A Look into the Portland Protests
For over two months in a row, protestors in Portland have been taking to the streets to take a stand against racism and the current police system. The protests started days after the police killing of George Floyd and have been going on every night since, prompting Trump to send in federal agents in early July to stop the protests.
Trump’s initial attempts to appease the situation were unsuccessful — protestors clashed with the federal agents, causing injuries to both sides. A veteran, standing peacefully in front of federal officers, had his hand broken by a federal officer. Federal law enforcement snatched demonstrators off the streets in unmarked vehicles, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
According to the New York Times, the U.S. attorney’s Oregon office found in a July 22 filing that injuries, which affected 28 federal agents at the time, included “broken bones, hearing damage, eye damage, a dislocated shoulder, sprains, strains, and contusions.”
The New York Times found in this article published on July 27 that the violence used by some protestors was “part of a much wider peaceful resistance.” On the other hand, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement on July 30 calling protestors “anarchists” who “keep attacking federal law enforcement officers and federal property on a nightly basis,” with no mention of any peaceful protestors.
The federal officers, replaced by state troopers in an agreement reached by the Department of Homeland security and Governor Kate Brown, left Portland on July 30, and the Washington Post reported the protests being notably more peaceful on the first night of their absence.
Yet the fight for justice has continued, with the 75th day of continuous protest having been reached on August 10, according to an Oregon Live article.
In a New York Times op-ed, the chief of the Police Bureau in Portland, Chuck Lovell, who was appointed after the start of the protests, called for an end to the “violence and destruction” used by some protestors while expressing hope that the city “can come together to move beyond the unrest and refocus on critical issues.”
“This violence is doing nothing to further the Black Lives Matter movement,” he wrote in the op-ed. “On one night, for example, individuals screwed the doors of our North Precinct station shut, barricaded other entrances and lit the station on fire with people inside. Nearby businesses, owned by people of color, were damaged and looted.”
In the op-ed, he also acknowledged that “thousands of people demonstrated peacefully.”
The protests have already led to some meaningful change. Back on June 17, Portland City Council cut 15 million dollars from its police budget. According to KOIN, the council “plans to redirect the money toward social programs and investments in the community that help Black and other minority youth.” And about over a week later from this budget cut, Oregon lawmakers passed six different police reform bills, which includes a bill banning chokeholds with the exception of when deadly force is warranted — according to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, deadly force is justified in “conditions of extreme necessity, when all lesser means have failed or cannot reasonably be employed” — and a bill requiring Oregon to have a public database of disciplinary actions for police officers.
