Fires set, fences moved: Police call Portland protest a riot

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By ANDREW SELSKY and GILLIAN FLACCUS

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Protesters broke into a building, set it on fire and started dumpster fires late Saturday night in Oregon’s largest city, police said, as demonstrations that have been taking place since the death of George Floyd intensified for another night in Portland.

The fire at the Portland Police Association building was put out a short time later, Portland police said on Twitter. The department declared the gathering a riot, and began working to clear the downtown area.

Tear gas was deployed, according to pictures and video from the scene. Fencing that had been placed around federal courthouse had also been removed by protesters and made into barricades, police tweeted.

President Donald Trump has decried the demonstrations, and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf blasted the protesters as “lawless anarchists” in a visit to the city on Thursday.



Protesters relocate a fence in front of the Justice Center, Saturday, July 18, 2020, during another night of protests in Portland, Ore. (Mark Graves/The Oregonian via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/7c8c1a311b5c668a8cd4f757453bcf5c

[Dennis Donovan]

4. Going for 4?

[secondwind]

2. Who ARE these people? I wouldn't be surprised if they are ruffians paid by the Orange Menace.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. DING DING DING

The police force won't identify themselves, and answer to some vague authority in the White House. They don't identify those they arrest. UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS!

It means they can plant fake protestors who do all the dirty deeds to make it appear there is anarchy and riots and lawlessness and chaos, but they never have to tell us who these people are. And they can blame it all on the vague Antifa.

Media needs to stay on top of this.

[denem]

14. +!

"They don't identify those they arrest"

EXACTLY

[Champp]

11. Yes, who are these people?

They look like hired Trump Thumpers, not like any Democrat I've ever known.

[Alacritous Crier]

3. Are the people...

starting the fires and breaking things actual protestors or just more agents provocateur like we were seeing in earlier protests?

Is there any video? White people dressed in black? Umbrellas??






GOTV!

[John1956PA]

8. +1

The workings of agents provocateur are attempts to bolster Trump's blather about the arrival of "end times" should he lose in November.

[Hortensis]

9. Violence instigators are hiding among the protesters.

We knew that all along, but these aren't first days. Trump's sending federal goons to join their attempts to ratchet up the situation was a major victory. The First Amendment guarantees the right -- under the federal government -- peaceably to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances.

From testimony of Portland police to state lawmakers about use of teargas:

High-ranking Portland police officials told state lawmakers they’ve tried to de-escalate violence at nightly downtown protests but a small group of anarchists intentionally try to injure officers and require them to use tear gas and other munitions that affect entire crowds.

Portland Police Deputy Chief Chris Davis testified Friday that officers who face off with violence-prone demonstrators know “who a lot of them are,” but the risks are usually too high to forge into the crowd and immediately arrest people they see engaged in criminal activity. ...

Dobson later likened some of the fireworks thrown toward Portland officers to improvised explosive devices like those deployed against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and said that several officers have reported permanent or temporary hearing loss.

“The water bottles aren’t just filled with water, often those water bottles are filled with urine or feces or some other kind of putrid type substance that they’re throwing at us,” Dobson said. “When we talk about fireworks, they’re not sparklers. These are fireworks that if they hit us and land correctly, they will kill us.”

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/anarchists-provoke-tear-gas-use-during-portland-protests-police-tell-oregon-lawmakers.html

[uncle ray]

15. what? pigs angry when "less lethal" rounds are directed back at them?

[Hortensis]

17. Violence instigators are trying to get your "pigs" to attack BLM protesters.

That's what you need to take from this. I am assuming you deplore outsiders with a very different agenda provoking violence against BLM activists.

[Alacritous Crier]

18. Exactly!

[uncle ray]

20. i commented on the police quotes at their face value,

not disputing the presence of provocateurs.

thanks for 'splaining what i need to takeaway, but i don't need the assistance.

[Hortensis]

22. Right. We all have different emotional priorities.

Sad reality is that many people, both hostile left and hostile right, don't really want justice and reform because they enjoy indulging their own antagonisms too much. Of course the dangerous ones, in uniform and out, don't limit themselves to acting out on social media, and the most dangerous ones are agents with big agendas that go far beyond just acting out.

[packman]

19. Fireworks that kill?

Call BS on that unless they are throwing dynamite equivalent stuff. Entire testimony sound like a hyper-exaggeration with some officers trying to increase their disability claims.

[Igel]

27. Previous reports spoke of bottle rockets fired at the federal courthouse.

We may think the small little things that go "pop", and to defend our side it's easiest just to assume that only the small ones (the ones that can cause you to lose a finger, but that's just a minor appendage). There's a range of devices, and assuming only the small ones are meant is no better than assuming just the large ones are being used.

Bottle rockets are already in the context. I wouldn't stand still while somebody fired some in my general direction, nor would I assume that they were just trying to celebrate life and liberty.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. These fake rioters are orchestrated by their puppeteers in Washington?

[progressive nobody]

7. Is this a set up to justfy the "federal kidnapping squad" being there?

What is likely a right winger or one of the federal agents or even the Portland police --who are working with the federal "agents" despite Portland elected officials did want them there.

[Roy Rolling]

10. The Correct PR Response

It’s a PR war for the minds of the “people back home”.

Local police should arrest one agent provocateur and some of the Gestapo and declare “it’s a local issue. Get out of Portland, vandals. Is this what happens next for cities with mask orders? They become the chosen battleground for viewers on Fox News?”

[MichMan]

12. Why just one agent provocateur and not all of them ?

[Roy Rolling]

13. Sure, eventually

But you gotta start somewhere. It’s said, “you can know the whole ocean is salty by tasting one drop.”

Remember...it’s a PR battle in the mind. One example fills up the mind as well as many, when it’s the first one there. Right now, in peoples’ minds, there’s no example of a staged riot and over-response. Give them *one* to start with if that’s all you got. The important thing, do it now.

These are the rules of branding, they’re not my rules.

[cate94]

16. Weird that it was peaceful

Until the paramilitary showed up.

[Bayard]

21. I'm getting a feeling this all building up to something

Martial law. And they're talking about incorporating it nationwide.....probably in blue cities.

[Steelrolled]

23. People coming out late at night are not protesters.

They are enablers. I have no sympathy for them.

[Grasswire2]

25. no

just no.

"When in the course of human events...."

Were Rev War Patriots "ENABLERS"?

[eilen]

26. Seriously, 50 days? WTF

This smells like co-opting for one's own twisted agenda. If I lived there, I think I would not be happy about either group.

[Grasswire2]

24. Need clarity here. THE POLICE DEPARTMENT DECLARED IT A RIOT?? Or FEDS DECLARED THAT?

IMPORTANT DISTINCTION, AP


I suspect it was the FEDS who declared it a riot for Trump's purposes. That is not something Portland would be inclined to do.

[Igel]

28. Easy to check.

Here.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/19/portland-police-declare-saturday-night-protests-riot/5467736002/

[usajumpedtheshark]

29. The federal forces in Portland provide an attractive target

for anti-government, pro-violence types. tRump's racism and hate speech has them all charged up and the protests provide them with a crowd to try to blend in. Peaceful protesters should just stay away from the federal buildings for now.

[rockfordfile]

30. Not that long ago a group of Russians were arrested and let go

They were harassing a family on the beach.