Violent Portland Protests Continue for 55th Straight Night (+Video)

Since late May, Portlanders have shown up in the hundreds and sometimes thousands to demand reforms to the criminal justice system. The nightly crowds often grow downtown past 10 p.m.

A few hundred people had already started to gather by 8:50 p.m. Tuesday outside the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse. People held aloft signs that said, “Feds go away!” and “Black Lives Matter.” One person led the crowd in chanting, “No justice! No peace!”

The response by federal law enforcement has drawn national scrutiny to Portland. Federal officers have often emerged from the courthouse to shoot so-called less-lethal munitions and gas protesters. Federal officers shot projectiles and set off gas during Monday night protests that continued past midnight.

Federal officers were first seen at the nightly demonstrations 31 days into the protests and have received support from President Donald Trump, who said that they were doing a fantastic job in Portland. He added that he planned to implement similar tactics in other major US cities led by Democratic mayors.

The acting secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday emphasized the need for federal officers in Portland, forcefully rebuking local leaders for failing to curb the nightly “lawlessness.”

“If you did your job from a local perspective, we wouldn’t be there,” said Chad F. Wolf. “What we have in Portland is very different than what we have in any other city.”

Hours later, a demonstrator sued Wolf, Trump and unidentified federal officers in federal court, saying the federal agents violated his constitutional rights when they hit him with a baton Saturday night.

The federal response has brought more attention to the downtown demonstrations and attracted large crowds of protesters each night.

A pair of parent groups, the Wall of Moms and PDXDadPod, have organized in recent days. More than 200 women connected to the moms group attended Tuesday night’s protests downtown to rally against the presence of federal officers. One person held a sign that said, “You need a time out.”

Hundreds of people linked to the parents groups joined a crowd of more than 2,000 people Monday night. People filled Southwest Third Avenue and the park in front of the jail, listening to speeches about registering to vote and how to react to tear gas and other uses of police force.

More than 1,000 people remained in the area well into the night. Several hundred people crowded near the Justice Center, including several women with the Wall of Moms. Together, people chanted, “Feds go home!”

A handful of people used their fists or other objects to knock on the plywood that covers the building’s doors and windows. Some people started to tear off the plywood and other materials nailed to the front of the building.

Just after 12:25 a.m., federal officers emerged from the building and closed in on the crowd. Officers wearing camouflage and dark uniforms quickly used gas, smoke and munitions on demonstrators. The crowd cleared away within five minutes. But federal officers remained on the streets past 1 a.m., regularly deploying tear gas.

After the air cleared, hundreds of people were still downtown. At about 2:25 a.m., some people lit a fire on a piece of plywood near a courthouse door that was extinguished by federal officers. Federal officers again emerged to break up the people who remained.

Portland police said their officers responded to the courthouse around 3 a.m. “to provide security” for firefighters responded to burning material next to the building. Police said around that same time, they received calls that windows were damaged at two downtown buildings, a jewelry store and City Hall.

Protesters on Tuesday plan to gather again near the courthouse, while other Black Lives Matter events took place throughout the city. Activist group Snack Bloc PDX hosted a training in Southeast Portland for safe protesting.