Siege Notes, Portland July 1

Antifa took the fight to the City Hall building a couple of days ago. This shreds my theory that Mayor Ted Wheeler has some assurances from them they'd only harass the Justice Center. Three days after the city removed barriers from around the building, protesters assailed it and disabled its security cameras.

A couple of days ago in a "miscalculation" (Mayor Ted Wheeler's description) antifa attacked Portland Police Bureau's NE precinct--drawing the ire of the black community there. In yet another outrage among all the outrage, black leaders lined up to denounce the violence in their neighborhood and parrot the BLM line at the same time.



But antifa are proving adaptable and still taking the fight to new fronts, last night assaulting the cops' union hall in North Portland

From their Police Report:

Around 9 p.m., demonstrators began blocking the road on North Lombard Street at North Campbell Avenue. While in the street, demonstrators began throwing projectiles at officers who were standing outside of the Portland Police Association office. These projectiles included rocks and water bottles. The demonstrators also shined green lasers in the officer's eyes.

At approximately 9:08 p.m., the sound truck made an admonishment stating an unlawful assembly had been declared and that the demonstrators needed to disperse to the east. The demonstrators were told if they did not obey the lawful order and begin to disperse, they could be subject to arrest or use of force to include crowd control munitions. Despite the admonishment, demonstrators continued to block traffic on North Lombard Street and throw projectiles at officers who were in front of the Portland Police Association office.

At approximately 9:19 p.m., officers began dispersing the crowd in an effort to move them from the immediate area. While performing this lawful action, demonstrators continued to throw water bottles, baseball sized rocks, and full cans. While officers cleared the area, some crowd control munitions were used. Once demonstrators were to North Fenwick Avenue and North Lombard Street, they began to move dumpsters and plastic trash bins to the street. The demonstrators attempted to set fire to the dumpsters and trash bins. During this time, demonstrators deployed orange smoke towards officers.

At 10 p.m., the sound truck continued to warn demonstrators to disperse to the east, however, they continued to throw full cans, baseball sized rocks, and water bottles at officers. The large baseball sized rocks hit several officers which required medical attention. At 10:12 p.m., demonstrators began lighting commercial grade fireworks and throwing them towards officers. At this time, a riot was declared and the demonstrators were admonished by the sound truck to leave the area immediately. Because demonstrators were throwing commercial grade fireworks towards officers, to protect the life and safety of police personnel, CS gas was used to disperse the crowd.

Several arrests were made and, as always, the legal arm of the insurrection tries to gain advantage by framing anything they can as police brutality. Activist group Don't Shoot Portland seized on the cops' use of tear gas to deter the precinct assailants and their flaming-dumpster siege engines:

Merrithew on behalf of the nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland urged the court to sanction the city for violating the terms of an initial temporary restraining order restricting tear gas except when lives are at risk, and an amended one signed Friday that limits use of less-lethal weapons. U.S District Judge Marco A. Hernandez signed the tear gas order on June 9, and the amended order on other less-lethal munitions on Friday.

The court orders came amid nightly demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was face down on the ground, handcuffed and not resisting.

The plaintiffs contend the city violated the court orders by using tear gas late Thursday night outside North Precinct, arguing there was “no risk to the lives and safety of the police or community,‘' and then on Saturday night and Sunday, by using FN303 and 40MM less-lethal launchers, rubber ball distraction devices and OC spray against people “both attempting to follow orders or engaged in only passive resistance.‘'

Outside North Precinct late Thursday, police supervisors said they used tear gas to clear a crowd away and allow firefighters to extinguish a fire inside a dumpster that was pushed up against a Black-owned beauty supply store that shares a building with the Police Bureau’s North Precinct at the corner of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Killingsworth Street.

The city had been thriving before 2020's serial depredations, and the City Hall building was recently touched up, along with the just-completed massive renovation of the postmodern (but pleasant) Portland Building next door, home to the "Portlandia" statue, for a cool 150 million plus. The building was saved from demolition and the real estate developer/progressive axis in 2014. No doubt if BLM was running things in 2014 neither the money nor the priority (buildings over lives!) would be there.

Portland's Fourth of July fireworks display at the riverfront is cancelled this year, but I suspect we might see some downtown anyway.