Bush's Secret Service, Police Attack Media Covering Protest

Thursday afternoon, Portland was a scene of violence and chaos as protestors and police went at it near the hotel where President Bush is spending the night. The confrontation came after the president announced a new forest initiative that would allow logging to prevent devastating wildfires. Many of the protestors say they're also upset with the president's foreign policy regarding Iraq.

Police pepper sprayed lots of people including reporters, producers, and photographers who were covering the march. Several of our own KPTV/KPDX employees were sprayed. One of them was photographer Beth English, her tape shows that a police officer takes a dead-on aim at her face. Beth was treated and released.

Back in 2000 during the May Day riots, one of KPTV's photographers was maced by police. At the time, Police Chief Mark Kroeker apologized face to face to our photographer and promised no more journalists would ever be attacked. But it has happened again. Portland police are saying they believe the retaliation came from officers called in from other jurisdictions. Portland police say they believe the rubber bullets and pepper-spray came from officers from Tigard, Beaverton or Clackamas County.

A spokesperson tells us police have not yet determined what sparked the retaliation, but police also say one of their own was injured. A female officer, we're told, suffered a wrist injury when a crowd pushed her down the barricade she was setting up. In answer to reports that children were also struck in the push-back, a police spokesperson says children should have been kept away from a demonstration. Here's what police say with regard to our photographer and other employees clearly targeted in the retaliation, "I understand that there has been an individual who has a welt or something on the leg. There are people who have been apparently pepper-sprayed and apparently a reporter or reporters," says Henry Groeper of the Portland police. "And again you get into the crowd, we're not here to control you...you're there to film. But if pepper spray is deployed, I'm sorry but you're gonna be a part of that."

Police tell us they work jointly with the US Secret Service. No one from either the Washington DC or the Portland offices returned our calls.