Judge: Government's Chicago Claims Are 'Simply Untrue'

A federal judge said Thursday she will order federal agents in Chicago to restrict using force against peaceful protesters and media, saying current practices violate their constitutional rights. US District Judge Sara Ellis' ruling, which is expected to be appealed by President Trump's administration, refines an earlier temporary order that required agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot-control techniques, such as tear gas, against peaceful protesters and journalists. After repeatedly chastising federal officials for not following her previous orders, she added a requirement for body cameras.

• Ellis began Thursday's hearing by describing Chicago as a "vibrant place" and reading from poet Carl Sandburg's famous poem about the city. "The government would have people believe instead that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators," she said, per the New York Times. "That simply is untrue, and the government's own evidence in this case belies that assertion."
• A day earlier, attorneys for both sides repeatedly clashed in court over the accounts of several incidents during the immigration crackdown that began in September, including one where Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino threw a canister of tear gas at a crowd. "I don't find defendants' version of events credible," Ellis said. She said Bovino lied about being hit by a rock, then backtracked when video evidence didn't support his claim.
• Ellis said agents will be required to give two warnings before using riot control weapons and that agents are restricted from using force unless it is "objectively necessary to stop an immediate threat." She described protesters and advocates facing tear gas, having guns pointed at them and being thrown to the ground, saying "that would cause a reasonable person to think twice about exercising their fundamental rights."

• The preliminary injunction stems from a lawsuit filed by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force during demonstrations. During Wednesday's eight-hour hearing, witnesses gave emotional testimony when describing experiencing tear gas, being shot in the head with pepper balls while praying, and having guns pointed at them when recording agents in residential streets.
• Ellis questioned witnesses about how these experiences impacted them and if they prevented them from protesting again. One after another, witnesses described their anxiety about returning to protests or advocacy work. "I get really nervous because it just feels like I'm not safe," Leslie Cortez, a youth organizer in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, told Ellis. "And I question my safety when I go out.
• Attorneys also played footage of a five-hour deposition, or private interview, of senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino, where he defended agents' use of force and dodged questions about Border Patrol tactics in the nation's third-largest city. The Chicago Tribune reports that viewers were initially surprised when civil rights attorney Locke Bowman asked Bovino if he stood by his remark that the use of force at an ICE facility in Broadview was "exemplary" and Bovino responded "No." Bovino then added, "The uses of force have been more than exemplary."
• Last week, an appeals court blocked Ellis' order for Bovino to give her daily briefings on operations in the Chicago area.