Federal agents continued to clash with protesters in Minneapolis yesterday, where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino threw a gas canister into a crowd of protesters.
In a video taken by ICE investigator Ben Luhmann, Bovino can be seen among a throng of agents exiting their SUVs after being confronted by protesters at an intersection.
As some protesters are forcefully detained and the scene intensifies, Bovino holds up a gas canister. “I’m gonna gas. Get back. Gas is coming. Gas is coming, second warning. Second warning,” Bovino says in the video.
“Gas on film, gas on film!” Luhmann can be heard shouting. He and his brother Sam, both teenagers age 17 and 16 respectively, are known for traveling the country and documenting ICE activity.
“Third warning. Gas, gas, gas,” Bovino says, then tossing the canister and pushing people away from the intersection. Plumes of green and gray smoke then fill the area as protesters flee the area. The Star Tribune reported, based on Luhmann’s videos, that the smoke was “pocket tactical green smoke,” manufactured by the company Defense Technology, with instructions that it should be used only by “trained law enforcement, correctional or military personnel.”
Department of Homeland Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the officers were in the area for “a targeted enforcement operation,” in a statement to KARE 11. McLaughlin justified the deployment of gas, as officers were “repeatedly harassed and blocked by hostile crowds while simply trying to take bathroom breaks.”
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The confrontation occurred shortly after an appeal court reversed a temporary ban on immigration officers retaliating against protesters and observers. A previous ruling found that Bovino and other officers used force in Chicago raids and operations that “shocks the conscience,” with “no signs of stopping.”
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