On the night of Saturday, July 18, two separate Black Lives Matter protests unfolded simultaneously in Portland. Hundreds gathered at the Justice Center, the site of nightly protests for the past 52 days, and at the Portland Police Association building, Portland Police Bureau’s [PPB] Union Hall.
Justice Center Protest
Hundreds gathered for the nightly protests at the Justice Center. However, unlike in North Portland, this event was never declared a riot and the protestors there had no confrontations with Portland Police, only federal officers.
The fencing around the parks in front of the Justice Center had been replaced, despite protestors use of it as barricades the night prior. Members of the crowd could be heard saying that it had been replaced to entice protestors to tear it down again, so that police action would be more justified.
A reinforced 10-foot-tall fence had also been set up around the Federal Courthouse. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon tweeted about the new fence earlier Saturday saying that “The purpose of this fence is to de-escalate tensions.”
The protest began in the early evening, when a couple hundred people gathered for a rally. The rally was organized by medical professionals. There were approximately two dozen people in the crowd wearing their white coats.
One medical professional held a sign which read OHSU Health Student Response Team. The sign also read “Aid and Supplies.”
Several of the medical professionals gave speeches on the steps of the Justice Center, in front of a banner which read “Stop Assaulting Our Patients.” They discussed that “racism is a public health issue.”
Multiple professionals also condemned the use of tear gas in all situations and called for a complete ban on it as a crowd or riot control agent across the U.S. They talked about the health effects that it has and why they believed it should never be used.
After the rally ended a little after 9 p.m., the crowd gathered in the intersection of SW Main St. and SW Third St. There were approximately 30 moms, wearing white, linking arms in the middle of the intersection. They led chants of “Black Lives Matter” and “Protect Our Kids.”
By 9:30, some protestors had almost completely dismantled the fence around Lownsdale Square and were in the process of removing the one around Chapman Square. No one had touched the fence around the Federal Courthouse yet.
The majority of the protestors were still in the intersection, as the crowd continued to grow to several hundred. They chanted things like “Everyday, everyday, everyday.” They also listened to members of the crowd give speeches over a megaphone, most of which called for the defunding of PPB and the removal of federal officers from Portland.
Around 10 p.m., a protestor took the megaphone and led an elaborate call and response about protecting all Black Lives. She would say “What do we protect?” and the crowd would respond with “Black disabled,” “Black youth,” “Black looters,” “Black felons,” “Black trans women” and “Black lawyers.”
At the same time, a small group began working to dismantle the reinforced fence around the Federal Courthouse. This came after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon tweeted “We ask that protestors leave the fence alone. Trespassers, including those coming over the fence, will be prosecuted.”
As protestors began to remove the first panels, federal officers threw smoke canisters through a peephole in the wall. This action did not deter protestors.
Once the protestors removed the first two panels and began to walk inside the fenced area, two Black men tried to block them and began to tell them to stop over a megaphone. They told them to stop taking attention away from the Black leaders and trying to provoke the federal officers. One of the men went on to say that breaking the fence was not working for justice.
Protestors ignored him and began to use the fencing panels to barricade the Federal Courthouse doors and peepholes. By 10:30 p.m., protestors had dismantled almost all of the panels in front of the building and people were milling about the once fenced area. Approximately 15 moms came and stood with arms linked in front of the courthouse chanting “Leave our kids alone.”
At the same time, several protestors began building a fire where the elk statue used to be on SW Main St. They fueled the flames with plywood from an undetermined source. This fire grew throughout the night and by 2 a.m. was several feet high.
At around 10:40, federal officers came out of the Federal Courthouse to remove the barricades that protestors had built. These officers lacked proper training for dealing with mass demonstrations and had no specific training in crowd control, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo that was leaked earlier on Saturday.
Several officers held crowd control munitions guns and stood on the sidewalk in front of protestors. Others went to dismantle the barricades. The moms linked arms and tried to form a human barrier in front of the officers. They began to chant “leave our kids alone.”
The officers made no announcements telling protestors what to do or why they had come out. Without warning officers began to throw concussive grenades at protestors, including one at the feet of the moms, one of whom was visibly pregnant.
By 11 p.m., Federal officers had gone back inside and protestors had gathered in front of the Federal Courthouse again, despite the tear gas still in the air. They began to chant “ACAB, all cops are bastards.”
Protestors began to rebuild the barricades in front of the Federal Courthouse’s doors and peepholes. Federal officers responded by throwing two stun grenades and several canisters of colored, chemical smoke from the peephole, around 11:20. This was the last interaction of the nigh between officers and protestors.
