While the corporate media continues to purport the narrative that violence in Portland, Oregon has calmed since federal presence retreated, many rioters shifted their focus this week to patronizing and attacking local law enforcement and their buildings instead.
According to a statement released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), groups of rioters moved across the Willamette River in Portland where they “assaulted officers with hard projectiles, a tactic previously employed against federal personnel” as well as an “unknown alkaline substance.”
Local news reports also indicate that police declared an official riot on Wednesday when “demonstrators broke into the Portland Police Association building and started a fire.”
To those near N. Lombard St and N Campbell Ave near the Portland Police Association: The gathering has been declared a civil an unlawful assembly
All persons near N Lombard St and N Campbell Ave must disperse by traveling to the west. You are ordered to disperse immediately.
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 5, 2020
We’re at the police union building on N. Lombard where there are a couple hundred protesters. There’s a dumpster on fire in the street. Then there was a fire started at the edge of the building but other people in the crowd yelled for it to be put out. pic.twitter.com/cvABdaTEln
— Audrey Weil (@audreytweil) August 5, 2020
While the Portland Police Bureau publicly called for the cessation of rioting and destruction, many did not listen and continued “vandalizing the PPA building with graffiti and others attempted to pull the plywood off of the doors and windows.”
“PPB is here on loudspeaker saying people are trying to break into and damage the police association building. ‘Stop trying to break in or vandalize the Portland Police Association now’,” one reporter tweeted.
PPB is here on loudspeaker saying people are trying to break into and damage the police association building. “Stop trying to break in or vandalize the Portland Police Association now” pic.twitter.com/PoAT5vTR7o
— Audrey Weil (@audreytweil) August 5, 2020
A fight involving at least 20 people also broke out and shots rang out multiple times in different locations, according to local reports. No one was injured from the gunfire.
After the riots began to dissipate, officers reported “several arrests” and told local news that “some crowd control munitions were used overnight, but…no tear gas was deployed.”
While violence against local and state agencies ran rampant earlier this week, DHS reports that “no significant activity was directed at federal facilities and personnel.”
“While violent criminal activity persists elsewhere in Portland, Monday night marked the second straight night during which rioters did not attack federal property or officers,” the statement read.
According to the statement, the DHS called this a “drastic and welcome change.”
“There were no reported DHS arrests, injuries to DHS officers, or damage to federal property,” the statement continued.
