Portland riots

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Early Sunday afternoon, people milled about downtown Portland, pausing to take photos of broken glass, graffiti, and ashes around the Justice Center and neighboring parks. One woman even broke down in tears while looking at the burned and damaged pioneer family statue in Chapman Square.

“We have a sinful history that we need to fix,” Chris said. But the nightly vandalism has been “terribly upsetting” for those who live near downtown Portland.

Portland Police declared a riot Saturday night after protesters threw bricks, mortars, M-80s, and fireworks, lit fires, smashed windows, and clashed with police and federal officers who used tear gas and other crowd-control tactics to disperse the group by 4:30 a.m. Sunday. A total of 13 people were arrested.

Chris said she is “in complete agreement” with the protests, but is saddened by the tactics.

“My heartbreaking moment is the way that anyone that would take pause with that would choose to burn it down, rather than we need to work these things out, we need to talk to each other,” she said

Police in Portland, Ore., declared that a protest outside a law enforcement building Saturday evening had become a riot and made numerous arrests after officers and police vehicles were allegedly hit with rocks and other objects.

A statement on the police bureau's website indicated that further details concerning the number of arrests and charges would come in a later update but noted that several people had been arrested.

"Portland Police announced to the crowd that its conduct constituted a riot and ordered people to leave to the west. People in the crowd persisted in throwing rocks and other objects," officials said. Photos posted by police on Twitter showed a large rock that officers claimed had been thrown by protesters and glass bottles as well as minor damage to a police cruiser.

Police added that two Portland officers were treated for injuries sustained when they were hit by thrown objects, including one that was allegedly thrown by an individual in a crowd of people wearing press badges or other articles of clothing identifying themselves as members of the media

Officers reported having rocks, frozen eggs, glass bottles, and frozen water bottles thrown at them. Officers reported people were shining green lasers at them, which is against the law in Oregon. Somebody spray painted over a security camera on the Penumbra Kelly Building," read the police statement.

Protests in Portland have gone on for months over the deaths of Black Americans during encounters with police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Many of the demonstrations have remained peaceful, though the city became the focus of national attention after videos emerged of protesters being detained by federal law enforcement agents in unmarked vans, resulting in the protests swelling in size and intensity.

The city's mayor, Ted Wheeler (D), has yet to comment on Saturday night's arrests on social media or in a press release, and a request for a statement from his office was not immediately returned.

A mob of Portland Black Lives Matter and Antifa militants forced a white man to crash his truck, then punched and kicked him unconscious, disturbing footage shows.

A series of clips on social media shows the victim being surrounded in his white truck at 10:30 p.m. Sunday as others attacked his wife, who was punched and even tackled to the ground during the violent melee.

“He didn’t do nothing!” someone could be heard calling as others punched the driver as he sat in his truck, which was also repeatedly kicked.

The unidentified driver eventually sped off, with the mob chasing him — with some heard loudly laughing when he crashed into a light pole, according to the clips.

He was dragged from the truck and tackled to the ground — getting repeatedly punched as he tried to call his wife while also pleading with his attackers as he sat on the ground, the videos show.

“I ain’t tryna hurt no one,” he told them, with the only unexplained accusation heard in the clips being that “COVID is real.”

“I was trying to get out the way,” he insisted of crashing his truck, as several of the group punched him in the face and repeatedly called the white driver the N-word.

As the mob dispersed to watch another fight, the main offender circled back around — kicking the defenseless driver in the face from behind, instantly knocking him out with his head cracking on the road.

“What the f–k is you talkin’ about, n—er!” the attacker screamed after the thud of his victim’s head hitting the ground.

The victim was then shown bleeding from a large wound in the back of his head as he appeared unconscious throughout another almost 2½-minute clip. His wife was shown sobbing nearby as the mob held her back and appeared to rifle through his truck.

Police in riot gear had to assist ambulance crews helping him as they were confronted by “a hostile crowd,” Portland police said in a release.

The victim was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, police said. “The incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made,” the force said.

It was unclear what sparked the confrontation, but “protesters were chasing the truck before it crashed, and they assaulted the driver after the crash,” the police statement said.

The mob was made up of Black Lives Matter and Antifa militants, according to Kalen D’Almeida, the co-founder of Scriberr News, who shared one of the videos.

PORTLAND, OR—In a press release earlier this week, Portland police chief Danielle Outlaw (her actual name), appearing somber and exhausted, said she just wishes there were some kind of group with the firepower and authority to fight back against Antifa.

In a candid moment, Outlaw (seriously, her actual name) said there was just nothing the police could do, as they'd need to have some kind of organized, armed force specifically created to protect and serve the people.

"Like, what if we took money from everyone to fund a force that could then defend them in a time of need?" she pondered aloud. "They could have patrol cars, firearms, and attack dogs. Maybe even some tanks. That would be so frickin' rad. They could have a badge to show their authority. Then, when a rogue group like Antifa shows up to take over our city every weekend, they could be repelled using force if necessary."

"I know it sounds crazy, but a girl can dream, right?" she added wistfully.

