Federal agents knock down elderly couple during Portland protest

An elderly couple says they were charged and knocked down by federal agents as they peacefully protested on Saturday in front of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland, just blocks from their home.

Laurie Eckman, 84, said she and her husband Richard Eckman, also 84 and a Vietnam war veteran, were rushed by federal officers “for no apparent reason.” She said her husband was leaning on his walker and wearing his Vietnam veterans cap as he was pushed to the ground.

“It was totally unprovoked. It was not the kind of crowd that shouts the ‘F word.’ It was people like us, our neighbors. There were families, there were several veterans,” Laurie Eckman told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “With no warning the feds charged into us, knocked us down and sprayed us. I was hit in the head with a projectile.”

Laurie Eckman said the couple joined the protest on a spur of the moment when they saw the kickoff rally at Elizabeth Caruthers Park from their kitchen window. They live in the neighborhood and walk past the ICE building daily with their dog.

“We didn’t want to give the feds any excuses so we were staying away from the protests deliberately,” Eckman said. “But this group looked so benign, so peaceful, we thought we should join them.”

Though the Eckmans were once active in the anti-war movement, they don’t attend many protests these days, she said, though they did attend the No Kings rally in Portland this summer and had saved their signs. Richard’s read: Vets against militarization and Laurie’s, Will swap 1 Little King Donald for 10,000-plus immigrants.

“We are a nation of immigrants and that’s what makes our country great. So this ICE overreach is anathema to us,” Laurie Eckman said.

Holding the signs and Richard’s walker, the couple made it to the park.

Shortly after, the crowd began to march. A few minutes after they arrived at the ICE facility at around 1 p.m., a small group of federal agents came out and arrested at least three people, including one of the protest leaders who federal agents dragged into the ICE building, Eckman said.

An hour later, she said, a large group of federal agents suddenly burst out of the building and rushed at Eckman, her husband and other protesters standing nearby, smashing them down to the ground.

Eckman said she was also hit with a projectile though she does not know what it was. Several eye-witnesses confirmed the couple’s account to The Oregonian/OregonLive and Eckman said a group of protesters immediately surrounded her to help, including a doctor.

Once the couple recovered enough and walked home, they were approached by four Portland police officers.

“They very kindly wanted to make sure I was okay,” Laurie Eckman said. “And they explained that they were not allowed to make verbal contact with the feds and had to stay about a block away. They were very solicitous of me, which I appreciated very much.”

The Eckmans then went to the emergency room. Laurie Eckman said she sustained a concussion, but her husband wasn’t injured.

Eckman said she and her husband, who served 10 years in active duty, are shocked at the federal agents’ behavior.

“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.”

And the couple want the world to know Portland protesters are not trouble makers.

“People have to know that we are not Antifa,” she said. “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.”