Chicago groups sue to bar federal agents from protest duties

A collection of Chicago activist groups want a judge to block federal agents sent to the city to combat violent crime from interfering in or policing protests, arguing in a lawsuit filed Thursday that the surge ordered by President Donald Trump will inhibit residents' ability to hold demonstrations.

A collection of Chicago activist groups want a judge to block federal agents sent to the city to combat violent crime from interfering in or policing protests, arguing in a lawsuit filed Thursday that the surge ordered by President Donald Trump will inhibit residents' ability to hold demonstrations. The suit names Attorney General William Barr along with the heads of other federal agencies whose agents are part of the surge plan announced at the White House on Wednesday. The announcement did little to calm some Chicago residents' fear that the agents' presence will lead to the violent clashes between demonstrators and federal agents seen in Portland.

Aislinn Pulley, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Chicago, said the federal strategy uses crime as an excuse to "stifle righteous rage and anger at the continued killing of Black people by police." "We will not be threatened," Pulley said at a news conference announcing the suit. "We will not be coerced into suppressing our rage." The lawsuit also asks a judge to prevent agents in Chicago from making arrests or detaining people without probable cause, along with requiring agents to identify themselves and their agency and explain why someone is being arrested. The planned surge already has caused some members of the activist groups to draw back from protest plans this weekend, "due to the well-founded fear that they will be brutalized or kidnapped by federal agents for no reason other than being a protestor, journalist, or legal observer on the streets and sidewalks of Chicago," attorneys wrote.