A relatively small crowd of hundreds gathered Sunday evening near the near the downtown Portland Justice Center for the 67th straight day of protests against police violence and systemic racism. Some among them expressed frustration at the dwindling numbers.
By 10 p.m., about 400 people stood in and around the city parks where protesters have gathered nightly since the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd sparked a nationwide protest movement more than two months ago. They gathered in dispersed groups; one group held a candlelight vigil while another listened to speakers talk about the state of the protests.
Cars parked on Southwest 3rd Avenue and Madison Street, blocking off Madison Street. Lines of protesters at Main Street did the same. A recorded speech by Martin Luther King Jr. played for the gathered crowd. Police presence was scarce Sunday evening, as has become the norm in recent days near the downtown protests.
Speakers in the park nearby made plain their disappointment that the evening drew so few people. Sunday was the fourth day since federal officers turned over the job of guarding the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse to the Oregon State Police and Portland Police.
“This is not a movement about anti-fed,” said speaker Teal Lindseth, who’s attended protests nightly. “It’s a movement about Black lives matter.”
Some stood in the street in front of the federal courthouse, chanting slogans that included “Defund the police!” and “Stay woke!” They were led by activist Demetria Hester, a regular presence at the nightly protests. By 11 p.m., the protesters in front of the courthouse were chanting and dancing to a drummer’s beat.
Since the federal officers -- who fired tear gas and crowd-control munitions at demonstrators virtually every night to disperse crowds -- left the post, the protests have taken a notably peaceful turn.
Saturday night brought a change in that trajectory. Though a protest downtown remained calm, another on the east side of the river saw a more combative police response.
The downtown event began when the Portland chapter of the NAACP hosted an event at Tom McCall Waterfront Park aimed at bringing the focus back to the issue of systemic racism and Black lives. City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley spoke at that event, among others.
Later, hundreds of demonstrators marched through downtown without police engaging.
Another protest, on the east side of the river, saw a more dramatic police response. That protest, which began at Laurelhurst Park, was declared an unlawful assembly by the Portland Police Bureau at 9:53 p.m. after officials said protesters threw bottles and pointed lasers at police outside the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office on East Burnside Street.
Two people were arrested. Portland police also said they deflated the tires of a car that had been moving slowly, preventing officers from removing people from the road.
According to a Portland Police statement, people wearing clothing with “Press” written on it were among those throwing things at officers.
A judge has prohibited Portland police from “arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force directed against” journalists or legal observers for not leaving when an unlawful assembly is declared. City attorneys have argued some protesters have begun identified themselves as press in response to the order. The injunction does not prohibit police from arresting anyone, including journalists, who commit crimes beyond a failure to disperse.
Protests started early Sunday, with a handful of people demonstrating in support of police in downtown Portland near the Multnomah County Justice Center in the afternoon. Several dozen Black Lives Matter protesters surrounded them.
Also Sunday, two dozen people carried signs and protested outside a Whole Foods store on East Burnside Street Sunday afternoon, saying store management had reprimanded employees who wore buttons that stated “Racism has no place here,” a phrase taken directly from Whole Foods’ mission statement.
-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
"crowd" - Google News
August 03, 2020 at 01:47PM
https://ift.tt/33koBIj
67th night of protests in Portland draws relatively small crowd of hundreds on Sunday - OregonLive
"crowd" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YpUyMI
https://ift.tt/2KQD83I
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "67th night of protests in Portland draws relatively small crowd of hundreds on Sunday - OregonLive"
Post a Comment