As the rioting and civil unrest in Portland stretch out to its second month – without decisive action and without the cooperation of local authorities, rioters are unlikely to stop any time soon.
Every night since the beginning of the riots, small groups of dedicated and highly organized Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters ready themselves for their battle with the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) outside the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland. When federal law enforcement officers arrived in the city, the rioters went after the federal Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse.
The federal officers have had to deal with rioters starting fires to draw individual agents out of the safety of the courthouse, and those using high-powered lasers that can permanently damage the eyesight of the officers. To complicate things, rioters also throw a variety of projectiles to injure the federal troops such as rocks, bottles, fireworks and Molotov cocktails. (Related: Federal officers in Portland may have been PERMANENTLY blinded by rioters with lasers.)
Listen to this latest episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how the mainstream media is complicit in all of the criminal acts perpetrated by the left-wing Antifa and Black Lives Matter domestic terrorist movements.
Night 60: Rioters light fires, federal officers forced to use tear gas to disperse mob
The riot on the evening of Monday, July 27th, began at around 9 p.m. According to the PPB, crowds began by blocking several streets downtown as demonstrators began giving speeches about police brutality and racial injustice at the Justice Center. Meanwhile, just a block away, the organized rioters were beginning to form outside of the Federal Courthouse's perimeter.
At around 10 p.m., the rioters began lighting fires. The first fire was started at the site where a sculpture of a bronze Elk once stood, right between Chapman and Lownsdale squares. By 10:20 p.m., federal officers started issuing warnings to the rioters to cease their activities, however, these warnings were promptly ignored.
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By around 11:30 p.m., the federal officers began deploying tear gas and using crowd-control munitions such as pepper spray rounds and rubber bullets. Officers were also seen using a hose to extinguish several fires close to the Federal Courthouse.
In response to the tear gas, the rioters used leaf blowers to clear the air. They also tried to tear down the fence protecting the courthouse – which prompted federal authorities to warn them that if they did not stop their demonstration would be declared an unlawful assembly.
After midnight, the PPB said that a rioter threw a Molotov cocktail or a similar incendiary device at the courthouse. It burst into flames near the building's doors. This, the lighting of several more fires and the fact that the rioters never stopped trying to tear down the fence was what forced federal authorities to declare the event an unlawful assembly by 12:40, at which point the federal officers began moving in on the rioters. They deployed flash-bang grenades and fired more tear gas.
KOIN 6 News reported that, by 1:30 a.m., there were no more than a hundred rioters remaining in the area. They would slowly disperse soon after, as the deployment of tear gas and flash-bang grenades seems to have been effective at stopping the riots.
Federal officers staying in Portland until rioting ends
Billy J. Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, proclaimed that federal law enforcement officers will be staying in Portland until attacks on the Federal Courthouse cease. He even warned that more federal agents might be on the way if a proper conclusion to the rioting is not found.
“It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,” Williams said during a news conference. “We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.”
Williams, whose main office is inside the besieged Federal Courthouse, has called on the community, as well as business and faith leaders, to help end the nightly violence occurring in their city; otherwise, the federal government will send more law enforcement officers into the city.
According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration is planning to send at least 150 additional federal agents into Portland, as the current deployment of troops in the city has not stopped the battles with rioters, but has actually intensified them. One hundred of the additional troops will come from the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and 50 will come from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
While the plan has not been finalized, it seems clear that President Donald Trump is looking for ways to finally stop the riots from continuing, and sending in more federal officers is a concrete show of force to make the rioters back down.
Learn more about the rioting in cities like Portland and Chicago at Rioting.news.
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