Portland protesters used leaf blowers to redirect tear gas back at federal agents seeking to disperse crowds, and now the federal agents are responding in kind, blowing it back again with similar gear, according to reports.
The protest group calling itself "Fathers Against Fascism" deployed the tactic in Portland this week and the federal agents that have descended upon the city to protect federal buildings and property are now using them, too, to redirect tear gas, a YouTube video posted by The Guardian showed.
Tweets have showed that protesters have used the home clean-up tools in protests in the event they turn violent and are confronted by federal agents with tear gas.
And other tweets have shown the federal agents holding similar tools this weekend.
The demonstrators, showing up at federal buildings – likely knowing it is where the federal agents are – stir up unrest to get tear gas deployed only to blow it back at the courthouse, in "leaf-blower wars," The Washington Post reported.
Federal riot-control agents are only permitted in cities to protect federal property, unless local leadership asks for assistance. Democrat-run cities across America have rejected the federal presence, but they cannot reject the presence around federal property.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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