Sadly, there is no such force in Portland, so citizens have been forced to turn to an even crazier idea: taking responsibility for their own safety and well-being, and maybe even buying a gun to protect themselves.

Source: https://babylonbee.com/news/portland-police-wish-there-were-some-kind-of-organized-armed-force-that-could-fight-back-against-antifa

The Babylon Bee is a satirical website.

Police in the city of Portland said they fired crowd control munitions and tear gas on Wednesday night to break up a gathering of about 200 people who threw rocks, lit fires and vandalized a U.S. immigration agency building.

Law enforcement officials had declared a riot for a second successive night, calling a protest near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office an “unlawful assembly”.

Federal officers fired pepper balls and set off a few smoke devices, the Oregonian newspaper reported earlier.

Wednesday’s protest began in the Elizabeth Caruthers Park before demonstrators marched toward the ICE building.

“All persons near SW Bancroft St and SW Bond Ave must disperse,” police had said on Twitter, warning the marchers they faced arrest and the use of tear gas, crowd control agents and impact weapons if they did not comply.
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Two arrests were made on charges of “interfering with a peace officer and disorderly conduct”, police said in a statement. The arrested men were booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center.

Police officers sustained minor injuries, the statement added, without specifying how many were injured.

Police had also declared a riot on Tuesday after protesters lit fires, threw rocks and smashed windows at county government offices in another location, in violence that also led to two arrests and a minor injury for an officer.

Alt-Right and white nationalist groups came to downtown Portland near the Multnomah County Justice Center on Saturday and began clashing with Antifa and other groups opposed to their presence.
According to Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, her office was aware of the planned alt-right presence on Friday. She sent out a tweet thread denouncing their organizing and recruiting in Portland.

Portland police released a press release after the violence cleared downtown after 4 p.m.
It addressed why it had not declared the violence in downtown a riot, despite it meeting riot criteria. It cited a lack of resources from the protests the night before as one of the reasons why:
There have been questions about why the events downtown were not declared a riot and why police did not intervene. Incident commanders have to weigh out the entire situation to determine if police action is likely to make things safer or not. In this case there were hundreds of individuals and many weapons within the groups and an extremely limited amount of police resources actually available to address such a crowd. Additionally, PPB members have been the focus of over 80 days of violent actions directed at the police, which is a major consideration for determining if police resources are necessary to interject between two groups with individuals who appear to be willingly engaging in physical confrontations for short durations.

While the activity in the group met the definition of a riot, PPB did not declare one because there were not adequate police resources available to address such a declaration. PPB had roughly 30 officers available for crowd management and there were several hundred individuals associated with the events downtown.
Officers found a bucket full of condoms with an unknown substance that appeared to be water and flitter inside and a bottle filled with what appeared to be urine. It is unclear why these were placed near the Justice Center, but it was confiscated, according to a PPB press release.

Portland police also said both sides were spraying pepper and/or bear spray and throwing projectiles.
The alt-right group became violent with Antifa and other groups of people Downtown. Fights broke out and journalist Cory Elia reported large amount of bear spray being used by alt-right members.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos reported seeing an alt-right member pulling what appears to be a gun on a crowd at around 2 p.m. No shots were fired. Portland police later said it learned through Sergio Olmos' tweet that a man flashed a gun. It is investigating.

However, the last time alt-right members came to Portland and clashed with Antifa and others, shots were allegedly fired outside of a car as it was leaving a parking garage with alt-right members inside it. A casing was recovered by a witness.

Portland Police are announcing over the LRAD device that if alt-right and others continue to fight that it will be declared an unlawful assembly, according to Elia. PPB posted on their Twitter a message along the same lines, warning those in downtown that they could be subject to force if they are engaged in criminal activity.

Tweets from KGW photojournalist John Helm show the groups starting to congregate shortly after 12:00 p.m.
People who do not appear to be affiliated with alt-right organizations showed to support a 'Back the Blue' protest in opposition to the nightly protests that have been occurring in Portland for more than 80 nights.

Protesters and counter-protesters entered the arena for a day of dueling demonstrations on Saturday, Aug. 22.

PMG PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE - A man wearing with logo of the Proud Bouys embossed on his body armor clahses with protesters carrying shields in downtown Portland on Saturday, Aug. 22.
PMG PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE - A man wearing with logo of the Proud Bouys embossed on his body armor clahses with protesters carrying shields in downtown Portland on Saturday, Aug. 22.

The click-click-woosh of paint ball gunfire was punctuated by the sudden booming of fireworks and the hiss of bear mace as right- and left-wing groups clashed for hours from 11 a.m. to around 3 p.m. outside the Multnomah County Justice Center.

In the midst of the fray, one woman sitting along the battlelines calmly daubed with a paintbrush, capturing a squadron of conservatives she dubbed "cosplay patriots."

"They don't actually value equality in any real sense, which is a tenet of America," the artist said. "Black Lives f----g Matter. This has always been about that. The focus has not changed no matter what other media outlets try to say.

Source: https://babylonbee.com/news/portland-police-wish-there-were-some-kind-of-organized-armed-force-that-could-fight-back-against-antifa