.

Bystanders, including a medical professional, rushed to their aid, Eckman told Sanders.

According to an interview Eckman gave to OregonLive, after the couple walked home, they were approached by four Portland police officers who expressed their concern for her. They also said they had orders not to verbally engage with federal officers and to stay a block away from the facility.

The couple later went to a local emergency room to have her injuries checked, and while there she was told she had a concussion.

Her text message to her sister ended with these words: “This was so unprovoked. SO UNPROVOKED.”

Eckman told OregonLive that the couple had stayed away from previous protests at the ICE facility, which they knew from walking their dog past it every day. But they decided to join this one because the group “looked so benign, so peaceful.”

She also said she wanted people to know how unjustified the officers’ actions were. “I never thought federal officers could behave this way. I really didn’t,” she said. “I always thought people must be provoking them or something, that they would never do this unprovoked. Obviously, I was wrong.”

She also said it was important for people to know that people who are protesting in Portland are not Antifa, a term that stands for anti-fascist and is often misapplied to include all protesters against government actions, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

“We’re just regular Portlanders who love our city, and my husband, being a Vietnam veteran, is incensed that we’re talking about war within our own country. This is outrageous, really.”

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.