Quote:A new lawsuit filed in federal court accuses Portland police, Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies, state police and federal officers of violating the rights of people with disabilities through aggressive police responses to racial justice protests in the city.

The advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon and four named plaintiffs allege the law enforcement agencies have used excessive force, chilled their free speech and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not making accommodations for people who are deaf, blind, have mobility restrictions or suffer from seizures.

The plaintiffs contend that their rights have been violated by the police bull-rushing of crowds without adequate notice, the use of strobe lights that trigger epileptic seizures and the use tear gas and impact munitions that indiscriminately affect large crowds of people.

The suit comes as the city enters its six month of social justice protests that began shortly after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck despite his pleas that he couldn’t breathe.

The plaintiffs are:

-- Philip Wolfe, who is deaf and has been a local activist. Wolfe had chaired the city’s now-defunct Community Oversight Advisory Board, which reviewed Portland police reform efforts mandated by a federal settlement. The settlement resulted from a federal investigation that found police used excessive force against people with mental illness.

-- Katalina Durden, who is legally blind and attended protests regularly since late July as an independent journalist. Durden typically relies on a guide dog but has instead used a reflective red-and-white cane at protests because she’s feared harm to her service dog. She records the protests in 360-degree sound for people with poor vision, according to the suit.

--Melissa Lewis, a freelance journalist who suffers from photosensitive epilepsy and a connective tissue disorder that results in slow healing from injuries and impairs her ability to run or move quickly.

--Juniper Simonis, an activist, ecologist and data scientist who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder due to their gender identity as a non-binary transgender person, the suit says.

By only communicating orders to disperse or warnings about imminent force verbally, people who are deaf or hard of hearing “have been subjected to egregious uses of force for failing to comply with orders and warnings they never received,” the suit alleges. It also contends that police have told some of the plaintiffs that they shouldn’t attend protests at all because of their disabilities.

“The rights of people with disabilities to speak out against injustice is sacred. Throughout the disability rights movement, this has been a vital tool for securing equal opportunity under the law,” Jake Cornett, executive director of Disability Rights Oregon, said in a statement. “After the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, law enforcement has failed to ensure the disability community has the same opportunity to safely exercise these rights as other Oregonians."

Wolfe attended a May 31 protest when Portland police fired impact munitions that resulted in loud noises and bright lights, followed by tear gas. Wolfe and other friends who are deaf “desperately tried to hold hands and stay together amid the chaos,” but then they were unable to hear or see due to the gas burning their eyes, the suit says.

Lewis contends one Portland officer, identified only by the No. 22 on a helmet, shined a strobe light at her on more than one occasion, even though she told police that the flashing lights could trigger a seizure, the suit says.

The suit seeks a court order that would require police to take measures to accommodate people with disabilities in the protest crowds. They could use sign-language interpreters, written signs or electronic communications, set predesignated dispersal routes for protesters that are accessible and halt the use of tear gas or other less lethal weapons on peaceful demonstrators, the suit says.

“As a person with a disability, I rely on my service animal to navigate the world, including participating in protests, and I have a right to that accommodation," Simonis said in a statement. “When law enforcement denies my right to protest, they silence my voice. No one should be silenced because they have a disability.”

The lawsuit was filed by a team of attorneys at Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and Disability Rights Legal Center.

The suit is the latest among nearly two dozen legal actions filed against the city stemming from its handling of protests in Portland since the end of May.

City Attorney Tracy Reeve declined comment on the pending litigation.

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ADA'ers can choose to participate in RIOTING if they like, but that DOESN'T give them a pass on breaking the law, and the peaceful protests are NOT organized or sponsored by the government. If they want to waste taxpayer $$ in suing someone, it would be the protest organizers!