As part of the government troops at the Portland ICE facility, I can confirm that there is nightly military helicopter activity over downtown. You can hear it for hours as the copters circle and trade off flying over the ICE facility.

Sadly, our local protest-industrial complex geniuses started encouraging people to shine lasers at overhead aircraft. The problem? OHSU and Emanuel do Life Flight operations to downtown hospitals. OHSU is quite literally a block away from the ICE facility. Sadly, Life Flights have been mistakenly targeted to the point OHSU has stopped flight operations to the hospital. Patients are sent to the Hillsboro or other nearby airports – which can be a 30-90 min away by ambulance depending on traffic conditions.

One group of men arrested shining laser pointers at helicopters – turned out to be in the US illegally. They are now facing criminal charges and deportation. More recently, a man in Hillsboro was also just arrested and admitted to targeting an aircraft with a laser pointer. He admitted to the crime as well as got busted for possession of about 100 grams of meth (about $600-1000 worth).

It’s worth noting that using a laser pointer at an aircraft is a federal offense that can get you 1-5 years in federal prison and pointing one at a police officer is against Oregon state law.

Links:

• https://www.koin.com/news/portland/life-flights-diverted-from-ohsu-over-laser-threat/
• https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/ohsu-divers-emergency-flights-lasers-helicopters-portland-ice-facility/283-d41b43d0-d0d6-458c-a9d0-0605de6ea1eb
• https://www.koin.com/news/crime/aloha-man-arrested-admits-to-aiming-laser-at-helicopter/