On Tuesday, Oct. 28, a local homeless advocate and community activist was handcuffed by federal agents after leaving her backpack on the ground near the Eugene Federal Building.
On the last Tuesday of every month, several groups come together to protest ICE in front of the Federal Building. On Oct. 28, members from Veterans for Peace, Indivisible Eugene, Eugene Activists Event Group and others filled the corner of 7th and Pearl.
Shortly after the protest began, around 11 am, a protester who is known as Jetty Etty, was detained for the unattended backpack. She says she brought the same backpack she does every protest, which has supplies most often used for flushing eyes when a protester gets pepper sprayed. She also carries water and other medical supplies.
Etty consistently uses an alias because she says she fears being doxxed for her consistent advocacy.
Etty says she put the bag in the same spot she does every Tuesday when she protests, against a wall on Pearl Street. Shortly after walking away, she says Department of Human Services officers approached the bag, and Etty asked what they were doing.
According to Etty, they told her, “You left your bag unattended and walked off the city block.” Etty says she did not walk off the city block, only to the corner of the intersection.
The officers then put Etty in handcuffs and detained her in front of the other protesters. “They gave me a citation for preservation of federal property,” she says. Ultimately, they let her go, “because my lawyer was here,” she says of Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, who came down to the protest. Eugene Weekly has asked if the citation was dropped.
Rob Fisette, a media liaison for the protesters, says of law enforcement officers, “Everything they do is all about intimidating us to leave.” He says at previous protests, officers have pushed protesters to the floor, even causing one person an emergency room visit.
“We come out consistently just to stand in solidarity and not adapt to the situation as normal,” Fisette says.
“I really wish people would get out and stand up, especially because they’re gonna target the few people who show up over and over again. I’m the perfect example of that,” says Etty. “The more people that show up, the less they are going to fuck with certain individuals.”
Etty also alleges the officers made comments about her being dressed in all black, insinuating they cannot trust her because she could be a member of Antifa, labeled by the Trump administration as a “domestic terrorist organisation.” According to the White House, Trump’s new executive order regarding Antifa plans to implement a new law enforcement strategy to investigate “all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies,” despite them having no real structure or members.
Etty says she told the officers, “I don’t know if you guys notice, but there’s a theme going on here ’cause I’m in black and you’re in black.” She says she wears a lot of black and feels this was a targeted interaction.
The peaceful protest concluded around 1 pm with members gathered singing “We Shall Overcome.”