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Continuous confrontation with federal officers marked the 53rd day of protests in front of Portland’s Multnomah County Justice Center and the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse. These confrontations came as over two hundred Portland moms attempted to de-escalate tensions between protestors and federal officers by forming the “Wall of Moms.”
On Sunday night, the fences around Lownsdale Square and Chapman Square had not been replaced, after protestors used it for the past two nights to barricade the doors in front of the courthouse. The city removed all of the dismantled panels from the area to discourage this.
The ten-foot-tall reinforced fence around the federal courthouse had been replaced. However there were serious modifications. The fence had been moved back from the street, over 15 feet closer to the building. There were also new reinforcements to keep the panels connected. On Saturday night, the fence’s first night, protestors quickly dismantled the panels and used them as barricades as well.
Sunday’s protest began in the early evening with no specific schedule. The crowd numbered approximately 250 at 8:30 p.m., but continued to grow until approximately 700 people were gathered. They filled the intersection of SW Main and SW Third.
Members of the crowd were given the opportunity to use the megaphone to say a few words or lead a chant. One young Black man led chants of “One nation” and “Black lives matter,” as two men behind him lifted an American flag and raised their fists.
As speakers were addressing the growing crowd, approximately 40 moms, many dressed in sunflower yellow, began to form a wall around the intersection. This line stretched around half of the intersection. One of the moms held a sign that said “Tomorrow there will be more of us.” The group of moms was already larger than the night before when they first gathered dressed in white.
However, the wall of moms quickly grew in size as a parade of people, almost all moms in yellow, arrived, marching from SW Salmon to SW Third. These reinforcements come after a smaller group of moms gathered at Saturday’s protest and formed a wall when federal officers came out of the courthouse. Federal officers had then proceeded to throw stun grenades at their feet and tear gas them.
The new moms joined the wall, so that it was several people deep. With these new additions there were approximately 200 moms participating in the Wall of Moms, many of them holding sunflowers. They then began to chant “Moms are here, feds stay clear,” a message that would be repeated throughout the night.
A protestor then took to the megaphone to speak about how much it means to him to see so many moms supporting the movement. He told them that their support was important because “without moms none of us would be here.”
As people were speaking and chanting street medics went up and down the line handing out ear plugs, tear gas wipes and hand-sanitizers. A few crowd members also went through and made sure people had numbers for legal representation in case they were arrested.
At around 9:45 p.m., an auditory message was made over speakers from the courthouse from the Federal Protective Service, Homeland Security’s police force. It told people not to attempt to dismantle or climb the fence or the crowd will be subject to crowd control munitions. This was the first time this weekend that any warning was given to protestors by the federal officers.
This announcement drew the crowd from the intersection to the area in front of the federal courthouse. With that the federal officers opened the doors in the paneling and could be seen standing right inside holding weapons and wearing gas masks.
At 9:50 p.m., the moms began to form a barrier about ten feet from the fence. Most of the crowd was behind them. They did this as they chanted “Feds go home.”
A few minutes later, the federal officers rushed out from the doorway and pointed their guns at protestors on the other side of the fence. There were officers in black uniforms which clearly read DHS [Department of Homeland Security], however, others were wearing unidentifiable military fatigues and other black uniforms.
Protestors began to pound on the fence and pointed flashing lights and lasers at officers. More announcements were made to leave the fence alone.
The officers walked around and stood mostly behind the pillars. Protestors chanted “No justice, no peace,” “ACAB, all cops are bastards,” “Feds go home,” and more.
At 10, officers went back inside the doors, without having fired any munitions. They left the doors open and could periodically be seen walking inside. Protestors continued to yell “Feds go home.” Then the moms began to lead a chant of “I don’t see no riot here, take off your riot gear.”
The crowd then began to chant several things at once, “ACAB, all cops are bastards,” “go home pigs” and “I will not live in a fascist state.” A drumline kept the beat and several people had little toy pigs that they would squeak in time to the chants.
The federal officers remained inside the building and the doors stayed open. At 10:20, someone inside the building stuck a phone out around the corner of the door in an attempt to take a video of the crowd. A protestor used a high power laser to render the video unusable. The officers responded by pointing a high powered flashlight from the door at protestors.
