Right-wing reporter preps $10M federal suit alleging ‘culture of political discrimination’ by Portland police
A right-wing independent journalist is leveraging his short-lived arrest in a bid to put the Portland Police Bureau on trial — alleging a deep-seated bias by the bureau’s top brass against conservatives.
A warning of litigation filed Thursday says the influencer, Nick Sortor, will proceed with a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the city over his arrest outside a
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in South Portland.
“The city of Portland and its police department maintain a long-standing pattern and practice of hostility toward conservative political viewpoints, and demonstrable tolerance, sympathy or coordination with Antifa,” the tort claim notice says.
Sortor, 27, was held in the downtown county jail
overnight Oct. 2 on suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, after his arrest at an ICE protest.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office
dropped the case four days later, saying that
black-clad protesters had pushed Sortor into a drainage planter during a confrontation over the influencer’s combative coverage.
The prosecutor’s memo determined Sortor was defending himself, but supported the actions of responding patrol officers, saying they were working without access to surveillance footage and had probable cause to arrest him at the time.
In a Tuesday interview, civil attorney
D. Angus Lee said the suit will seek punitive damages against the city for allegedly violating Sortor’s rights under the Fourth Amendment.
Known as a Monell claim, the suit seeks damages not only for harms allegedly suffered that night, but also to punish the city for its “unspoken policy” of targeting conservatives.
“There are many frontline officers at the Portland Police Bureau who have been effectively pressured by the culture that comes from the top down,” Lee said. “When those frontline officers are under oath in depositions, they’re going to tell us the truth about what is going on.”
Police officials have repeatedly denied accusations of political discrimination, and such charges of
hidden sympathies might seem risible to the crowds that made law enforcement the target of their ire during the
city’s mass unrest in 2020 and 2021.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the civil rights division at the U.S. Department of Justice,
vowed to launch her own investigation in the wake of Sortor’s arrest. Lee submitted a memorandum to Dhillon in November cataloging various cases of alleged viewpoint discrimination, though many of them happened years ago under different political leadership.
Sortor, who lives in Washington, D.C., has been convicted of driving under the influence in Kentucky, his home state, and was also once arrested for menacing a police officer, the Lexington Herald-Leader recently
reported.
He violated the terms of probation in a criminal mischief case, the paper reported, and faces arrest if he returns home.
Lee said he was unaware of the criminal case and said it had no bearing on the matter.
Portland’s ICE protests became a national headline when President Donald Trump announced he was deploying the National Guard and authorizing “full force” in the city on Sept. 27, quickly attracting more demonstrators and dozens of influencers hoping to document chaos.
Trump’s deployment has stalled on legal fronts, while Portland’s rainy season has
largely dispersed protesters from outside ICE. The livestreamers have all gone home — at least for now.
City Attorney Robert Taylor and Mike Benner, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau, declined to comment.
Nick Sortor was arrested at an ICE protest in Portland, but the charges were soon dropped.
www.oregonlive.com
