Portland police declare unlawful assembly during protest

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SARA CLINE

The Portland Police Bureau declared an unlawful assembly Saturday night when people gathered outside a police precinct in Oregon’s largest city and threw bottles towards officers, police said.

Until that point, federal, state and local law enforcement had been seemingly absent from the protests Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The demonstrations — that for weeks ended with tear gas, fireworks shot towards buildings, federal agents on the street and injuries to protesters and officers — have recently ended with chanting and conversations.

Activists and Oregon officials urged people at Saturday night’s protest in Portland to re-center the focus on Black Lives Matter, three days after the Trump administration agreed to reduce the presence of federal agents.

Groups gathered Saturday evening in various areas around downtown Portland to listen to speakers and prepare to march to the Justice Center and Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse.



Bobbi Snethen, right, holds a sign during a protest caravan for Black Lives Matter on Friday, July 31, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following an agreement between Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and the Trump administration to reduce federal officers in the city, nightly protests remained largely peaceful without major confrontations between demonstrators and officers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)




Read more: https://apnews.com/29323df53747655d7f3b51259724d9cc

[captain queeg]

1. Throwing bottles? That's just stupid, gives police the excuse to ratchet up

And it’s not even an excuse when the protestors initiate that kind of violence. Makes me wonder if these people really live in Portland and/or they don’t want the excitement to die down. I’m starting to question their motives

[secondwind]

2. Me too. I wouldn't put it past Trump to be behind this

[CTyankee]

5. Agents provacateurs, as I believe they are called. This has happened before, when a repressive

government wants to discredit protestors. They plant paid agents to pretend to be demonstrators
who have assembled peaceably for redress of grievances.

[SnowCritter]

7. That was my first though, as well.

I don't put anything past the criminal cabal in charge.

[CTyankee]

9. It is glaringly obvious, don't you think? They think we're all stupid, or born yesterday or

never read a book (we got 'em there!).

[crickets]

12. 👆👆👆

[iemitsu]

16. Proud boys show up without being paid.

[riversedge]

4. Scenes like this are horrible opics for the protesters.

[2naSalit]

13. That's why they are there...

the trouble makers. They are there to trash the protest and sway public opinion against the protesters. Seriously, it's not the actual protesters, it's their opposition trying to sabotage their marches. Been going on for a long time. The good part is where the protesters identify the the provocateurs and stop them, drag them over to police and boot them out of the arena.

The asshole regime is still on a track to mess up everything and anything they can so expect everything terrible.

[Subterranean Donkey]

3. False Flag Operation

Trump Cultists, bused in from outside the city, maybe even outside the state.

[2naSalit]

14. +1

[former9thward]

20. Where is the evidence?

CTs are always fun but at some point you need evidence.

[Roy Rolling]

6. It's all TV now

Don’t be somebody else’s b-roll. Don’t let one protester’s bad behavior be used against the whole anti-authoritarian movement.

Be smarter than Trump toadies.

[Scruffy1]

8. My advice to them would be to move on.

I have been involved in many protests over a whole lot of years. The only point in protests is to get attention to things that are being ignored.If you keep it going for a long time it usually devolves into a place to hang out and attracts those with nowhere else to go, drunks and druggies. Besides, you are not news anymore. Of course they don't care what I think and for a lot of them it's become their "job".

[McKim]

10. It's Time to Get to Work!!!

I agree. It is time for all who have been in the streets to do the work to make BLM real. Join boards, get on hiring committees, show up at any public meeting, donate to organizations, get out the vote, get on police oversight boards, and get busy. Give our city a rest so the downtown can heal before it becomes a ghost town. We need people to do the work to realize BLM and to shop and get take out meals downtown to breathe normal life into our city’s core.

[cayugafalls]

17. +1000 It is also time to stop protesting into all hours of the night.

Shut down the protest at a reasonable hour, then the agent provocateurs have nowhere to go and no crowds to hide their presence.

I know the daytime is hot and the night affords some relief and makes protesting tolerable, but a few hours of protest each night is better than bad optics, imo.

This is just my opinion and not a command since I control no one.

[w0nderer]

11. K & R N/T

[Polybius]

15. I think the time has come for the protests to stop, it's been over two months

Let's all focus on getting Biden elected.

[Grasswire2]

18. Do you live in POrtland?

Or perhaps are you talking about BLM protests all around the country that are happening every weekend?

[Polybius]

23. All of them can stop

Most have by now.

[regnaD kciN]

19. As hard as it may be for some to believe here...

...there are probably a lot of protesters for whom "elect Biden" isn't the simple answer to this crisis. Don't get me wrong -- that doesn't mean they'll sit the election out, but, for them, replacing the current POTUS may be a vital first step, but doesn't solve everything. (And, frankly, I would agree -- we can't simply elect a Democrat and then sit back and congratulate ourselves on a job well done for the next four years.) There was plenty of need for a BLM movement even when Obama was in the White House.

[ck4829]

21. Hey, if the protests can take a break, maybe police brutality and systemic racism can as well?

[Polybius]

22. It has

Police here are told to ignore things that aren't major. I've been driving with a headlight out for two months and haven't been pulled over. This is unheard of where I live.