On the night of Friday, August 14, hundreds of protestors gathered in North Portland for a night of “direct action” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Protestors planned to march from Peninsula Park to the Portland Police Association [PPA] building, the union hall.
The large group of protestors did not make it to the union hall largely because the union hall was across I-5 and so there were very few possible routes for protestors. This made it easy for officers to block their path and led to hours of conflict.
The demonstrators gathered in the late evening at Peninsula Park and began to march around 9:20 p.m. As they marched they chanted “Say his/her name” and then the names of victims of police brutality, including Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Protestors only made it a few blocks before officers from the Portland Police Bureau [PPB] in riot gear appeared forming a line on N. Ainsworth St. around 9:30 p.m. Police were approximately a block away from protestors who formed their own line behind shields with black fists on them. There were also several protestors standing in front of the shield barricade including a drummer. The crowd was chanting “Black lives matter.”
Meanwhile police made several announcements over the long range acoustic device [LRAD] directing protestors to stop blocking the street. Protestors responded by chanting “Take to the streets and f*** the police, no justice, no peace.”
A few protestors walked up close to the police line and had brief conversations with officers at this time. One protestor began to light a cigarette and remarked to an officer that he hoped officers wouldn’t push their line before he finished his cigarette. The officer responded by telling the man he shouldn’t worry, they didn’t plan on moving.
This standoff lasted for approximately 20 minutes at which point a protestor incorrectly told the crowd that police were moving. The crowd responded by marching away. As they marched, they chanted “Stay Together, stay tight, we do this every night,” “No Trump, no wall, no USA at all” and “No cops, no prisons, total abolition.”
At around 10:05 p.m., PPB’s line appeared again. Portland police, with batons and impact munition guns, began marching up N. Killingsworth Ave. towards protestors.
Another standoff followed at N. Killingsworth and N. Mississippi. Officers stood across one of the streets entering the intersection, while protestors formed a line on the street directly to their right. A couple of paint balloons and water bottles were thrown in the direction of officers, but no one appeared to be hit.
A little before 10:20 p.m., another line of PPB officers arrived walking towards the intersection on the street that protestors were standing on. Announcements were made declaring the assembly unlawful and ordering people to disperse.
PPB began to move towards the crowd using smoke, projectiles and flash bangs. Officers also ran towards the shield line that had formed and began to break it up using batons and their bodies. As this occurred, officers repeatedly ordered press and legal observers to remain on the sidewalk and to not interfere with officers.
PPB continued to push forward, although a large group of officers stopped after pushing the shield line back to arrest a protestor. A couple of officers attempted to place themselves in between press filming the arrest from the sidewalk and the arrest occurring in the street.
This push effectively splintered the group. At around 10:30 p.m., approximately a hundred protestors had gathered back at Peninsula Park with most of the crowd still making their way back to regroup.
Shortly after this, a dumpster fire was lit at N. Rosa Parks Way and N. Albina Ave. This fire prompted protestors to begin to march again through residential neighborhoods.
Portland Police appeared again around 10:45 p.m. when they began to aggressively push the crowd through the residential neighborhood. These streets were not lit, with only lights from police cars and porches illuminating the way.
This push lasted several minutes after which police momentarily backed away and protestors continue to march. As they did this the crowd chanted “Black lives matter.”
At around 11 p.m., Portland Police formed a line approximately one block from protestors with a dumpster fire in between the two groups. PPB soon began to march towards protestors pushing their line approximately a block and a half. Protestors remained about a block away.
Protestors began to march again and within about 10 minutes the line of officers appeared. Officers began to push the crowd up N. Lombard yelling “Move.” Most of the crowd was more than half a block away from officers during this push.
Protestors began to be moved through residential neighborhoods by officers at a fast walk and occasionally a run. They were being followed by a line of officers and 5 vehicles at that time.
Police moved the crowd through the neighborhoods for approximately 15 minutes before moving away again. Around 11:30 p.m., approximately 250 protestors gathered at the intersection of N. Buffalo and N. Commercial to figure out their next steps.
At 11:50 p.m., officers stopped protestors on N. Lombard a couple blocks from the overpass over the I-5. The standoff began with only approximately 15 officers on the ground and a couple hundred protestors; however, more officers quickly arrived.
At this point, protestors had moved to the sidewalk and were spread out along the block. Officers, who were standing in the street up and down the block, yelled at anyone who stepped into the road. An officer was seen in one of the police vans appearing to record the crowd at this time.
Protestors and police remained in this position for more than 10 minutes at which point the first van and group of officers left. A couple of minutes later, the rest of the officers left as well.
Protestors then proceeded to push forward towards the overpass over the I-5. When they reached the overpass, officers had formed a line across the other side on the side closest to the PPA building. This prompted discussion among the protestors as several warned against getting bottlenecked on the overpass.
The crowd, which was still on the sidewalk, began to move slowly over the overpass towards police. Several protestors commented that it was ironic that officers were the only ones blocking traffic.
At this point, Portland Police moved so that they were only blocking two lanes to allow traffic through. Protestors slowly began to filter off the sidewalk into the two lanes the officers had blocked.
By 12:25 p.m. chants of “Quit your job” had broken out from the crowd who now filled two lanes. Portland Police moved back so that their line spanned all the lanes on N. Lombard.
Then at 12:30 a.m., Portland Police began to run towards protestors pushing them back a couple blocks to the area around N. Mississippi and N. Lombard. As this was occurring, several announcements were made over the LRAD telling the crowd to disperse to the east or they would be subject to impact munitions and gas.
This bull rush effectively split up protestors who began to move back to Peninsula Park to regroup. As protestors were moving back towards the park, PPB vehicles—both the riot vans and SUVs—passed by several times. At one point, a couple of officers yelled “Time to go home” from the back of one of the vans.
At 1 a.m., a small group of dozens had arrived at Peninsula Park. Protestors discussed the fact that there was at least one more in the neighborhood and they should all regroup. They also considered whether to call it a night or continue to try and get to the PPA building.
Eventually the crowd decided to continue to move towards the union hall and headed back to the N. Lombard overpass. They were met there at 1:30 a.m. by PPB officers.
Officers began to walk towards the crowd in an effort to push them back. Behind the police line, approximately a dozen Portland police vehicles waited.
A standoff followed at N. Mississippi and N. Lombard, where there were approximately equal numbers of protestors and officers. All of the crowd was on the sidewalk except for one protestor on a scooter with a speaker who was riding around in the middle of the street.
Portland Police began to make an announcement over the LRAD ordering the man to move out of the street. Before the announcement had ended, more than two dozen officers sprinted towards the man and arrested him.
After the arrest, protestors remained on the corner and police returned to their line. Protestors began to chant “Whose streets? Our streets.” They also yelled at officers, a couple of which they identified by name.
Someone who identified themselves as press and an officer began to argue about the temporary restraining order relating to officer treatment of press and legal observers. The person asked the officer to let the press do its job and claimed that he had been “maced” during one of the earlier standoffs. The officer told him that there were people in the crowd that night and on previous nights labeled as press who weren’t.
At approximately 2:10 a.m., officers got on the back of the vans and left. At this point, most of the crowd proceeded to go home. A small group remained downtown and Portland Police stated that they made it to the PPA office in the early morning. By 3:45 a.m., the rest of the crowd had left.
