(OregonLive) A group of protesters toppled statues of former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and shattered the entrance to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland’s South Park Blocks late Sunday before moving into other areas of downtown, smashing storefronts and engaging in other acts of destruction.
Police declared the event a riot and ordered people rampaging through the city’s streets to disperse but did not directly intervene until nearly an hour after the first statue fell.
The crowd scattered when police cruisers flooded the area, and officers in tactical gear appeared to make several arrests.
Protest organizers had promoted the event on social media as an “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage.”
The organizers had signaled their aggressive stance for the night, calling for “direct action” and demanding that the video live-streamers and photographers who had become staples of such events stay away.
People in the crowd were repeatedly admonished not to film. Passersby who happened upon the group were ordered by demonstrators to stop filming or delete photographs, including an apartment resident who had lasers shined at his eyes and a liquid thrown in his face as he appeared to shoot video of the scene from his terrace.
Put these animals in jail, now. The Radical Left only knows how to take advantage of very dumb “leadership” fools. This is Biden! Law & Order! https://t.co/w0yH3SqnrB
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020
Arrested half a dozen times for rioting. The DA keeps letting her go. Welcome to Portland. pic.twitter.com/OQGpbSY2NU
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 12, 2020
