Protesters in Portland faced off against federal law enforcement officers outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility overnight Wednesday, the first altercation between the parties in weeks since national police were pulled from the streets in late July.
Demonstrators marched to ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor on Southwest Third Avenue, several miles from where people gathered outside federal and county courthouses downtown for months. The group’s members vandalized the outside of the building and beamed green laser lights into the windows where federal police were watching while others smashed windows. People chanted, “No ICE! No Prisons! Total Abolition,” according to a witness account on Twitter.
DHS back in the street. #blacklivesmatter #protest #pdx #Portland #Oregon #BLM #acab #PortlandProtests #PortlandStrong #ICE #DHS #pdxprotest pic.twitter.com/GEXggb1dcw
— Garrison Davis (Teargas Proof) (@hungrybowtie) August 20, 2020
Portland police declared the gathering an “unlawful assembly” around midnight, which permits the use of tear gas and other stronger response measures.
Department of Homeland Security personnel inside the ICE facility then exited to guard the front of the building. Some of the estimated 200 demonstrators hurled glass bottles and rocks the size of softballs at the federal and local police, local news station KGW reported. Portland police warned over a loudspeaker that if the crowd did not disperse, they would take stronger actions to push them away.
Local police pushed the crowd away from the building, and federal police used fire pepper balls and smoke devices. Demonstrators then torched large items in the street, including a mattress and picnic table. Portland police arrested two people on charges of “interfering with a peace officer and disorderly conduct.” Several officers were injured in the commotion.
Portland Police have returned and declared a riot. They push the crowd north again. #blacklivesmatter #protest #pdx #Portland #Oregon #BLM #acab #PortlandProtests #PortlandStrong #ICE #DHS #pdxprotest pic.twitter.com/3xcGz2PZsA
— Garrison Davis (Teargas Proof) (@hungrybowtie) August 20, 2020
On Tuesday night, protesters started a fire at the county government building with the use of lighter fluid. One officer was injured, and two people were arrested.
The Oregon city has been ground zero in a fight between the Trump administration and local Democratic leaders, who say the White House overstepped its bounds by allowing federal law enforcement to come into the city and guard a federal courthouse in June. Federal agents were eventually pulled from the building but have remained in Portland as backup until state police can prove they have control of the area. Last week, state police pulled out on the basis that the agitators they were arresting for attacking the building and officers were not being indicted by the district attorney.
Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury said on Wednesday that the county’s Justice Center and central courthouse have sustained $1.3 million in damage as a result of attacks by rioters since May.
