VOCAL VET

Portland Vet Tear Gassed by Marshals in Viral Video Says He’s Just an ‘Old White Guy Who Got Beaten Down’

“If I had been a Black veteran who had gotten beaten down, do you think I would have gotten as much attention as I did?” asked Christopher David.

A veteran shown in a brutal video being beaten and tear gassed by federal authorities in Portland told ABC News that he hoped to “refocus this whole discussion on Black Lives Matter as opposed to an old white guy who got beat up.” Christopher David, a Navy veteran, approached U.S. Marshals during a Saturday night protest to ask them if they believed their actions—including tossing demonstrators into unmarked vans—violated the Constitution. One beat him with a baton in response, another pepper sprayed him. Speaking to ABC and wearing a cast on his right arm because of the brutality, David articulated that the attention he had received as a result of the video was “overblown.”

He said, “I was an old white guy who got beaten down...If I had been a Black veteran who had gotten beaten down, do you think I would have gotten as much attention as I did?” The U.S. Marshals released a statement in response to the interview with David saying, “The deputies believed that the force used was necessary.”