Media continue to pretend Portland riots are ‘mostly peaceful’

“Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station, and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified,” ABC News reported this weekend.

That sentence does not even make sense. If a “peaceful” demonstration “intensified,” wouldn’t that mean it became more peaceful, not less?

I suppose that every act of violence begins peacefully. If you lay in wait to murder someone, you might be peacefully sitting there for hours, and the actual killing takes only seconds. That’s a mostly peaceful murder, right?

Earlier, on July 25, the New York Times took a different tack, conceding that the protests in Portland have been violent but arguing also that it is the fault of the Trump administration, which deployed federal agents to Oregon this month to protect a federal courthouse from destruction.

“Peaceful protests were already happening for weeks when federal officers arrived on July 4,” the paper alleged, claiming its reporting “shows how President Trump’s deployment ignited chaos.”

The deployment of federal agents to Portland may have inspired more violence, but it certainly is not what caused it in the first place. Remember, the federal government sent officers to Portland specifically because demonstrators were already attacking a federal building.

“Peaceful,” indeed.

CNN reported on July 23 that “the protests in Portland were mostly peaceful, though they have at times devolved into violence, vandalism, and arson.” Again, that’s a description of violent demonstrations.

Earlier, on July 20, the Washington Post said of a violent protest in Seattle that left 12 police officers injured that it was mostly “peaceful” until it was not. The report also adds for good measure that the Seattle Police Department “has been under federal oversight since 2012 for its history of using excessive force against mostly peaceful protesters.”

In contrast to how most news outlets have been playing these stories, the Associated Press’s Mike Balsamo did a good job this weekend detailing what actually happens in Portland when the sun goes down.

“I watched as injured officers were hauled inside. In one case, the commercial firework came over so fast the officer didn’t have time to respond. It burned through his sleeves & he had bloody gashes on both forearms. Another had a concussion from being hit in the head with a mortar,” he reported. “The lights inside the courthouse have to be turned off for safety & the light from high-powered lasers bounced across the lobby almost all night. The fear is palpable. Three officers were struck in the last few weeks & still haven’t regained their vision.”

He added, “The officers outside the Portland courthouse have been hit by an array of objects from canned food to ball bearings fired from slingshots. On Saturday night, a DHS officer was soaked completely in orange paint thrown from of one of many paint cans later seized by authorities.”

These are not peaceful or “mostly peaceful” protests. Major news outlets can no longer claim ignorance or naivete. If a protest ends violently, then what is even the point of calling it “mostly peaceful” if not to downplay its negative aspects? Why are they covering up for violent protesters?

Further, if a series of related demonstrations keeps devolving into outright violence and anarchy over and over again, perhaps news outlets should ask why that keeps happening rather than euphemistically defend the protests as “mostly peaceful.”

What if the violence and unrest are the entire point of the protests?