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A demonstration in Portland turned violent overnight as people launched mortars and hurled projectiles at police officers.
The violent demonstrations and riots have continued for weeks in the largest city in Oregon.
A group of several hundred gathered near the Justice Center, which houses a police precinct, late Thursday, blocking streets, chanting, speaking, and setting off commercial-grade fireworks, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.
The situation shifted when the group broke into the Justice Center. Soon after, they broke glass doors on the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, a federal courthouse.
Just before midnight, federal officers that were inside the building went outside to meet the demonstrators, who began launching projectiles including large rocks and bottles.
Demonstrators also lit commercial-grade fireworks, which landed inside the courthouse. At the same time, the mob set fire on Southwest Main Street nearby.
Officers declared a riot at 11:52 p.m. and told people to leave the area immediately, warning that tear gas and other crowd control measures would be used. Demonstrators did not disperse.
While officers began using force, the group became “very hostile and violent,” the bureau said, including one person who threw an open pocket knife, which came within inches of striking an officer. The mob continued throwing rocks and cans and shooting off fireworks.
Several arrests were made.
Officers disengaged after the group was pushed away from the courthouse but the mob returned less than an hour later. That’s when they launched mortars towards the courthouse, causing a fire to erupt inside the building.
Officers again dispersed the crowd forcefully.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in Portland since demonstrations began last month, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis.
At least some of the Portland demonstrators self-identify as members of Antifa and other far-left groups.
Demonstrators argue police are using violent tactics against them. Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, sent an email to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler this week describing police officers’ use of tear gas as “an unnecessary escalation by the PPB against people exercising their freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.”
Wheeler, a Democrat, recently directed police to only use tear gas in situations where “there is a serious and immediate threat to life safety, and there is no other viable alternative for dispersal.”
A federal judge last month ordered police to only use tear gas when “the lives or safety of the public or the police are at risk,” specifically noting that included the lives and safety of those housed at the Justice Center.
Crews early Friday were painting the boards at the center and boarding up the courthouse.
Focus News: Violent Demonstrators in Portland Launch Mortars, Damage Federal Courthouse