Former Customs and Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino’s use of chemical irritants during the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota is among 17 criminal investigations now underway in Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
County Attorney Mary Moriarty mentioned Bovino’s actions at Monday’s news conference. Footage captured by activist Ben Luhmann shows Bovino throwing a gas canister at protesters and observers in Minneapolis’ Mueller Park on January 21. The canister released green gas that, as Duke University School of Medicine professor and tear gas expert Sven-Eric Jordt told my colleague Samantha Michaels, may contain the carcinogenic reproductive toxicants lead and chromium.
Moriarty also stated that the office had launched a Transparency and Accountability Project to examine the 17 cases, staffed by prosecutors and a civilian investigator from the county office.
The project includes a “portal for community members to share photos and video on any incidents that may involve potentially unlawful conduct by federal agents,” Moriarty said, as well as eyewitness accounts of similar experiences—a response to the federal government’s refusal to provide information that could be used to hold its agents to account.
If federal authorities continue to withholdcrime scene evidence from the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, Moriarty said, as well as the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, she would consider filing a lawsuit against them.
To date, federal agents have largely gotten away with flagrant, widely recorded, and documented abuses against immigrants, protesters, and observers in Minnesota, including killing unarmed protesters, releasing immigrants from detention while withholding their documents and possessions, detaining children, and tear gassing nonviolent gatherings. This is Bovino’s legacy, and that of the Trump administration.
But at the local level, individuals—increasingly joined by state and county authorities like Moriarty—are continuing to fight back.
Mother Jones is a nonprofit American progressive magazine that focuses on news, commentary, and investigative journalism on topics including politics, environment, human rights, health, healthcare and culture. Clara Jeffery serves as editor-in-chief of the magazine. Monika Bauerlein has been the CEO since 2015.
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