On Monday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf confirmed that there have been 12 riots in the 10 days since the DHS struck a deal with the Oregon state government for to have the federal law enforcement officers stationed in Portland to leave the city.
“It’s been 10 days since the agreement between DHS and Oregon,” said Wolf. “During that time, [the Portland police] has declared riots or unlawful assemblies 12 times. Rioting and arson are not actions of peaceful protesting.”
Portland has seen nonstop rioting since the beginning of the engineered civil unrest in late May. Acting Secretary Wolf, however, says that the past few days have been particularly brutal, especially for the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), who have been left without federal assistance due to the insistence of city and state leaders that they not cooperate with the DHS.
Despite the clear escalation of violence perpetrated by the rioters, Portland and Oregon are still refusing to budge on the issue of accepting help from federal law enforcement to better deal with riots. President Donald Trump himself has said that both Portland mayor, Ted Wheeler and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, both of whom are Democrats, will be held responsible for the damage inflicted upon lives and property by Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost three months, bring in the National Guard,” said Trump. “The mayor and governor are putting people’s lives at risk. They will be held responsible. The Guard is ready to act immediately. The [Federal Courthouse] is secured by [DHS].”
Wolf defends federal officers’ presence in Portland
On Thursday, August 6, Wolf testified in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee regarding the federal government’s response to the situation in Portland. Here, he placed the blame on the situation solely on local and state officials for not acting decisively and for not working with federal agencies to protect not just federal buildings but also city and private property.
During the whole event, Wolf, with the help of the eight Republican senators in the committee, had to continually defend himself from the Democrats who were trying to smear him. Wolf tried to draw their attention to the criminal actions perpetrated by the rioters, such as the rampant vandalism and the arson attacks. (Related: BREAKING: Antifa terrorists in Austin, Portland just received a large cache of weapons in preparation for coordinated multi-city “TET offensive” against America.)
Oregon officials have argued that the federal government’s aggressive response is what helped fuel the violence in the city. Critics have also pointed out that Trump sending officers to Portland against the wishes of city and state officials constitutes an overreach of the federal government’s powers.
“Enforcing federal law is not by invitation,” said Wolf, who argued that he tried to reach out to state and local officials to tell them that the federal government was willing to help, to no avail.
Wolf said that the federal officers who were sent over to protect the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in downtown Portland were not given support by local officials even as they experienced nightly assaults from violent and well-organized rioters.
This lack of support from the PPB forced the DHS to make their own arrests. During the department’s stay in the city, they arrested no fewer than 99 people for participating in illegal activities.
On top of all of this, Wolf had to point out to the committee that 277 federal officers were injured in the line of duty. They were attacked with all manners of weapons, such as bricks, baseball bats, fireworks and even improvised explosive devices. Several of these injured officers have also suffered permanent damage to their eyes due to lasers pointed at their eyes by the rioters.
Sen. Ron Johnson, the Republican senator from Wisconsin and the chairman of the committee, further argued that the riots have left the PPB unable to deal with crime in other parts of the city.
“When you do nothing to stop riots, you unleash anarchy, and when you encourage criminals that unleash anarchy, people die.”
The anarchy in Portland has not stopped with the withdrawal of federal law enforcement officers. Stay updated on the latest events in this crime-infested city at Rioting.news.
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