Navy Vet 'Man Of Steel' Faces Down Vicious Trump Squad In Shocking Portland Video

“I stood there with my hands by my side, and they started whaling on me,” said Chris David after he challenged the men on their allegiance to the Constitution.

A Portland, Oregon, Navy veteran was pummeled with a baton by a member of the federal squads dispatched to the city by the Trump administration — then blasted directly in the face with pepper spray for doing ... nothing.

Chris David, 53, has become a folk hero and hailed as a “man of steel” after a video of the brutal Saturday night confrontation was viewed online by more than 3 million people. (See the video above.)

“I felt these gentlemen were violating their oath of office” — to uphold the Constitution — “and I wanted to talk to them,” David told the Portland Tribune, which was the first to publish the video. The armed squads, dressed in military-style uniforms but without identifying information, have reportedly been grabbing people off the streets during protests and detaining and questioning them in what some consider extralegal kidnappings.

David, who was wearing his Naval Academy sweatshirt and a Navy wrestling hat, said he “stood there with my hands down by my side, and they just started whaling on me,” he told KOIN-TV.

When that didn’t faze him, one of the squad members, wearing fatigues and a gas mask, sprayed two thick blasts of tear gas into his face from inches away, which David said felt like “a gallon of burning gasoline.”

That’s when he wheeled away from the men and flipped them off as he stumbled toward a park and lost his vision, David recounted. He was aided by a “street-medic angel” who helped him get to a hospital.

David’s hand was broken in two places. He said he’ll likely need “pins and plates” to fix it.

My hand is pretty damaged. The hand surgeon splinted it for now, but it looks like plates, screws and/or pins await me on Friday.

— Tazerface (@Tazerface16) July 19, 2020

David told CNN that he’s “100% against” the federal squads in the city. “It’s a unilateral move that’s being made in order to generate chaos and great divisiveness” that’s only causing the protests to grow.

David — a US Naval Academy grad who served as a commissioned officer in the Seabees and as a Navy engineer — said he’s not superman.

“I’m a 53-year-old overweight man on blood thinners, and I’ve got a lot of physical damage from my years in the military,” he told KOIN. “I’m no man of steel. They could have killed me ... as my ex-wife and my daughter have reminded me 45 times.”

Still, he added, “I plan to go back. This won’t stop me.”

“It’s just us normal people out there,” he told The Washington Post. “You hear people like Trump say it’s just a bunch of wacko fringe people in liberal cities who are out there, but no way. We’re all just normal people who think what’s happening is wrong.”

The uninvited federal squads were dispatched to Portland last week by the Trump administration to prevent vandalism at federal monuments and buildings. Instead, they’ve been roving around downtown Portland in unmarked rental vans and snatching residents.

The administration is preparing to send more of the controversial squads to other Democratic cities, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday.

As justification for the assault on Portland, federal authorities have cited a June 26 executive order by Donald Trump directing them to protect federal monuments and buildings. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf has listed “graffiti” concerns by “violent anarchists” in Portland on the DHS website.

Oregon governor Kate Brown has called the attacks on citizens “political theatre” orchestrated to provoke violence in a desperate bid to drum up reelection support for Trump.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has filed a lawsuit demanding an injunction to stop the squads’ blatantly illegal and unconstitutional “kidnap and false arrest” of citizens.

Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told CNN he was reserving judgment on the David video. He appeared to attempt to smear the Navy vet, saying that his officers operate based on shadowy “intelligence” about “threats to federal facilities.”

David responded that Cuccinelli can’t see “what’s obvious to millions of other people ... that I was standing there peacefully and then they beat me” for “no reason.”

David received a massive outpouring of offers of help after the video surfaced. He declined the offers but urged people instead to help the Black Lives Matter movement and the medic group that helped him.

After an insane two days, I would like some help from the wonderful folks who follow me.

First off, I don't want any money, gifts or remuneration for anything that I have done.

I never did it for that reason. I have a good job and a roof over my head... 1/

— Tazerface (@Tazerface16) July 20, 2020

...which is way more than many folks right now.

I would like help setting up GoFundMes for both street medics and BLM. Can anyone help me do that?

Also, maybe one for a local food bank.

— Tazerface (@Tazerface16) July 20, 2020

I would really, really, really like to thank Tav. She's my street medic angel who pulled me out of the park and took me to safety when I couldn't see anything anymore. She stayed with me the whole time and then her and her friends drove me around to find an ambulance.

— Tazerface (@Tazerface16) July 19, 2020

She and her fellow medics are the real heroes here.

I just wanted to thank her from the bottom of my heart.

— Tazerface (@Tazerface16) July 19, 2020

He also put in a plug for the US Navy wrestling team and added: “Go Navy!”

BTW, GO NAVY!

— Tazerface (@Tazerface16) July 19, 2020

The outraged Twitterverse fell in love.

This guy in Portland tonight must be made of steel. Unreal. pic.twitter.com/5rg7CEvaKU

— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 19, 2020

There is alot of armed Feds in this footage.

But there is only one American soldier. Soldier for us all, defending our freedom.

This guy has more courage in his left leg, the one being clubbed, than all those wannabes in camo.

— E. (@E_of_Justice) July 19, 2020

That man is one of us, people. Regardless your personal ideology, or party, he is an American citizen exercising his constitutionally guaranteed right to peacefully protest, and is being beaten and gassed for it. This is not China, this is the USA.

— Peter Yianilos (@artysan) July 19, 2020

Watching this enrages me. They’re literally putting people on the line who just can’t wait to beat people, under the color of authority. There is zero due process or respect for constitutional rights. Many heads must pay for these attacks against American citizens.

— Robert Gaustad (@RMGaustad) July 19, 2020

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