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Portland police criticized for not intervening in violent clash

Police said they held back because they didn’t want to escalate a volatile situation

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Demonstrators with the goal of “saying no to Marxism” clashed with counterprotesters at the Justice Center in downtown Portland on Aug. 22, 2020.

Photo/Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian

By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police are investigating a man who drew a gun at the weekend eruption of violent skirmishes downtown while county justice officials have upped the criminal ante for prominent right-wing brawler Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, who attended the demonstration while wanted on a probation violation.

Police said they’re following various leads from the Saturday protest that again drew national attention to the city not only for the images of demonstrators duking it out with fists, bear mace and paintball guns but because officers didn’t intervene in the rolling clashes.

Under a call from Mayor Ted Wheeler to explain their tactics and criticism from civil rights advocates, police repeated their response that they held back because they didn’t want to escalate the volatile mix.

“Sometimes the more prudent course is to not get involved,” Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday. “You run the risk of making a bad situation remarkably worse.”

Several hundred people attended the right-wing rally in support of law enforcement and a counterprotest near the Multnomah County Justice Center, including members of the Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter activists.

Brawls broke out intermittently over the next two hours, reminiscent of prior violent encounters between left- and right-wing activists during downtown rallies in recent years.

Davis said the bureau had only 30 officers available to manage the dueling demonstrators because of staff shortages due, in part, to a heavy police presence required the night before during a protest outside a Northeast Portland police precinct that grew to a riot.

That number, a fraction of the officers typically deployed during a downtown protest, was insufficient for police to safely step into the crowd, Davis said.

“We want to make sure we prevent violence and prevent people from getting hurt,” he said. “It was not an easy decision to make.”

That decision, however, set off a wave of criticism from some people who said officers have used excessive force and made sweeping arrests during nightly demonstrations against police brutality and anti-Black racism, which often includes acts of violence and vandalism by some of the demonstrators.

It also rekindled long-held suspicions among some activists that Portland police protect or favor right-wing groups that hold rallies in the city while targeting left-wing counterprotesters.

Wheeler, who also serves as the city’s police commissioner, said Monday that he’s asking Police Chief Chuck Lovell why officers didn’t intervene Saturday.

“The mayor is perfectly reasonably in asking for review for something that has caused concern the community,” Davis said.

“These events, and the decision making that goes into them, will always involve limitations, trade-offs and incomplete information in a rapidly evolving situation,” he said. “Finding out exactly what officers knew and at what times decisions were made in those circumstances is absolutely necessary.”

For example, Davis said it remained unclear as to whether officers downtown at the time were aware when one right-wing activist drew a gun and pointed it at Black Lives Matter demonstrators. The episode was captured on video and shared widely across social media.

The incident is now under investigation and police are seeking witnesses to come forward, Davis said.

“We’re certainly interested in speaking with anyone \u00adwho was put into danger by that guy’s actions,” he said.

Davis also said he didn’t know if police were notified about an arrest warrant issued earlier this month for Tustiala “Tiny” Toese, who attended the demonstration despite being wanted for a probation violation.

A Multnomah County judge in January barred the 23-year-old from attending protests in Portland for two years as a condition for his probation following a fourth-degree assault conviction.

Toese has since violated his probation multiple times, leading to his arrest once already this summer, court records show. A judge issued a new warrant for his arrest Aug. 11.

Even if police did know of the warrant, Davis said he’s not sure whether detaining Toese at the time would have been wise.

“Do you go into hostile group and arrest somebody who has a misdemeanor warrant out for their arrest?” he said. “Or do you once again run the risk of creating a flashpoint?”

Jessica Morkert-Shibley, a spokeswoman for the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, said the department is looking into the latest alleged violations and that it continues to recommend that Toese’s probation be revoked and he serve one year in jail.

The department has also asked the courts to upgrade Toese’s warrant to allow him to be extradited from Washington state, where he lives, Morkert-Shibley said.

Meanwhile, demonstrations continued for their 89th consecutive night in Portland on Monday with several hundred protesters marching to the police union headquarters on North Lombard Street.

Officers arrived at the Portland Police Association building minutes after protesters and declared the gathering an unlawful assembly as some in the crowd spray-painted the building and someone climbed on the roof to unfurl a banner.

About 60 seconds later, police declared a riot as a fire lit outside the building became visible. Twenty-five people were ultimately arrested.

“Police facilities are pieces of critical infrastructure in our city and we have a responsibility to protect them,” Davis said. “Once an attack gets made on one we kind of don’t have any other option.”

Juan Chavez, an attorney and the project director of the Civil Rights Project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said the unwillingness of police to intervene in Saturday’s demonstrations served as the latest example showing why political unrest continues nightly.

“It’s clear whose side they’re on and that’s a grave threat, I think, to the general public order,” said Chavez, who has represented multiple protesters in lawsuits against the Portland police.

“An outsider would think that one side of Saturday’s conflict is government sanctioned,” he said. “That sends a message to the folks who go out to protest police buildings and union halls every night.”

Davis said police expect criticism “for just about anything we do” but that the pushback is “healthy for us. It will ultimately make us a better organization.”

He repeated an oft-stated police position that protesters, city leaders and the public at large have a role to play in mitigating the ongoing turmoil.

“We tend to want to look at this as a police problem and we’re supposed to have all the solutions,” he said. “This is bigger than the Portland Police Bureau. It’s a community issue.”

“As a community, now would be a good time to send a clear and consistent message to the relatively small number of people engaged in volent activity on our streets that it’s not OK,” Davis said. “It’s not what we do here.”

©2020 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)

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