At 10:30 p.m., the wall of moms moved so that they were right in front of the fence and two people deep in some places. They placed themselves between federal forces and the rest of the protestors in an attempt to de-escalate. They stood with their backs to the fence, facing protestors at first.
Within a few minutes, Federal officers set off a single stun grenade. This prompted the wall of moms to turn and face the courthouse with linked arms.
In the next 30 minutes, the auditory message was announced several times over the loudspeaker. It was met by loud boos from the crowd, several people raising their middle fingers, the shaking of the fence and the yelling of “f*** you.” In response to one of these rounds of booing, another stun grenade was thrown from the doorway.
More stun grenades were thrown from the doorway. Protestors continued to chant loudly and bang on the fence. Officers were seen walking around more frequently inside the door.
Then at around 11:20 p.m., officers came running out of the building, yelling and with loud pops coming from their guns. They threw several stun grenades and after several minutes went back inside.
This encounter prompted protestors to begin dismantling the fence. By 11:35 p.m., two panels of fencing had been broken and two protestors had scaled the fence and were sitting on top.
Protestors began to enter the fenced-in area on the side closest to the Justice Center. They sat down or knelt holding shields and wearing gas masks. They also used the fencing pieces as shields. As they did this federal officers closed the courthouse doors.
The protestors began to tip the fences after they separated sections. Several protestors jumped on it as it lay on the ground in an attempt to break it apart. They also used tools to take apart segments.
Then, at approximately 11:50 p.m., officers came running out of the doors in the courthouse. They immediately deployed stun grenades and tear gas to move the crowd away from the building. This pushed the crowd back into the park.
Approximately 30 officers also came from the side of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building and moved quickly towards the federal courthouse to provide reinforcements.
A little after midnight, dozens of federal officers stood in a line in front of the federal courthouse and across SW Main St. Most of the protestors were at the intersection of SW Main and SW fourth, a block up. However, some were gathered near the officers and were moving closer. The wall of moms was gone.
At 12:10 a.m., officers began to advance up SW Main, shooting crowd control munitions, setting off stun grenades and deploying tear gas. Officers stopped when they reached the intersection of SW Main and SW Fourth. Protestors stood on the other side of the intersection, the front line holding shields.
After pausing for a few minutes, officers then began to shoot more crowd control munitions into the crowd. They also threw gas and stun grenades towards the protestors, as well as, up and down Fourth St., where a few protestors were gathered.
The line of federal officers moved back to 3rd St. and 30 officers began to march back to the federal building. They pointed their guns at bystanders, most of whom were members of the media, but did not fire. They went back into the federal building.
The federal officers in front of the courthouse also went back into the building. As they were leaving they threw out several canisters of tear gas.
The remaining few hundred protestors regrouped after this round of gas a few blocks away. They then marched back down to the courthouse chanting “F*** the feds” and “Take to the streets, defund the police, no justice, no peace.”
For the next thirty minutes protestors stood around chanting. They also worked to dismantle the fence even more and barricade the doors to the federal courthouse.
At approximately 1:45 a.m., protestors lit a fire in the portico in front of the courthouse. They burned an American flag, along with other debris. Another fire was also started in the street. Federal officers ran out to respond.
After putting out the fire, they began to throw stun grenades and shoot tear gas canisters down the street at protestors. They also shot indiscriminately into both squares, despite the fact that only a few people were there.
Protestors tried to march back down Main towards the federal courthouse. They were quickly met with more canisters of tear gas. After this the federal officers returned back inside.
At 2:15 a.m., the remaining 125 protestors marched back down towards the courthouse, however this last encounter seemed to have drained the crowd’s energy.
For the rest of the night, the remaining people hung out in the square, talking and eating. They also began to share their collections of riot control munitions from the night, which most said they were planning to send to the ACLU. There were canisters of CS gas, also known as tear gas, and canisters of a chemical smoke.
There were also stun grenade canisters, including a Multi-Port Plus Distraction Device, which is considered to be one of the most serious types of stun grenades in use. This canister had BORTAC written on the side, which is the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit. BORTAC is the equivalent to a SWAT team and is usually deployed for missions like apprehending international drug traffickers.
Officers also used paint balls, powder balls and small rubber balls on the crowds. Several people found munitions that had been expired for years. One man had one that was manufactured in 2001 and has a shelf-life of 5 years, meaning that munition had been expired for 14 years.
