After fires and fence damage outside downtown federal courthouse, Portland police declare unlawful assembly
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PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — For another night, demonstrators went to downtown Portland to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
On Thursday, more than a thousand people gathered outside the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse. For several hours in the evening, police said the crowd demonstrated and blocked traffic.
The Portland NAACP hosted an event in front of the Justice Center to bring focus back to the Black Lives Matter movement called “Portland: Let’s Get Protests Back on Track.”
By 9 p.m., the crowd had grown with the addition of the “Wall of Moms,” a protesting group of mothers who has gained attention for their bright shirts and locked arms.
Around 11 p.m., protesters were seen throwing items over the fence surrounding the courthouse and minutes later federal officers were heard over a speaker telling them to stop.
According to police, fires were set inside the fence at that time and other protesters were seen shaking the fence.
Police said several people breached the fence, prompting federal officers to come out of the courthouse. While officers dispersed the group, police said they were “hit with large projectiles, various incendiaries, and flashed with lasers.”
About an hour and a half later, a group was seen trying to saw the fence from its base in an attempt to bring it down.
Just before 1 a.m. Friday, a FOX 12 crew saw the first incident of tear gas during the demonstration outside the courthouse.
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