Feds used toxic smoke grenades during summer protests in Portland, researcher finds By Kale Williams, oregonlive.com
Share: Federal officers advance of demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Monday, July 27, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Federal agents in Portland used toxic and potentially deadly smoke grenades more than two dozen times over the summer as they attempted to disperse demonstrators protesting for social and racial justice, according to a Portland-based researcher.
Juniper Simonis, an environmental biologist and data scientist with The Chemical Weapons Research Consortium, which studies the effects of chemical agents on protesters, noticed mid-July that some demonstrators were complaining of unique and novel symptoms that sometimes lasted for days after exposure to chemical agents. Simonis had been to several protests in Portland over the summer but chose to wat