Portland activists, community leaders and local officials renewed calls Friday for federal officers to stop responding to downtown demonstrations after protesters were subjected to another round of tear gas and other uses of force.
The demands to leave arose at demonstrations and press conferences throughout Friday and into the night. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty organized an evening vigil outside the downtown Justice Center that drew several hundreds of people. The Justice Center sits between two federal buildings that federal officers streamed out of Thursday to force protesters to leave.
Some speakers at the Friday night vigil advocated for police abolishment, as protesters nearby gathered braced for the possibility of another confrontation with police. Hardesty led the crowd in chanting, “We are one.”
By 9:30 p.m., a few dozen people had also started to gather at two closed city parks across the street from the Justice Center. They started to dismantle the chainlink fence that surrounded the parks and moved the fence into the street.
Police stayed away, although one person was posted atop the Justice Center, watching the crowds below.
The protests against police violence and systemic racism have continued for 51 consecutive days after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police in late May. Many of the protests have ended in police use of force and arrest, as well claims of violence and vandalism by protesters from police.
As Friday night protests got underway, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said late Friday that she intended to sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protection Service in federal court. Rosenblum said the state’s suit will allege the federal agencies seized and detained Oregonians without probable cause.
Rosenblum also said the state would launch a criminal investigation into the shooting by federal officers of Donavan La Bella in the face with a less-lethal munition Saturday, critically injuring him. La Bella’s hands were above his head when he was shot.
Friday’s demonstrations came as U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams called for an investigation into a report by Oregon Public Broadcasting that two protesters were detained without probable cause by federal officers. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Portland police Chief Chuck Lovell held a press conference addressing “ongoing tensions.”
Williams had previously launched an investigation into the shooting of La Bella.
Two protests took place Thursday night. One demonstration outside the southeast precinct, which houses both Portland police officers and Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputies, ended in use of force and arrests after police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly. Twenty people were ultimately jailed, including Andrew Jankowski, a freelance journalist who was later released. The impetus for his arrest was not clear; he said his press pass was visible when he was taken into custody.
Portland police said late Friday that they could not disclose any details about Jankowski’s arrest.
A separate protest downtown was met with tear gas and other uses of force by federal officers, although it was unclear what precipitated the dispersal.
The night’s response by federal officers was the latest to draw widespread scrutiny from local officials and gained nationwide attention.
At Wheeler and Lovell’s joint press conference, the mayor called the actions and words of President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security secretary an “attack on our democracy.”
“I stand with our senators, representatives, and our state, county and city leaders in denouncing their presence,” Wheeler said.
Around the same time, about 200 people gathered in front of the federal courthouse to decry the use of force by police.
“This violence has been happening since before George Floyd,” Tai Carpenter, of Don’t Shoot Portland, told the crowd.
Jamie Hale, Noelle Crombie, Ryan Nguyen and Ty Vinson of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
-- K. Rambo
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