By Beth Nakamura, Andrew Theen and Jim Ryan
The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Police abruptly declared a march to Portland’s North Precinct an unlawful assembly late Monday and made several arrests as they forcefully scattered protesters onto side streets.
The Portland Police Bureau cited “criminal activity” in declaring an unlawful assembly shortly after 11 p.m. The activity appeared to consist of demonstrators throwing items and pointing a strobe light at officers.
One officer was hit in his face shield by a ball bearing. Other objects — including golf balls, rocks, potatoes and eggs — were also thrown at officers, according to police.
No apparent property damage was observed by Oregonian/OregonLive journalists.
After declaring the unlawful assembly, police cleared the area surrounding the police precinct, located near Northeast Killingsworth Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Nine people were arrested.
The evening, the 75th consecutive night of protest in Portland, began quietly as about 150 gathered at Alberta Park in Northeast Portland shortly before the scheduled 9 p.m. march. Some people were handing out pizza, water and snacks, while others offered homemade shields.
About 9:45, the demonstrators set out for the Police Bureau’s North Precinct. They chanted slogans that included “No cops, no prisons, total abolition!” and “Black lives matter!”
When they arrived at the precinct shortly after 9 p.m., they were met with about a dozen armored officers. Some held batons, while others carried crowd-control weapons.
At 10:23 p.m., police warned protesters that acts of vandalism, lighting fires or throwing objects could be met with arrest or use of force, including tear gas. At one point, police ordered an individual in the crowd to stop shining a strobe light at officers, and another group was admonished to stop throwing eggs.
Just after 11 p.m., police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and ordered those gathered to leave to the north, saying the area was closed.
Lines of police advanced on the crowd from the south on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, shoving some protesters and ordering them to move. Police chased protesters more than half a mile west on North Killingsworth Street.
An irritant was released into the air, videos showed. Police later said they did not deploy tear gas during the demonstration.
Some protesters regrouped near the Portland Community College Cascade campus and marched back toward the precinct, but they were intercepted by police, who scattered remaining protesters into residential side streets and made several more arrests.
Officers warned repeatedly via loudspeaker not to return to the North Precinct, and they circled the area to find groups headed in that direction.
At 1 a.m. Tuesday, a diminished group had returned to the precinct and faced off with police officers standing in the parking lot. Most of the crowd had left by about 2 a.m.
One officer was taken to a hospital with a hyperextended elbow suffered in a scuffle during the demonstration, according to police. A man who was arrested also kicked an Oregon State Police trooper and a pair of Portland police detectives while he was being processed, police said.
An Oregon State Police trooper lost his body camera, as well, but someone returned it to a supervisor.
The demonstration did not feature destruction seen during previous protests at the precinct.
In May, Portland’s mayor and police chief accused some in the crowd of endangering lives by barricading doors and setting fires near the building, though no one inside was injured and damage to the police precinct was minimal. Nearby businesses, many of them Black-owned, were vandalized or suffered fire damage in a June 25 incident. Police responded with tear gas and other munitions.
Now, weeks later, nightly protests have returned to a similar tenor, with smaller groups of demonstrators marching nightly on locations likely to prompt a confrontation with police. Police have responded with tactics that change from night to night, but demonstrations usually end with lines of officers chasing protesters through nearby streets and firing crowd-control munitions, often in response to thrown objects, small fires or acts of vandalism.
Monday’s protests came hours after President Donald Trump once again aired his distaste for Portland’s protests, calling the city “out of control” and suggesting officials should “bring in the National Guard.”
They also came on the heels of a pair of weekend demonstrations that drew crowds to a police union building in North Portland. Both protests were declared riots, and 25 people were arrested.
Among them was Black activist Demetria Hester, who leads Mothers United for Black Lives Matter and is a regular presence at Portland protests against anti-Black racism and police violence. She is also the survivor of a hate crime committed by MAX train murderer Jeremy Christian in 2017. She testified against him in his trial.
Hester was accused of disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer, both misdemeanors. She was released from custody Monday afternoon, and spokesman Brent Weisberg said the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office had declined prosecution and that the court will dismiss the charges.
“The prosecution decline decision was in the interest of justice upon reviewing the police reports in this matter,” Weisberg said.
Hester was present at Monday night’s protests just hours after her release.
©2020 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)