Portland Riots Continue During DNC; ICE Offices, Police Attacked

Portland riots (Portland Police Bureau)
Portland Police Bureau
Joel B. Pollak

Riots continued Wednesday evening in Portland, Oregon, as roughly 200 activists marched on the offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), smashed windows, set, fires, and attacked both local and federal police.

Some of the rioters wore “press” designations, disguising themselves as journalists so it would be harder to arrest them. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) secured a federal court order that prevents federal law enforcement from arresting journalists during protests. That order expires Thursday.

The riots have continued nearly every night since nationwide protests related to the death of George Floyd began in late May. Democrats, who claim the protests are peaceful, did not mention the riots at the Democratic National Convention this week, though unrest has been a feature of life in Democrat-run cities throughout the nation for the past three months.

The Portland Police Bureau reported early Thursday morning:

In the evening hours of August 19, 2020, a group of a couple hundred people gathered in Elizabeth Caruthers Park located on the 3500 block of South Moody Avenue for a march that began around 9:15 p.m. The march proceeded south to the 4300 block of South Macadam Avenue which is where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building is located. During the march, streets were blocked to vehicular traffic by support vehicles associated with the group.

When the group reached the ICE building, they blocked traffic on Southwest Bancroft Street at South Moody Avenue. Several people in the crowd were seen carrying shields and wearing helmets and gas masks. At approximately 9:28 p.m., members of the group approached the windows and doors to the ICE building. These people began shining lights and lasers at Federal officers located inside of the building. Group members began kicking and banging on the doors and windows of the ICE building. The group was seen spray painting graffiti on the outside of the ICE building as well.

…

At 10:18 p.m., Portland Police officers began to disperse the crowd, as officers dispersed the crowd, glass bottles and rocks were thrown at them. Lots of people in the crowd carrying shields used the shields to resist officers’ efforts to disperse the crowd to the north. By 10:37 p.m., the crowd returned to the ICE building, despite the repeated public address announcements regarding the unlawful assembly. Some people in the group began setting up barricades in surrounding streets and even moved a dumpster towards the ICE building. In the past, dumpsters have been lit on fire and moved next to targeted buildings, in an attempt to set structural fires. Federal officers exited the ICE building and members of the group began throwing large rocks as well as glass bottles at them. The large rocks were described to be the size of softballs. At 10:49 p.m., Portland police once again began to disperse the crowd, as the crowd was dispersed, officers were hit with these large rocks. Officers were also hit with full cans of soda, and a hammer. Because of the risk to life safety caused by these dangerous projectiles, the gathering was declared a riot.

Democrats have blamed the unrest in Portland on the presence of federal law enforcement, but the violence has continued in the weeks since federal officers withdrew from the city.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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