Protestors continued to add to the barricades, making piles out of dozens of pieces of fencing. By 11:30, they had reinforced the barricades to the point that the opening would be unusable to anyone inside.
Protestors, numbering around 500, spent the next couple hours gathered in the intersection of SW Main St. and SW Third St. Members of the crowd gave speeches from the bed of a truck and these speeches were interspersed with chants. As this was happening, people went through the crowd making sure that everyone had a number for legal aid written on their body, in case they were arrested.
One speaker talked about the importance of unifying around one message. He called on everyone in Portland who said they supported the movement to show up at the protests.
At 12:50 a.m., a protestor began to sing the civil rights song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” by The Freedom Singers. As she sang, the crowd turned on their flashlights and raised their phones.
After this, protestors formed a line in preparation to march. People with shields lined up and ordered the crowd to get behind them. This idea was quickly quelled when protestors decided that it was safer to stay.
At 1:15 a.m., a counter-protestor holding an American flag appeared. He was surrounded by protestors and a couple tried to grab his flag. Most of the people yelled to let him leave peacefully and he was quickly escorted away.
By 1:30 the crowd had dwindled, but a couple hundred still remained. They began to chant “We are the people, we are the power.”
In the next thirty minutes, someone set off several professional grade fireworks over Lownsdale Square. This caused some protestors to begin preparing for another police confrontation, which did not occur.
Protestors fashioned fence barricades at all the road entrances to the area in front of the courthouse and Justice Center. Then they just hung out in the area around the Justice Center well into the morning, with approximately 200 still there at 2:30 a.m. They sat around the bonfire, chanted, talked and ate free food from Riot Ribs.
Portland Police Association Protest
Simultaneously, another protest was unfolding in NE Portland. The protest which ended at the Portland Police Association building [PPA], was organized by the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front [PNWYLF]. The PNWYLF is a group that has been involved in organizing and leading protests in Portland since the beginning of this movement.
This protest began at 6 p.m. in Peninsula Park, where people gathered to call for the abolition of the PPB. They also demanded an “end [to] the daily killings of Black and brown people in so-called America.”
After gathering in the park, protestors took to the streets, marching towards the North Portland Police Precinct. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the march stretched for approximately five blocks.
Protestors proceeded to gather outside the building and chant. They stood around the precinct and chanted “1, 2, 3, 4, open up the prison doors. 5, 6, 7, 8, abolish the police state,” “No good cops in a racist system” and “No cops, no prisons, total abolition.”
A little before 9 p.m., protestors lowered the American flag from its pole outside the precinct and destroyed it. They proceeded to raise a new flag reading “Mourn The Dead, Fight Like Hell For The Living.”
A little before 9:30, protestors began to move north on Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd. They took up all lanes of the street and continued to chant. No uniformed officers were visible.
Around 10:30, the march of approximately 500 people arrived at the boarded up PPA. A protestor handed out Heavenly donuts, as members of the crowd created barricades. Dumpster barricades were set up to the west and south of the PPA. A few cars formed a barricade to the east.
About 15 minutes later protestors successfully removed the wood covering the PPA’s front door. They then began to smash a pole with an American flag through the door.
At this point, PPB began to make announcements over a Long Range Acoustic Device [LRAD]. They told the crowd that “If you attempt to breach and enter the PPA office, you will be subject to arrest or use of force, including crowd control munitions.” They ordered protestors to “Stop criminal acts now and move to the east.”
Small groups of protestors proceeded to set several fires in the dumpsters. At about 10:50 protestors breached the doors to the PPA and set a fire inside. The protest was then declared a riot by PPB.
PPB ordered the crowd to move east over the LRAD. Officers, in riot gear, proceeded to run at the crowd in a bull rush. The crowd splintered onto side streets. Arrests were made.
Around 11:10 p.m., the remaining crowd regrouped on Lombard St. and Interstate Ave. Soon after, police used crowd control munitions on the crowd, including OC gas, also known as pepper spray. Officers then bull rushed the protestors again. Police pushed protestors away from the area and into residential neighborhoods.
Police continued to order the protestors to move faster and physically pushed anyone who was lagging forward. Meanwhile, the crowd began to chant “walk fast, don’t run.”
Portland Police pushed protestors onto the highway and eventually all the way back to Peninsula Park, where this event began. By 11:30 the crowd was gathered in the park and by 11:40 PPB tweeted that the fire was out in the PPA office and that officers had “restored order in the neighborhood there.”
For the full photo gallery of the protest at the Justice Center, click here.
